Best 223 for Deer Hunting: Taking Down Whitetails with 22-Caliber Bullets

Using 223 Remington ammo for deer hunting is a hotly contested issue in the whitetail community. Honestly, after hunting with the 223, I’m not a fan of using it for deer when there are so many other low-recoil rounds, like the 6.5 Creedmoor or 243 Winchester, that can take down a deer ethically.

Many states across America prohibit using 223 ammo for deer hunting, as the round doesn’t always have the kinetic energy needed to harvest a whitetail deer cleanly. However, some states do allow the 223 Rem for deer hunting, and ammo manufacturers have taken upon the challenge of creating 0.224 caliber bullets capable of taking down Bambi’s dad.

Below you’ll find our top 5 choices for the best 223 Remington deer hunting ammo on the market today. The rounds we tested give you the best chance to ethically harvest a deer with America’s most popular centerfire rifle cartridge.

If you simply can’t wait and need the best 223 deer hunting ammo available, pick up a box or two of Federal 55 Grain Trophy Copper ammo.

The Best 223 Rem For Deer Hunting

Testing Procedure

During the testing process, we consider many critical factors, including (but not limited to) the following.

• Was the round designed for deer hunting?
• Ballistic performance
• Price
• How well it cycles in a rifle

Since the 223 fires lighter bullets, the rounds must be designed for deer hunting. Otherwise they lack the knockdown power and deep penetration needed to harvest whitetails ethically (with acknowledgment that virtually any cartridge can instantly KO a deer so long as an expert is aiming it).

Even though ballistic performance will vary from gun to gun, I still like to use it as a gauge for how it should perform in the field. However, the bullet’s terminal performance matters most.

While price isn’t my main concern when purchasing hunting ammo, it’s often still a factor for many hunters.

The 223 Remington is chambered in various rifle styles, from bolt action to semi auto. Knowing that a round will cycle through your hunting rifle without any problems is vital to a successful hunt.

Best 223 Ammo For Deer Hunting Overall

Federal 55 Grain Trophy Copper

Specs

Federal 223 Rem Ammo - 20 Rounds of 55 Grain Trophy Copper Ammunition

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• Casing: Nickel-plated Brass
• Bullet Type: Polymer Tipped
• Bullet Weight: 55 grain
• Muzzle Velocity: 3,240 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 1,282 ft-lbs

Why We Chose It

Federal 55 Grain Trophy Copper is the best 223 ammo for deer hunting because it’s manufactured by a trusted brand, designed for deer, and stupidly accurate.

Federal Premium is trusted by thousands of hunters and shooters worldwide. Known for producing high-quality ammo, Federal offers hunters a wide variety of options, including 223 Rem 55 grain Trophy Copper.

Unlike many other types of 223 Remington ammunition Federal offers, Trophy Copper was intentionally designed to harvest whitetail deer and other similarly sized game animals ethically. At 55 grains, it’s a lighter bullet than most deer hunters would prefer. Even so, within 200 yards, it is plenty capable of stopping a trophy buck in its tracks.

The polymer tip bullet aids in ballistic performance and accuracy, so you know the copper bullets will hit where you aim (assuming you’ve sighted it in before the season began). The bullet construction also provides up to 99 percent weight retention, so you get plenty of penetration to reach the vitals.

Federal’s high-quality materials and components, including their propellant and primers, also aid in ballistic performance and reliability. When you pull the trigger, these rounds will fire.

The biggest drawback for these rounds is their price. It seems incredibly high when you compare it to other 223 ammo, such as PMC 55 Grain PSP. However, the price is reasonable when you compare it to other similar hunting rounds.

Federal Premium 223 Rem 55 Grain Trophy Copper is the best 223 deer hunting ammo because it’s reliable, will cycle well in various platforms, and is designed to harvest deer-sized game animals ethically. Don’t hesitate to grab a couple of boxes today!

Most Accurate 223 Rem For Deer Hunting

Federal Fusion 62 Grain SP

Federal 223 Rem Ammo - 20 Rounds of 62 Grain Fusion Ammunition

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Specs

• Casing: Brass
• Bullet Type: Soft Point
• Bullet Weight: 62 grain
• Muzzle Velocity: 3,000 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 1,239 ft-lbs

Why We Chose It

Let’s be upfront. There are many, many more accurate 223 Rem rounds than Federal Fusion 62 Grain SP. Any cartridge loaded with a 70+ grain HPBT is likely to shoot circles around a soft point load. And even though it’s a 5.56, Black Hills’ Mk 262 Mod 1-C is pretty much the pinnacle of MSR accuracy.

But we’re not just trying to hit the deer. We’re trying to anchor it before it has any time to wonder what the heck just happened, which is why I’m always confident chambering Federal’s Fusion load.

This cartridge’s bullet is a soft point, which sets right to work delivering ruinous terminal expansion as soon as the force of impact smashes down its exposed lead tip. The SP’s jacket also wears symmetrical skives, which strategically weaken it so it can yield broader expansion following lower-velocity impact.

But Federal wasn’t content to stop there. That’s why the Fusion projectile features an electrochemically bonded jacket, which is formed by submerging an alloyed lead core in an electrified chemical bath where copper is applied to it one atom at a time. (It’s the same process Speer uses to create their widely acclaimed Gold Dot JHP self-defense projectiles.)

The payoff? A soft point with superior resistance to core/jacket separation, which ensures it conserves the weight and momentum requisite to tunnel a deep wound column into the quarry. That plus the 62 grain bullet’s already higher-than-average weight gives you added assurance that a relatively weak rifle cartridge will reach all the way to a whitetail’s off switch.

Its electrochemically bonded jacket is also the driving force behind the Fusion projectile’s superb accuracy. The jacket is virtually devoid of any concentricity flaws. Alongside its core’s uniformly distributed weight, that ensures the bullet exhibits the exemplary rotational stability which translates to accurate long-range flight.

The bullet’s 0.310 G1 ballistic coefficient certainly speaks to this. If your sights are 1.5” high and your target is at 200 yards, then you can anticipate -7.7” drop at 300. That’s not an insanely flat trajectory – but it is insanely predictable. This is ammo that will put a hole precisely where you mean to, which is why it gets my nod for most accurate 223 Rem deer hunting cartridge.

A bit pricey, though, but what can you do?

Best Budget-Friendly 223 Ammo For Deer Hunting

Winchester Super-X 55 Grain JSP

Specs

Winchester 223 Rem Ammo - 20 Rounds of 55 Grain JSP Ammunition

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$13.99

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• Casing: Brass
• Bullet Type: Jacketed Soft Point
• Bullet Weight: 55 grain
• Muzzle Velocity: 3,240 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 1,282 ft-lbs

Why We Chose It

Winchester Super-X 55 Grain JSP is another round I’d be remiss not to mention. While it’s nothing fancy like the Barnes TSX or Nosler Partition, these Winchester soft points perform time and again for me. I’ve lost count of the number of deer I’ve harvested with Winchester soft point bullets.

Winchester is another brand that has existed since the dawn of firearms, and I’ve successfully used Winchester ammo while waterfowl and big game hunting for years.

These rounds are designed for hunting, but since they use a lighter bullet, they’re intended for varmint hunting. However, they have similar ballistics to deer hunting ammunition, so close-range broadside shots should be fine. I would strongly advise you not to take the long-range shots.

Another significant benefit is the cost or lack thereof. Winchester 55 grain JSP is much less costly per round than Winchester Deer Season XP and much of the ammo listed above, except for Fiocchi, my pick for the best budget-friendly option.

As long as you’re not firing at deer over 200 yards, Winchester Super-X 55 Grain JSP will have enough stopping power to ethically harvest whitetail deer. If you’re looking for a happy medium round, grab a couple of boxes today!

Honorable Mention

Black Hills 55 Grain TSX

Black Hills Ammunition 223 Rem Ammo - 50 Rounds of 55 Grain TSX Ammunition

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$109.99

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Specs

• Casing: Brass
• Bullet Type: Triple-Shock X
• Bullet Weight: 55 Grain
• Muzzle Velocity: 3,200 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 1,250 ft-lbs

Why We Chose It

Black Hills isn’t the only company that loads the TSX. Federal Premium, Underwood and Barnes (which manufactures the bullet) also do great work with the TSX. I included the Black Hills 223 Rem 55 Grain TSX deer load in my honorable mentions because the South Dakotan manufacturer has thoroughly demonstrated their mastery of match-grade ammunition – and they have always been a delight to work with in the past.

All copper. Lead free. Monolithic. However you choose to describe the TSX, you can rest assured it won’t land you in trouble if you hunt wherever lead bullets have been outlawed (such as California). But the TSX isn’t just compliant. It can’t contaminate meat with toxic heavy metal particles. It can’t put lead fouling inside a rifle’s barrel. And thanks to its Accu-Groove, it leaves behind impressively little copper fouling as well.

The TSX’s inability to deposit lead fouling on rifling contributes to its accuracy. So too does its precision heel radius, which provides an extremely uniform surface for propellant gasses to exert their energy against. So too does its sleek frontal profile, for that matter. And because the TSX is precision machined from bar stock, it lacks any flaws in its weight distribution that could have thrown it off balance. The fact that it lacks a jacket (and therefore jacket concentricity flaws) only does more to promote a consistent trajectory. In short, the TSX is as accurate as a Swiss stopwatch.

It’s deadly, too. The copper projectile’s superior toughness enables it to retain the vast majority of its weight as it plunges through dense sinew and bone. It uses that momentum to deliver a deep wound channel. The TSX makes matters even worse for Bambi thanks to the brutal form its terminal expansion takes. The solid copper hollow point erects four long, curling, knife-like petals that inflict devastating wounds in their tracks. It’s lights out for whichever ungulate the TSX homes in on.

The TSX is also a suitable choice for personal protection. Any of the cartridges in this list would effectively neutralize a threat, although Black Hills 223 Rem 55 Grain TSX is the one I’d trust most for the job.

Winchester Deer Season XP 64 Grain Extreme Point

Winchester Deer Season XP 223 Rem Ammo - 20 Rounds of 64 Grain Extreme Point Ammunition

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Specs

• Casing: Brass
• Bullet Type: Polymer Tip
• Bullet Weight: 64 Grain
• Muzzle Velocity: 3,020 fps
• Muzzle Energy: 1,296 ft-lbs

Why We Chose It

I very nearly made Winchester Deer Season XP 64 Grain Extreme Point my top pick. Really, it might as well have come down to a coin toss.

If you’re accustomed to looking at polymer-tipped 223 projectiles, then you’ll notice right away that the “Extreme Point” is fully deserving of its name. The typical polymer tip only comprises approximately 22% of a bullet’s frontal surface area. The Extreme Point’s tip, on the other hand, makes up a colossal 48%.

The Extreme Point’s gigantic tip greatly streamlines its frontal profile. This enables the bullet to conserve more velocity as it races downrange, which (A) flattens its trajectory, and (B) helps it reach its target with greater striking energy. (It must be noted that the bullet’s heavier 64 grain weight does even more to amplify its striking energy.)

The Extreme Point’s tip doesn’t stop impressing once it hits its mark. The abnormally large tip has – you guessed it – an abnormally large base. It rams into the Extreme Point’s underlying lead core on impact, which delivers the massive energy transfer and accelerated expansion that make short work of any buck. The Extreme Point’s contoured copper jacket also helps guide that expansion, which promotes the uniformly wide wound channel hunters love (and deer hate).

Winchester isn’t exactly giving this ammo away for free. Quite the opposite, in fact, but I say whatevs. This ammo isn’t meant for fast-paced mag dumps. It’s meant for lining up the perfect shot that will cause your chest freezer to burst at the seams with venison.

223 vs 5.56: A Note on Nomenclature

Please note that the 223 Remington (223 Rem) and the 5.56x45mm NATO round are often used interchangeably. However, there are differences between the two, which you can read about in this article: .223 vs 5.56.

In short, a 223 Rem can safely be fired from a firearm chambered for 5.56. The opposite is not true.

Basic 223 Ballistics Information

223 ballistics are often under fire in the hunting community because they don’t stack up against the 243 Rem or 6.5 Creedmoor.

The 223 Rem is capable of muzzle velocities exceeding 3,000 fps and muzzle energies exceeding 1,250 ft-lbs. The problem is that it doesn’t carry enough energy downrange to be a highly effective deer hunting cartridge.

While there are much better options for long-range shooting, the 223 Remington can accurately shoot 800+ yards in the hands of a capable marksman. However, it’s typically limited to 150 yards while deer hunting.

Parting Shots: Can You Hunt Deer With .223 Rem?

The simple truth is that the 223 Rem and 5.56 NATO are not the best deer cartridges on the market. However, if you select the proper bullet type and focus on excellent shot placement, the 223 Remington can take down a whitetail rather effectively.

Although 223 ammo wouldn’t be my first choice for a deer hunting rifle, it is a cartridge with incredibly low recoil and is easy to learn to shoot accurately. If you plan on using a 223 Rem for your next deer hunt, make sure you pick one of the factory loads on our top 5 list, and you shouldn’t have any problem putting venison in your freezer this fall.

The only real problem you might have to deal with is where to mount the trophy!

If you’re ready to load up your deer rifle with some of the best 223 Rem ammo available, then make sure to click HERE to go back to our Top 5 list!

Written by

Chris Dwulet