Best .223 bullet for deer?

[Rapier]

Petey,
Good for you, building the gun and taking the boy out.

My hunting buddy used the same bullet, 55 Nos BT in his 222 Sako to teach his son and then his daughter to hunt deer. Between the three of them they piled up a pretty large number of deer. 99% were neck shots at 50-75 yards from a shooting house over food plots. The 222 is deadly at short range with the 55, as is the 223.

I have another buddy that hunts only with a Mini-14 and has done so for about 10-12 years now. He uses factory 62s (does not reload at all) and gets 6-8 deer per year. He shoots from a shooting house on a power line. Seventy yards to the right and 175 yards to the left. All one shot one kills. Most of his deer are behind the shoulder shots. So your idea of using a 60 or 62 gr partition should be golden.

I use a 22-250 myself, but with a fast twist barrel, I use 80s and 75. I know several fast twist shooters who use the 80 SMK. But that is all of no use to you if you are pushing pills out of a 1-12.
Best,
Ed

[petey]

My barrel is a bit slower twist 1/12 so I believe the mid 60 gr bullets are about as good as I'll get with it. Here's a sneak peek of the boy's new rig. Stock is cut to his LOP...just need to do a little final sanding, put the outer finish on it to bring out and darken the colors and bed the action. I may switch out the scope and put lower rings on it. I have a 50MM on it (since it was one of my varmint guns) so more than likely it'll get a smaller tube on it too.

He'll be shooting it by probably early next week, once I get out and buy some heavier bullets and work up some loads. In between us doing some archery hunting. (him just coming with me of course)