Really like my Tikka .223 Tactical BB, but not sure if that's legal on deer et al in all states. My go to for shoulder maladies is old M700 .243BB. There should be some on the market!
Need advice on light a light recoiling hunting rifle!
- Thread starter Alan Gipson
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I'd use this situation as a reason to get a 22 Creedmoor. Call it physical therapy. Bullet weight does not make any difference when exiting the head at 250 or less yards.
Enjoy the journey!
Bruce Treloar
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There are a lot of better choices than a 223 if you are building a bolt action rifle. The neck is so short and when using an 80 gn bullet you are reducing case capacity. I can't see anything good about a 223 except for automatic's and ammunition availability. The 222 Remington Magnum would be my choice in a small bolt face donor action.. The 22 BR is a great choice for a large bolt face action. Then there are the PPC's, unfortunately they require a modified bolt face . I use a 22PPC 1 in 14 twist with 52 gn light jacket lead core bulles to harvest full grown beef cattle on a friends property . longest shot 375 yards and 180 yards. The steers died in mid air, their legs just folded under and I had to race to them to bleed them out . There's no substitute for a well placed shot.
4thefunofit
Well-Known Member
Apparently, the 6-TCU and the 6PPC have equivalent powder capacities.
6mm TCU same capacity as 6PPC
I was considering having a barrel made for my Thompson Encore in a 6mm caliber and was looking at data of several 6mm calibers with less capacity than the 243. I was utterly shocked when I discovered the lowly 6mm TCU had the same powder capacity as the 6PPC. The 6TCU is just 223 brass necked...
www.thehighroad.org
I did the .222 Rem Mag thing in my bolt gun before going to a .223 Rem, honestly wasn't getting anything more from the .222 Rem Mag... from what I could see on the range anyway, paper performance only showed a minor jump in the bullets I was using, plus brass co$t a little more, and a bit harder to come by. So I had the barrel set back to .223 Rem using the same 80gr bullets for both. Granted, I didn't feed them from a magazine, I single-fed them due to the OAL... using heavy bullets, I never looked back. I like the .222 Rem Mag as a cartridge, but... why fight the brass thing for so little in performances in my usage, sure... lighter bullets set to magazine OAL have a little more pick up downrange with the .222 Mag case, not much, but a little. Just my 0.2 Cheers
Your 223 plan sounds good. My neck is getting worse and if I shoot my magnum rifles I get pain and numbness and I'm getting afraid to shoot them and have it turn into a permanent injury. My 6.5 Grendel AR with a muzzle break and an H3 buffer doesn't seem to recoil badly with 123gr bullets. The Hornady ELD 123gr match bullets are good killers out to about 400 yards. The AR bolt cycling seems to slow down the recoil impulse and take up some of the shock. Maybe a 224 Valkyrie in an AR platform would be a good hunting rifle for you. Good luck with your recovery.
264 Win Mag Man
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I second the 22-250. I've killed deer,and antelope 1 shot no movement. Great caliber.
Stgraves260
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Have you tried looking at a 6.5 Grendel? If you all ready have a AR15, you can just get a 6.5 Grendel upper. Change the bolt carrier and Mag. You can find it in a kit. It's actually a pretty good deer rifle round. Hornady makes factory Ammo in 123 grain SST. At 500 yards its still traveling 1800 FPS and retains about 900 lbs of kinetic energy. Thats more than enough for deer. I've taken deer out to just over 300 yards with mine. It actually puts them down pretty good. if you decide to go that rough make sure you get a 20" barrel. Bill Alexander designed the round for max efficiency with a 20" barrel and still stays supersonic at 1200 yards. Check it out. It might be worth your time.
Stgraves260
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The crazy part is when I was stationed in Afghanistan we would shoot sheep for food sometimes out to 400 yards With our ARs. 75 grain BTHP.
Web1350
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22/250
Someone beat me to it but +1 for a 6 Dasher. I have a rifle that weights 5.5 lbs chambered in it. It has almost no recoil. Getting 2950 fps with 105 bergers in a 24" barrel. I like the 100 grain 6mm projectiles on deer. 88 grain Hammers are near 3150+.
timo308
Well-Known Member
If you're looking to build a rifle for extra light recoil you could start with your favorite model action in a .223 bolt face and build on the 6mm TCU, 25 TCU, 6.5mm TCU or 7mm TCU for starters. They all 4 seem to work better than they should considering their based off off necked up and blown out .223 Rem cases. My niece started out with a 25 TCU I built on a Remington Model 7 for her when she was 12 for her first deer hunt and she still uses it to this day (fifteen years later) for anything deer sized or smaller. Her husband bought her a .270 Win for out west but she won't use it to shoot deer and coyotes here in Missouri, says it's not nearly as much fun to shoot as her 25 TCU.
