Is a 22-250 enough gun for whitetail?

[Ufatz]

Oh yeah? Well I can take the head off a gopher at 300 yards with my 7X61 S&H magnum! Hah ha ha haha. You guys are a riot!

[Kodiak]

i can make prairie dogs turn to spagetti sauce at 350yds with my 22-250.

the thing with the 22-250 is the accuracy and the speed of the bullet, put a 60grain bullet on it and you have a NICE deer gun..very accurate, you can take your cannon out there and be lucky to hit what you are shooting i will stick with my flat,fast,accurate calibers.

[BigWadeS]

wow, I didn't mean to start a fued...but thanks for the info and some laughs

[shae1986]

There is a reason that those smaller calibers aren't allowed. Mainly due to the fact that not everyone is a perfect shot. And with those smaller callibers thats what it needs to be. Where i hunt i will use my 30-06 for now and adventually purchase a 25-06.

A 22-250 is deadly in some peoples hands but not all.

A. Shae

Oh yeah, well i can take out both deers lungs at 40 yards with my 30-06.

[tonyjor]

My Dad hunted for years with my Grandpa's British .303. I own it now and decided to put a scope mount and a cheesy scope on it. It had open sites and a "mile site" before I put the scope mount on. My Grandpa was in the Korean war and this was his gun. I don't know if it has a bloody past, and I really don't want to know. I do know that my Dad could hit a nickle at 150 yds. and he only has one eye and that was with the open sites....

[Ufatz]

Tony, those old .303's have been around a long time and taken a LOT of game. You used to see them all over the Canadian north; Yukon, northern Alberta and B.C. They weren't pretty and sometimes they weren't accurate but apparently they were dependable. Your old rifle will drop anything you want to shoot in Minnesota with the right bullet. It will put you in a position to clean up the messes made by the 22.250 hotshots too if the need arises.

Take care of it and enjoy it and you'll have a lot of fond memories in fifty years.

[Kodiak]

cannons kill more trees than deer with all those misses.

[CAJ]

I live in open country, and am a firm beleiver in the 250. I took the advice of an old freind years ago. He told me that a very good hit with a small rifle, that you don't jump 10 feet back when you shoot, is better than 4 misses with the cannons. I have the big ones, but always seem to bring out the 22-250 when I get seius about huntting. Just my thinking. CAJ

[klw]

223 definately not enough gun and IMO an irresponsible choice

[almostthere!]

Actually, a 223 is more than enough gun for a deer. You just have to know where to place the bullet and your shooting limits.

[Blair Nelson]

A 22-250 is enough gun for whitetail ... with the right bullet. Let me load up some Barnes TSX's and some range time for getting used to the rifle I'd be quite comfortable taking after a whitetail with a 22-250 and likely eating grilled tenders soon thereafter.

Know a bunch of guys in Alaska that routinely take blacktails with 223AI's and TSX's. They're pretty serious about their hunting and know what they are doing.

HOWEVER ... shooting a VARMINT bullet out of a 22 cal at a deer is a receipe for disaster. Most 22-250 ammo is designed for coyotes on down.

A 223 or 22-250 is a responsible choice for deer hunting if it is 1. a legal caliber in the area hunted and 2. loaded with premium bullets designed to hold up in deer sized game.

[Hitman54]

Shae1986,

I bought a Tikka lite stainless-synthetic in 25.06 for my wife two years ago. I put a Leupold VariX II 3-9 on it. This in now my favorite gun! She has shot three deer with it the past two years. This gun is extreemly smooth, accurate and has enough punch to bring down a deer. I will tell you this, when the time comes to buy a new rifle for my kids, it will be a Tikka!

[Ufatz]

Saya there Blair, just where do those guys in Alaska hang out that are shooting all those deer with light bullets? I mean all 22-250 shooters huh? Can you rattle off the names of a few of the areas they hunt. Any on them wandering up Lisianski Inlet, Swan Cove, Seymour Canal or any of those other places heavily frequented by brown bears. All the guys I know want to carry something a little more substantial than a .22 caliber rifle when they wander those areas at this time of year. You must know a far more adventuresome bunch than I do. And say, what about that great snow fall of yesterday along the shores of Lynn Canal and around Big John Bay, where my cabin used to be.

Lots of guys huh? I'll be darned.

[Blair Nelson]

Ufatz ...

PM Incoming.

[Blair Nelson]

OK ... was incoming. You're PM isn't available.

Here's a link to one of their recent discussions. Good guys. Steelhead sent Big Drift a free scope for his daughter last year.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1052637&page=&fpart=all&vc=1

[Gissert]

Interesting discussion.

Back in the 1950's, my father had built a 220 swift on a Japanese Arisaka 6.5mm action.

He had a friend custom make a stock, and he fitted a Douglas barrel and a good Timney trigger on it.

After he got it dialed in, he took it out to Montana and hunted mulies with it. With a good 55 spitzer bullet, he said that thing was amazing how it would put a deer down.

He picked his shots, and if he could not get a good shot at the ribcage behind the front leg, the shot was not taken.

Shot placement was everything, as it should be with any caliber.

Dad's been gone a decade now, but I still love shooting his old swift.

[Ufatz]

Jeez! I had one of those old Arisakas a couple ice ages back! But mine was a cream puff collectible. I DID lug a 6.5 all over the north country for a few decades; a custom job built on a Swedish Mauser carbine. Gave it to my nephew and he dropped a nice buck last week within 30-miles of Gissert!

Look fellas, I know a small fast bullet WILL kill stuff with proper bullet placement. I just don't believe it is a good idea to use something like a 22-250 when there are so many better options. For years all we took were head shots so we didn't ruin meat on smallish blacktails. Theoretically you could have used a .22 long rifle to do it. But I only knew one old indian fella who did that, and he used it at ranges of from 10-50 feet.

Reccomending a 22-250 as a deer rifle is not prudent in my opinion. And there are many places in bear country where it is MOST unwise.If you want an instant case of Anal Lock go tweet-tweet on your deer call and then hear heavy breathing and look over your shoulder at a big furry head the size of a snowmobile staring at you!

[Gissert]

LOL. I have that swift, and a 6.5 Arisaka that Dad built. He had built a 7mm mag too, but sold that one, . The actions he had were very good, look to be pre war. They still have the crysanthmum on the receiver. I still have once action that I have not done anything with yet.

If it were legal, I would probably use my swift on deer as a stand gun, just for old time's sake as a nod to my old man.

I have gone the other extreme, and have used a .338 the last decade. It puts the bullet where I want it, so that why that gun is in my hands.

[Ufatz]

Hey Blair: I checked out the link. Looks and sounds to me like at least a couple of those fellas are deer hunting the islands near Kodiak. Paradise AK is a relatively new place along the Yukon. The guy is maybe a school teacher?

I give the guy with the pimp rifle an attaboy for raw courage showing up in the woods with that thing. He would never have gotten away with that in the good OLD days in Alaska.

Carry on.

[Blair Nelson]

Not one to beat a dead (osok'd by an unnamed sub caliber projectile, gutted, hung, tenders a grilling) deer, but a gentleman on (Contact Us Please).com took it upon himself (and beat me to the experiment) to load some .224 TSX's and do some cull hunting with his extra doe tags.

Here's a link to the thread:

http://www.(Contact Us Please).com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32169

Moral of the story ... there are certainly more mainstream choices in deer cartridges, but if a .223 or .22-250 is all a guy has, and it is legal in the area hunted, it IS enough gun for whitetail IF used with premium bullets.

[Blair Nelson]

So much for the link, here is the substance of the post:

Plainsman:

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:05 pm Post subject: Barnes X bullets

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Horsager, this one is for you.

With all the talk about bullets for this, and bullets for that, and the never ending debate about is a 223 big enough for deer I was spurred to experimentation this deer season. I had four doe tags so this is what I had to do:

I had a new thumbhole stock and scope on an old 270 Winchester so that old girl had to bark this season. I also had a new Marlin Cowboy Action in 44 mag that needed to loose it’s virginity. Then I started thinking about X bullets. Heck, I think I have a box of 53 gr plain vanilla X bullets. I would like the newer Triple Shock, but I had to use these somewhere. So I loaded a box of 22-250, and a box of 223.

Last Saturday I shot a three deer, one with the 22-250 first. I jumped her at 200 yards, and she was screened by brush. I had about a fifteen yard gap from the brush until she was skylined and I would not shoot. I pulled about four feet in front of her at 250 yards and dropped the hammer. The bullet took out both shoulders, the vertebrae between, and exited the off shoulder. She dropped as quickly as if I had used my 300 mag. I thought ok, I’ll try the 223. That shot was at 200 yards running quartering away. At the shot the deer folded and rolled down hill, laying at the bottom with feet in the air. I walked to the bottom and around the brush pile only to see it regaining it’s feet. I then put one through the chest, and it headed out at warp factor three. It went about 20 yards and folded. The first shot entered the right eye and exited the forehead missing the brain. It had simply knocked him out. The second shot was like the 22-250 complete penetration, but missed the vertebrae.

I look at the 223 are marginal at best for deer, but with an X bullet in the right spot I was totally impressed with the performance. Both deer went down as quickly with the 223 and 22-250 as the 270. I normally shoot behind the shoulder, but this year Murphy was messing with my lead and I drilled all three through the shoulders. I don’t think there is five pounds of meat in the front quarters of all three deer combined.

I guess my curiosity changed my tactics this year, and none were shot at long range. Oh well, it was fun and that’s the objective.

[Cooter]

Guess I'll chime in. The .223 and .22-250 and such centerfire .22 calibers are legal in WI. I have a mini-14 a bud of mine is using right now. We both know its not ideal but it was either sit home or use it. As Blair mentioned, you gotta shoot the right bullet with them for deer and I made that very clear to him. Hopefully I'll get a report from him soon.

On a side note, I carried this gun with me on a recent antlerless hunt because I was and am curious how they would perform on deer. I had no opportunities but did choose an appropriate bullet and planned on only taking a close, broadside shot. Another tidbit, if these guns are indeed inadequate for deer hunting(I really don't know) then hunters need to encourage the DNR and such to change the regs. Later.

[almostthere!]

A 22 to the head (brain) is more effective than a 300 to the stomach. Use good bullets and have good bullet placement shots.