22 Creedmoor on whitetail...in a pinch.

[Mustang72]

I shot 3 with my 22-250 this year with a 55 grain bullet. Two were throat patch and drt. One was good placement behind shoulder - went down and thrashed around and hit her feet and was gone. No exit,no blood trail. Will try an x or a hammer for next season. Will probably test on some pigs before then.

 

[JIsbell40]

The beauty of calibers like the 22creedmoor is the ability to spot hits and watch bullet impact. I did not miss. I watched the bullet impact the deer center of body right above the front leg. I then watched the deer pull its legs under itself and collapse. There is no doubt about the shot. There is no way to explain what the bullet did because the animal wasn't recovered. I didn't say the bullet "failed" it did what it was supposed to do it hit the target. The impact velocity was somewhere around 2850 which is asking a lot of a thin jacketed target bullet.

I've had poor performance from ELDm and X on deer. No penetration but phenomenal accuracy in a couple rifles. Sounds to me like you had a very high shoulder hit that temporarily shocked his spine and knocked him out. Happens a lot. There's not much over the shoulder bones until you get to the spine so he very well could have survived that shot. It sucks to hit one and watch him fall then walk up and nothing's there!

 

[Jluck]

This is what I was concerned with when considering bullets such as the eldm, some say they work great, other accounts say otherwise. So with that said I plan to avoid using eld and similar bullets.

Why not just use a caliber that you don't have to be concerned with?

 

[RT2506]

The mono and bonded heavies would be ok but I would steer clear of the cup and core Match bullets like 69 - 77 Sierra MK. They explode on varmints like ground hogs out of my 223.

 

[Groot]

JLuck, I do have a more suited rifle for deer and intend to use it. When I put something together I want it be able to use it as a backup for deer if for whatever reason I can't use my 270. But when I spend 2 weeks out of the year deer hunting with a rifle and the rest of the year our for coyotes and groundhogs I want it build with that in mind. If the roles were flipped and I'd spend all year deer hunting and only a couple weeks varminting than I'd chose something of the 6.5 or 7 flavor.

 

[Groot]

Whoaaa this update is pretty cool!

 

[JIsbell40]

Definitely a different style now.

 

[nicholasjohn]

Don't forget the Speer 55,62, and 75g Bonded core Gold Dots.

I haven't used the Gold Dots, and didn't realize they had a bonded core. I would think that they would work especially well, particularly in the heavier weights. I have used their old 70-grain "semi-spitzer" to shoot a few deer, and it worked phenomenally well. All the deer I shot with it went down right now. The cartridge was the 22-250, and enough 4350 to send them out the muzzle at around 3300 fps. I doubt that the 75-grain would stabilize in the 14-inch twist that old Sako rifle had, but the stubby 70-grain Speer stabilized just fine. In a rifle without a fast-twist barrel, the 62-grain Gold Dot might be the longest one that would work reliably. What cartridge/barrel set-up are you shooting them out of ?

 

[GunsnFitness]

I'm personally a fan of the higher velo monos on deer out of the .22 calibers with distance of the shot as the deciding factor of if I'm going to shoot or not.

I had the pleasure of having two doe tags this past fall and I had just finished a 24" .224 Valkyrie... so I had to try it out. I didn't have time to do a hand load work up so I just purchased a box of the 78g TSX load by federal, dialed in the rifle and chronoed it... I was receiving 2873 fps. The girlfriend and I set out and finished the same day.

Her shot 180 yards, Between the ribs behind the front shoulder on entry and dead centered a rib on exit. 20 yards and tipped over.

minimal blood shot on the entry, but the exit was worse, I assume due to the bone impact.

My shot was 200 yards. I was trying to recover a bullet because I wanted to see what it looked like and to test the Valkyries penetration. Quartering away, behind the front shoulder hoping it would lodge in the offside shoulder.

Unfortunately for me, it didn't hit any bones and was still an easy pass through. Stoned her. She didn't take a step.

So tying back to the thread and OP in my experience and personal opinion, the .22 Creed loaded with monos would be a an adequate deer gun in a pinch. The velo difference between it and the Valkyrie would bump it up and make it effective on bigger bodied deer/bucks and extend the effective killing range over the Valkyrie which I learned had no problem out to 200.

 

[Cornbinder57]

I have had great experience with the high velocity 22 cals and monos. 22 creedmor and 4 point mule deer buck with the 77 grain lrx, 640 yards DRT! And a youth used it for a 3 point and he didn't take a step.
For whitetail culling 55 grain Ttsx and a 223 rem, they don't know what hit them!!

 

[JIsbell40]

This has turned into an absolute joke. 600 plus on deer with a 22 creed.... youd think these boys are shooting ICBMs at squirrels with the way they brag on .224s. Bring enough gun to be fair to the animal.

 

[keithcandler]

22-6 Rem AI with 80g A max, Neck size at 3650, will kill stuff way on out there.

Put the bullet where it belongs or don't pull the trigger.

 

[Cornbinder57]

The thread is asking if the 22 Creed would work on a deer. The answers is yes, and quite well. The data supports it, at the velocity you can obtain with a 22 creed the mono bullet can handle the impact and perform. Holding nearly 1000ft pounds at 600 yards, and hours of range time out to 1210, shot placement and confidence in the rifle can make the job very efficient. Don't get me wrong I love to smack critters with my 338 Rum also, but that isn't the question on this thread. Here are the ballistics of my load.

 

[Groot]

This has turned into an absolute joke. 600 plus on deer with a 22 creed.... youd think these boys are shooting ICBMs at squirrels with the way they brag on .224s. Bring enough gun to be fair to the animal.

What are your negative experiences with heavy .224 monos between 70-80 grain 3450+ fps? While I would have no business 5-600 with this round, it doesn't seem to have any negative feedback so I'm curious about your experiences with it.