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I'm considering hunting with my AR this year. I've got some Winchester 64 Power Point Bonded ammo that I plan to use. What would you say is the effective range of this load? 100yds? 200? It goes without saying that shot placement needs to be correct, but assuming a well-placed shot behind the shoulder (heart/lungs), what's the effective range?
Thanks!
I would say off the top of my head 100 yards is safe. However I dont know anything about that bullet. You need to call winchester and see what the minimum expansion velocity is for that bullet. Then you can take your muzzle velocity and plug it into a ballistic calculator and see how many foot pounds of energy the bullet creates at diffrent ranges. We can do it right now based on some made up figures.
64g x 3000^2fps/450400=1279 foot pounds at the muzzle
So then we take the excepted number in foot pounds to humainly kill a deer which is 1000 foot pounds, and compaire it aginst the energy the ballistic calculator gives us for diffrent ranges.
The key when hunting at ranges grater that 100 yards with a 22 centerfire is finding the right balance of muzzle velocity and bullet performance. Generaly speeking you want a bullet with a high BC to better carry your energy to the target and when it gets there you want it to expand and not pencile through. Just remember 22 holes are small so be diligent on your blood trail or shoot them in the head.
Barnes ttsx or nosler partition are good choices
Also depends on the deer.
I have seen many deer down south that weren't any bigger than your average K9, around here it is common to shoot deer, both bucks and does, well over 200lbs.
Also depends on your set-up if range is an issue at all. Even with a scoped bolt gun I have never shot a deer at over about 50 yards.
I'd say, with the classic behind the shoulder from the side deer hunter shot you are GTG out to the 100 with that ammo from a 16" or better AR, I would be picky about my shots though.
Thanks for the input so far. A little more to the story:
I've got this rig that I normally use (Rem 700, .308):
http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...6/IMG_1895.jpg
We've got a powerline that goes right down the middle of our property and offers us a 225yd shot hill-top to hill-top. We've taken a few deer at this range. The rest of the property is as you'd imagine the South: thick hardwoods and pines.
I'm trying to get my BIL some success with a deer hunt. He's been with me the past 2 years, and pulled the trigger last year, but hit low in the leg = not a dead deer. He's not in a position (being in college, etc) to spend the time it would take to learn enough rifle proficiency for me to be comfortable with him trying to take the 200yd + shot again.
He does have excellent firearms safety, and decent proficiency inside 100yds based upon a few trips to the range.
The biggest issue he had with the bolt gun was aquiring a sight picture (head position) and then finding the deer in the scope before it walked back into the woods. My thought was that he could probably get a much quicker sight picture and get on-target faster with a RDS. Below is my AR setup. I'm thinking of letting him use it this year and then being able to hunt another part of the property myself with my bolt gun or even maybe my bow.
Like I said, I'm not so keen on offering him the 200+ shot, but there are a few shots he might have in the planted pines that could be 75-100yds, so I just wanted to make sure the 223 would be good to that range (and also, if I got the notion to take that 225yd shot on the powerlines with the AR, if it would get it done). Thanks again!
http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a.../T1-MAGLT2.jpg
tpd223 is giving some good advice. A bonded .223 load out of a 16" + AR15 should work fine out to 100 yds or so with proper shot placement. If you want more, get an identical 6.8 mm upper for the AR15 and go after game up to Elk in size...
Echo TPD. I have shot a lot of medium sized whitetail over the years with a .223. Most of the time, with 60gr JSP standard and Nosler partition. Within short ranges (100yds and under) and with good shot placement .223 can be effective.