I want a rifle that I can pack all day and not feel like I've been toting a howitzer with me on the trail.....
I want something capable of a 100 yard shot.....
With the rifle weighing as little as possible recoil is the next concern. I'm not afraid of recoil but I don't want something that is gonna be punishing to shoot either. What are y'alls suggestions?
I wanted these things from my main hunting rifle, too. That is one of the reasons why I purchsed my Handi-Rifle.
It is much lighter, more compact, and more dynamic handling than the CZ 550 that I relied upon for the past 9 years. My Handi is the standard configuration with the standard taper barrel. Scoped with the 3 X 9 glass that it currently wears, it balances right at the hinge pin. Target aquisition is rapid because of this, but there is enough weight forward to insure muzzle stability under field conditions.
Out in California, I used a T/C Contender Carbine in .223 for blacktails for several seasons. That thing was definitely about as easy to pack as a rifle could be, and this was important because I frequently hunted in designated wilderness areas where backpacking in was part of the experience. The .223 was entirely adequate for the deer I shot, and the controlled expansion rounds I used allowed me to shoot smaller game for the pot on extended pack outings without damaging them beyond edibility. I liked that flexability. The downfall of the Contender Carbine was its ultralight weight. It was very difficult to shoot accurately under the field conditions that I sometimes faced -shooting across windy draws at deer over 100 yards away.
My Handi Rifle weighs a little more, but aside from that, it is every bit as "packable" as my Contender Carbine was. It is also more accurate under all conditions and much easier to shoot accurately in the field.
Given my past experience using the .223 on blacktails and California mule deer, as well as feral goats and other similarly sized game, caliber choice for me was a no-brainer, especially considering the 1:9 twist that Handi-Rifles in .223 now come with. I wanted an accurate round that was economical and pleasant to shoot in a short, light rifle, with enough power to take light, thin-skinned game at reasonable ranges, and in my experience, the .223 with proper bullets delivers that performance combination.
Even with the mild mannered .223, I don't think that I would personally want the muzzle of my rifle five or six inches closer to my face than it already is with my 22" barreled Handi-Rifle, and since mine delivers the M.O.A. accuracy I was hoping for as is, I would be extremely reluctant to screw around with it for fear that I might end up with less precision by messing about with it.
I know that the topic of using the .223 on "big game" is a controversial one. There are deer hunting situations where I would want something else, too. But for the deer that I actually hunt under the conditions that actually hunt them under, the .223 has proven to me to be all the cartridge I require. It cleanly kills the size class of animals that I use it on, generally delivering through and through penetration while doing so, and droping the animals right where they stood when they took the hit.
Whether here in the Cherokee Nation or the areas I like to hunt in California, most of the deer I encounter are under 150 pounds and are shot at distances under 150 yards, so for most of the hunting that I do, the .223 with 60 grain Partitions or 62 TSXs fired out of a 1:9 twist barrel is all the cartridge I need. I have taken mule deer up to 200 pounds with round without wishing for something bigger in my chamber and the results were one shot, "dead right there" drops. In the 31 years that I've been deer hunting, the longest shot I recall making on a game animal was a 275 yard poke. The fact that I can generally manage to get fairly close to game probably has a lot to do with the satisfactory results I've had with the little .223 round.
On paper, I know the .243 is supposed to offer more killing power. I used a .243 M-98 Mauser for a while and I don't think it killed the deer I shot any deader than the .223 did or would have under the same conditions. I think that premium bullets like TSXs and Partions now available in .224" largely bridge any gap that used to exist between the .223 and .243 where the take of light, thin-skinned game is concerned.
-JP
