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a better option???

01 Jul 2017
@ 08:03 pm (GMT)

Mike Davis

Had a simply awesome day out hunting in miserable conditions today.
me old mate had shot a couple of porkers on thursday but due to age n distance he was unable to retrieve them so being the waste not want not scrooge that I am the decision to head out was made.....felt a bit like the little red hen when phoning mates to come up for walk with me.no body else was dumb enough to venture out in the rain other than the dog.
it was cold and raining but visibility was good,fired 17 rounds and killed 13 wallabies and managed to retrieve the pig........ wet as a shag and had traction troubles wandering down through the gorse with 20kg pack adding to my 115kg bulk....
now as to title...was using up box of 55grn privi ammo in the .223 and even though the wallys died ,the preformance left lots to be desired
in the past the hornady 50 grn SPSX have worked well for me as have any speer pill Ive tried the 50 and 52gn HPs are favourites
these animals are very thin skinned and have light chest bones with small vital area .
the fact they are either upright and unknown range or bouncing along at up to 40kmph means shot placement often isnt ideal
any projectiles that arent expensive that sound like they will fit the bill come to mind????

Replies

1
01 Jul 2017
@ 08:04 pm (GMT)

Mike Davis

Re: a better option???
and range are usually between 75-200 yards most shots taken sitting with elbows braced on knees.
02 Jul 2017
@ 11:16 am (GMT)

Mike Davis

Re: a better option???
also has anyone here tried the frontier 55gn cmj projectiles yet?????
do they perchance tumble?????
looks like they are cast core and electroplated with copper..... very smartly priced if they will tumble.
re-reading above posts forgot to mention the body weight of these critters. they will go up to 40 kg with 25-30 being normal
so similar to young yearling goat up to large nanny,really hoping one of you guys will have tried something that was exceptional in this body weight,the varmit type projectiles are cheap enough and look like they will be fine but would hate to find they dont do enough and only surface wound as its wounding Im trying to prevent.
02 Jul 2017
@ 11:50 am (GMT)

Bob Mavin

Re: a better option???
Hi Mike
We've been using ADI Buffalo River loaded 223 ammo, a can of 900 $635. Works out 70c a shot. A lot of the roo shooters are using this instead of hand loading.
Equally accurate as my hand loads.
Bob

https://www.thebarn.net.au/Products/OSA+Buffalo+River+55gr+Sierra+Game+King+223+Ammo+Can/6307?ReturnURL=%2fCategories%2fBuffalo%2bRiver%2b%2f11955%3fCategory%3d11955%26brand%3dAll%26keywords%3d%26sort%3dProductTitle+ASC%26pageno%3d
02 Jul 2017
@ 12:19 pm (GMT)

Nathan Foster

Re: a better option???
Hi Mike, a V-max will be the best bet. You say you are looking for a cheap bullet, the V-Max is not the cheapest but is still cheaper and softer than the Barnes bullets you use.

The .223 is often caught between a rock and a hard place, it needs high velocity to produce a disproportionate to caliber wound or in lieu of this, it really must shed a lot of weight. Your Prvi ammo is basically slow moving and tough relative to this sized animal.

Without velocity, the wounds produced by the .223 are very small unless the bullet can shed a vast amount of weight. This in turn raises another issue. If a bullet has little weight to begin with, then there is a risk of shallow penetration after weight shedding.

On lean game like wallaby, a full on varmint bullet is fine.

On larger animals, the mind set of the hunter can be more of an issue than bullet weight loss. In these situations, the hunter can make use of a weight shedding bullet weighing 60gr or heavier and simply make peace with full potential blow up.

There are of course limits to how far one can push this.

Lastly, the CMJ bullet you mentioned will not tumble. Even if it did, a wallaby is too thin for the tumbling effect to be of great use.

In previous posts you have talked about how great your results have been with the tougher mono metals but here we see an immediate and understandable contradiction, in which you are wanting something very soft. You have also talked about using cast lead hollow points with great success. I think the trick is to recognize how different bullet variations benefit different hunting situations. This is why it is so important that we keep our bullet selections diverse and continue to have bullet options available. Also the more diverse ranges of ammunition we have from more companies then there is more room for competitive pricing. We can then get suitable ammunition at reasonable costs.





02 Jul 2017
@ 01:48 pm (GMT)

Mike Davis

Re: a better option???
awesome answer thankyou. you have put that in words that make it plain to see. I took 25 rounds with me.....5 of the barnes and 20 soft point privi so yes no issue with dual loading. will grab some varmit type projectiles, I see the zombie max are reasonably and as they are VMax with puke green tip they should fit the bill nicely
thanks for taking time to clear it up for me.
26 Jan 2019
@ 03:55 pm (GMT)

Mike Davis

Re: a better option???
just an update..found 500 pack of Zmax at really good price the 50 grn pills zip along nicely and what they do when hit is just plain ol naaaasty, perfect for wobblies

on another note,took a boar this morning at about 100 yards,I thought it was about 80-100 lb and was at about 150 yards...turns out I had figures backwards. I slipped a 50 grn ttsx in behind its left elbow/crease shot with pig at about a 45 degree angle facing away from me (perfect set up) he wasnt going anywhere....projectile was recovered under offside shouder bone when cutting front quarter off.perfect advertisement shaped star opened up to first groove ......hard case how I always seem to be carrying the wee .223 when I run into pigs,Im more than happy with how the monos work in this role,wouldnt want to push range much further all the same
27 Jan 2019
@ 05:51 am (GMT)

Mike R

Re: a better option???
I run the 55gr Z-max in my 223 at just under 3,300 fps no complaints from me, although I mainly head shoot. When the conditions are such that I'm not totally confident in braining it, I drop down to heart lung on Roos you get the occasional dead run but you watch them stop and drop in the thermal. Have shot at least a dozen pigs with same load, biggest was a 50kg sow and quite few around the 30-40 kg, have let a few go because I couldn't get the right shot but that's life
I have been testing the Nosler 53gr varmaggedon avg velocity 3,311fps excellent bc for type of .303, and appear to be slightly more explosive than the Zmax. Could be that they just retain that tiny bit more velocity down range. Downside is the projectiles are twice the price. So don't know if I'll continue down this path because they aren't twice as good.
27 Jan 2019
@ 08:39 am (GMT)

Brendon Greig

Re: a better option???
hi Mike I have recently bought a 223 for rabbits ect and got 100 rounds of Hornady Frontier I chronied them when sighting in and they are all doing in the low 3100 I have shot quite a few rabbits with them and they really do a number on them im mostly shooting them through the shoulder which tends to remove the other shoulder the accuracy in mine is ok in my rifle out to about 100 yards getting about 1 to 1 1/4 inch groups but was mostly after some brass to hand load and going to try the Serria 55 grain Blitz Kings as I will only be rabbiting with it so I think they would be fine on the wallabies if they shoot ok for you
27 Jan 2019
@ 09:49 am (GMT)

Mike R

Re: a better option???
Hi Brendon I've never tried the 55gr Sierra blitz kings as they are a bit too dear.
I went with the 55gr Zmax because the shop had a very good special on them at the time and my rifle shoots them very well. Load development was easy and at a high volume cost has to be a consideration. Sierra do a 55gr Super Roo Game King that are cheap but they are supposed to be more suited to a 22-250etc. If money is not much of an issue I'd go the Nosler Varmageddon 53gr, budget choice would be 50gr Zmax.
To get brass I use AUSSIE OUT BACK 69gr Sierra match kings it was $11a box accuracy is outstanding in my rifle, and I have found the ADI brass to be very good and consistent unlike some of the major companies lately
25 Apr 2019
@ 06:57 pm (GMT)

Mike Davis

Re: a better option???
well today was an absolute crackup...took a couple of mates back up the same hill today ,we paused to remember the ANZACs as it got light and continued up to have a good day up a big hill.the first 2 shots I took resulted in 2 dead wallabies.....the next was from my mate who had never fired a rifle before that was a clean kill too..another half dozen shots resulted in a few more for the other mate with us who has done very little shooting before (both these fine gents are in process of getting FAL and are coming duck shooting next week) that made the trip a huge sucess for me...mission accomplished,see how the guys handled rifles and they both managed a clean kill.I had just shot another wallaby and looked down hill to see a big black pig sneaking away.....unfortunately I had just put full mag of zmax 50grn loads in...but pig wasnt mucking around so I put Xhairs in centre of back and let drive....massive whack sounds came back......we stood there dumbstruck for a moment then pig reappeared 50 yards uphill from where first seen...I hit it again as did Bro in law with his 7.62x39mm....much scrub shaking followed these shots....I swapped rifles and headed over with the dog...got close and heard choppers clicking as he ground his tusks so a quick finisher with a subsonic finished the deal.......bugger letting the dog go in and get hurt.....pig was a battler alright,both ears ripped probably from battling dogs in past he had tusks about 1.5" that stuck pretty much straight out......the worst for hurting or killing dogs. weight was estimated around the 140lb mark and dressed out it gave all four of us a roast and a bit of extra meat...packs were heavy enough.
the 2 x 223 vmax had gone in and done damage,first had pulped a kidney,bro in laws round went in through ham it was a hornady factory sst.
definately NOT ideal loads but we got away with it...having dog with me give huge boost to confidence in that nothing will get away wounded.
26 Apr 2019
@ 05:28 pm (GMT)

Warwick Marflitt

Re: a better option???
Mike have a look at this

http://belmontammo.co.nz/product-tag/223/
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