Hornady TAP .223 75 grain legit deer hunting ammo?

[twadsw01]

I'm going to try to take one this year using the 70gr TSX loaded by Silver State from a 16" barreled AR. I'm glad to hear that you guys seem to be giving it the thumbs up. Their site says 2750fps MV, which is probably from a 20" barrel or so, so I put in 2650fps into JBM and the velocity drops below 1800fps (what Barnes says these need to expand, I read somewhere) at about 325 yards...so expansion shouldn't be a problem. However, the oft-quoted 1000ft-lbs of energy needed to take whitetail is left behind at between 25yds and 50yds (not that I put stock in that number).

Do you think I'll be alright taking a heart shot with this round? Has anyone seen or heard secondhand how it performs if it hits bone on the way in? I'd like to take a heart/lung shot so that I don't have to ruin the head, neck, or backstrap.

[A-Bear680]

Currently, my AR is my only rifle so that is partly why I'm interested if I can "get away" with using TAP to go hunt.

75 grain TAP would not be my 1st choice but I am convinced that it can be made to work and work well . In fact I plan to use some Prvi 75 grn loads in a middie carbine on smallish pigs and deer myself.

The trick will be to only try shots that you know you can make -- kill the deer clean and find it within a reasonable time. From big to small I have shot hoofed animals from reh/roe deer ( german shepard size ) with a .243 ( 1 ) and a .308 ( 8 ) , a bunch of deer and 1 moose wth 30'06 or 308 . I have shot a few animals that would eat you and I if we were helpless -- biggest were a 100 kilo pig & a 265pound bear - dressed wieght.
Here's what I would do to prep to get away with 75 TAP on deer:
- Take at a look at 75 TAP jel test date . Deer aren't made of jello but the tests give you an idea about how the bullet works when it hits . The terminal ballistics guys use gel for some very good reasons.

- Take a look at deer anatomy. Check out gun and archery shot placement info .

- Then pick your shots carefully , stay away from entry hits on areas that have a combination of thick bone & thick muscle . Shoot to destroy both lungs . IMO ,Head & neck shots are usually a last resort & only good up close .
-- Check your zero. Know your range limit: can/could you hit a paper plate on that specific deer at that moment?

- Go get the groceries .

Hope that helps.

[sjc3081]

It seems like very often when 5.56 is proposed as a hunting round, someone always chimes in with some legal restriction. Who cares this M4 forum not the Trout Trooper/Elmer Fudd forum. Plus the legality is not relevent to the original question.
Rant over.

[A-Bear680]

For sure .
It's all about getting the groceries and not screwing up Mother Nature . People put laws & reg's together that support that goal. That doesn't mean that the laws & reg's are perfect . Even constitution republics with checks & balances screw up. Then people develop get-arounds and LEO's use professional discretion . Most of us understand the common courtesy: Don't do it in the man's face and have a deck of get-out-of-jail-free cards .
Sooner or latter ( years , decades , centuries , whatever ) enough votes stack up or the courts get involved and the BS goes away.

[Ready.Fire.Aim]

It is all about bullet placement and blood loss (shock).

A 77 year old gentleman at church has a very gory hunting photo album. He legally shoots 2 deer every year for meat, he cares nothing for horns. He has a .222 he had customized from Shilen back in the early 70s. He lines up on their head, whistles so they look his way and shoots them in the head. He has a photo album, mostly old polaroids, with about 70 photos, one of each deer he shot with the top of its head missing.
I brought him a box of oranges from my tree last season and he had a spike buck in the back of his truck with most of the skull cavity missing and showed me his album. Really nice old guy. If it's within 300 yards he can make the shot. Over that he passes.

So if you are ever in the country in Texas during December, and you hear someone give a sharp whistle, drop to the ground immediately................

[John Hearne]

I've shot a bunch of feral pigs and two deer with .223. The first deer was taken with 55 gr Federal Bonded and the second was taken with a Winchester 64gr Power Point. The first went about 20 yards before piling up. The second went about 10 yards before piling up. Both rounds went through and through.

The 223's didn't exit the pigs but they did drop them, amazingly fast. I tried several different loads from 55gr JSP to Federal Bonded. The Federal Bonded was impressive. I was able to break the back shoulder after it came in just behind the front shoulder.

I think that the .223 relies on velocity for effectiveness so I wouldn't take 300 yard shots with it but within 100 yards it works great.

[uwe1]

I don't have much personal experience in this because I was/am a fairly new hunter. I faced the same dilemma you were in having AR15s as my only rifles. My research led me to what has already been mentioned here.

Many have reported success with:

Barnes TSXs
Nosler partitions (60 grain I believe?)
Winchester Power Point (64 grain?)
Federal Fusion Bonded soft point(62 grain?)
Hornady 75 grain TAP (.223 LEO, 5.56 T2, .223 FPD)

I am curious, for those of you reporting success with TAP, did the fragmentation effects of the bullet destroy meat? It seems like you would get a cloud of lead throughout the animal. No doubt that the round should be effective, you only need to look at the ballistic tests.

[Suwannee Tim]

Read an article in G&A about a hunter using this ammo to take a deer. Does anyone else think that it's a good idea? I'm not a huge hunter, but I was always under the impression that .223 was too small of a caliber to make a reliable clean kill.

Is a 375 RUM shooting a 300 grain bullet at 2700 fps adequate for an 800 pound moose? Absolutely, some might argue that it is overkill. So then is a 223 shooting a 75 grain bullet at 2700 fps adequate for a 200 pound deer? Absolutely, with a bullet designed for that task.

[lengthofpull]

I shot a small forked horn with a .223 64 grain winchester power point at 150 yards out of a 24" barreled AR. He took one step and fell over.

I normally shoot "big game" with a bolt action .300 win mag but I bring my AR as a backup. Big game is a relative term because the deer on our property could be mistaken for great danes. The deer I described above was maybe 120 lbs, at most. If he had a full belly.

Shot placement is key.

[RoyalsSpeedShop]

I know this thread is a couple of months old, but I now have personal experience with 75 grain Tap. I recently had the opportunity to take a 110 lb 3 point at about 85 yards. I was using the 75 grain Tap out of a 16 inch barrel and had a clear broadside with a slight frontal quarter. He bolted after the shot and left no blood trail but was found about 30 yards away, deader than a hammer.

I was unable to find an entrance or exit wound at all until I skinned him. I hit him right behind the right shoulder just missing bone and the round exited a few inches further to the rear on the opposite side with what seemed like no expansion whatsoever. The exit hole was the same size as the entrance. The round worked as it should but I would have liked to see some expansion. I will be trying the 70gr Barnes Triple Shock next. It seems to be a proven expander.