We are having a lot of deer shot in my area with the .223, especially during the youth hunt. Any of the good soft points from 55 grains up seem to do the job but I suspect that the kids are doing a better job of shot placement, under supervision, than most adults.
As a survival rifle ?? You shoot what you see with what you have in your hands. If I had my 'druthers I'd 'druther have a bigger bore when that happens. Something to consider when we make our choices of what might be in our hands when that time comes.
Seems like every time I have to consider that possibility I wind up with a shotgun in my hands instead of a rifle.
I feel fortunate to be in a situation where I have more than one or two choices. As I said, I am looking at the .223 as a replacement for .22lr and not as an all purpose rifle.
My cast bullet load is a 55gn gas check bullet on top of 5 grains of Unique and a small pistol primer. I am dumping the powder charge from a measure so it is not a precision load. I do not know the fps but I speculate about 1800fps. It is shooting inside an inch at 50 yards out of my Rossi SS, which is not exactly a target rifle. The same rifle will shoot factory fmj into about 3" @100.
My perspective on iron sights is jaded too. Back about 30 years ago my eyes went just bad enough that I could not use iron sights at all. I had to scope everything, so I quit even considering the presence of iron sights. They were simply useless appendages. Surgery about 5 years ago corrected the problem, so I can shoot irons again, but I have become used to the precision of optical devices.
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