Is the .223 Remington Enough to Hunt Big Game?

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I’ve heard people comment that they’d be reluctant to even hunt with a .223 rifle in grizzly country. But actually hunting a grizzly with a .223? Out of the question. Maybe they were right, but I had a hunch they weren’t, and I was determined to find out. What’s more, I wanted to test what some skeptics were saying. “Sure, maybe you can kill a deer with your .223, but what if you have to shoot a grizzly head on in self-defense while you’re hunting? That’s a really bad idea.” I think that’s a valid concern, particularly if you’re not familiar with what the little .223 can do, but I was no longer in that camp.

The Steep Climb to the .223

I live and hunt in steep mountain country in Alaska. I’ve been lightening my gear for years, including my rifles. Lightweight gear makes the task of climbing those mountains and hauling game back down them far easier and has made me a more successful hunter. I started building AR-15 based bolt rifles that were extremely lightweight and effective. My first build, chambered in .300 HAM’R, weighed a mere 3½ pounds and worked well for big game out to 250 yards or so, including cleanly taking moose and grizzlies. I continued to think about ways to build even lighter rifles and perhaps extend their effective range at the same time. But how? The straight-pull AR-15s I was building were effectively limited to .223 based cases, which limited my cartridge choices.

Serendipity Strikes

I had been reading information about guys in the “lower 48” using the .223 Remington with heavy-for-caliber match bullets for big game up to and including elk, and frankly, the results were impressive, travelling straight through elk shoulders. I’ve field dressed more big-game animals than I can count, and the terminal results they were showing were on par with my .30-caliber bullets. Initially, this was only of academic interest to me, but when I suddenly put two and two together. The .223 seemed to be the route to the lightest rifle possible and capable of far more than I’d ever imagined. Could there be a sub-3-pound deer, caribou, and black bear mountain rifle capable of effective shots out to 400 yards that could still cleanly take moose and grizzlies at the closer ranges I typically shot them? I had to find out....

So, How Exactly Were These .223s Upping Their Game?

Most of their results were from various “heavy” .224-caliber tipped match bullets like Hornady’s ELD Match bullets from 73 grains all the way up to 88 grains and the star of the show, Sierra’s 77-grain Tipped MatchKing (TMK). I know “common wisdom” tells us that match bullets aren’t hunting bullets as do many bullet manufacturers, but their results were showing that “common wisdom” isn’t always as wise as we believe. It was indisputable that these little cartridges and bullets were hitting way above their weight. I knew from my own experience that the right bullet makes more of a difference than anything else, and these guys had found the right bullets for the .223 Remington to effectively take big game.

My Ultimate Mousetrap?

My first Ultralight .223 Wylde chambered rifle weighed just over 3 pounds. Not finished testing the limits, my next .223 Wylde weighed less than 2¾ pounds. I was more than satisfied with the rifles I’d built. They were amazingly easy to carry, had less recoil than any .30-caliber rifles, and were more than accurate enough for the task at hand. But could the little .223 Remington do its part?

As always, when I test a new bullet or cartridge, I start small and work my way up to see how it goes. The first animal harvested with the .223 was a 6-foot boar black bear at 350 yards, taken with the 77-grain Sierra TMK. That bear was both larger and farther than where I’d normally start my testing, but the results were striking.

Hit with a single shot, he died every bit as quickly as he would have from one of my .30-caliber rifles, and the terminal results were equally remarkable. After that, I used the little rifles on multiple deer and a couple more black bears. Time after time, the little .223 seemed to hit like lightning, and more often than not, animals never took a step. Field dressing the animals often left me shaking my head, still surprised at what I was seeing. Vital organs were devastated, and on at least two occasions, a single bullet left secondary “exit” wounds perpendicular to its path. I’d seen enough for myself. Deer and black bear were no problem for the .223, but moose and grizzlies? I didn’t know for sure, but I knew what kind of penetration and terminal performance were required to cleanly take both of those animals, and after seeing these initial results, I was left with little doubt.

The Grizzly: Better Late Than Never

The twilight hours passed by in the spruce forest as I quietly waited for the boar. It looked like it wasn’t going to happen this night, as it was about time to call it for the evening, but for some reason, I decided to give it two more minutes. One minute and 50 seconds later, it happened.

Through the alders and spruce, I could see the unmistakable rolling swagger of a grizzly coming toward me. As he confidently walked out of the trees and into the open, I gave a quiet grunt to get him to face me. He turned at the sound and gave me a hard quartering-to shot. It wasn’t the full-frontal shot I was hoping for but close enough. I placed the crosshairs in front of his shoulder and sent the 77-grain TMK downrange. At the impact, the boar roared and spun, running back into the forest. In seconds, I heard the familiar death moan, and then once again, the forest fell silent.

When I found the boar, I noted that he died on the same spot as a neighbor’s grizzly did the year before. That grizzly was hit broadside through the lungs with a .338 Winchester Magnum, same distance traveled after the shot and same time to death. As I skinned the bear, I also noted the terminal results were every bit as impressive as the grizzly shot with the .338 the previous year. The little .223 Remington passed another test, but could it handle a moose?

Filling the Freezer

Moose season found me spending days high on ridges, glassing the valleys below for a legal bull. I’m not a trophy hunter, and any legal bull will fill the freezer, but bulls were proving to be scarce that year. Late the second evening, I found what I was looking for. A spike bull was carelessly thrashing in the alders below and looked like a layup, but reaching the spot where I’d seen him, he was nowhere to be found. I can almost always find a bull I’ve spotted from above, but this guy gave me the slip on two more evenings over the next few days. He was proving to be the trickiest moose I’d ever gone after.

Almost a week into the season and having seen no other bulls, I spotted him for the fourth time. This time he was bedded in a relatively open area of the forest in a low patch of dwarf birch. I mentally marked the spot on the trail below, nearest his location, and headed down. Reaching the jump-off spot, I quietly worked my way up the rise leading to where I’d last seen him. As I crested the rise, he came into view about 70 yards away, standing broadside with his head turned away. The fourth time was the charm.

The little flyweight rifle barked and sent another 77-grain TMK through the bull’s ribs and lungs. The bull instantly collapsed where he stood, never taking a step. I’ve shot a lot of moose over the years, and that was only the second moose that dropped instantly without a central nervous system hit. The little rifle and the 77-grain TMK proved themselves once again.

Any Downsides?

Nothing is perfect, and I’m not suggesting the .223 Remington is the be-all and end-all of hunting cartridges. There are plenty of other rounds that have 50 or more years of success “under their belts” that work well and will continue to do so. If you hunt in an area where a good blood trail is a necessity, larger diameter bullets specifically designed to maximize penetration may not do as much internal damage and may not kill as quickly but will likely increase the chances of a larger exit and larger blood trail, with the disadvantage of more recoil and being harder to shoot. The .223 has the advantage of lower recoil, is cheap to practice with, and is exceptionally easy to shoot accurately in the field — all of which increase the chances of a successful hunt. Oh, and did I mention the .223 helped make incredibly lightweight, AR-15 based, Alaskan-worthy hunting rifles a reality? 

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