DEER with .204

[pmcbear04]

I have a Savage .204, great rifle, with hot accurate round. I know it's great for varmints, predators, and plinking, but I am VERY tempted to use it on whitetail late-season this year around Coleman.
I am confident in my ability w/ respect to shot placement as I have great optics and historically above par shooting ()
Any experience out there on subject?

 

[Texas1911]

Neck shoot them or in the head.

The .204 just explodes when you hit stuff, so shoulders are out of the question.

 

[AusTex]

As 1911 said.. Neck shot is your best bet. the .22 caliber bullet can be very deadly though and I read an amazing article about a guy that was tasked to kill hundreds of feral donkeys over the course of a 6 month period on a huge ranch. He would go out and pop 5 per day or so. He had big guns, small guns, pistols he tried everything and recorded his results in vital shots, head shots, neck shots you name it. At the end of the slaughter he wrote pages about how the .222 swift was the best damn killing round out of the entire batch. I found it very interesting.

Try and use a bullet that will get the deepest penetration before exploding as 1911 also said.

 

[MR Redneck]

In Texas you can hunt deer with any center fire rifle. I dont know how long you 204 barrel is, but I have only heard from people using them that they are great long range .. Head or the neck is where I would hit it, mostly in the neck.
Also, in Texas you cant use dogs to hunt deer, but you can use them to find a wounded runner.. Some of the places I have been have thick cedar. If the deer runs wounded, I get the lab on the trail. The dogs finds them a lot faster than I can and considering evening shots are normally an hour before dark, the dogs speed things up.

 

[Texas1911]

the .22 caliber bullet can be very deadly though and I read an amazing article about a guy that was tasked to kill hundreds of feral donkeys over the course of a 6 month period on a huge ranch. He would go out and pop 5 per day or so. He had big guns, small guns, pistols he tried everything and recorded his results in vital shots, head shots, neck shots you name it. At the end of the slaughter he wrote pages about how the .222 swift was the best damn killing round out of the entire batch. I found it very interesting

The .204 uses a .20 caliber bullet.

 

[AusTex]

I know but you are not very far off from a 55grn .22 cal bullet than a 45grn ballistic tip .20 cal bullet. I was just trying to emphasize that smaller bullets can also kill. Granted the .220 swift is a big step up from the .204. From my post though it did make it seem like I was saying the 204 was a .22 but I was generalizing because I wanted to tell my story about that article

 

[dobarker]

They work great on whitetail. As all have said before, neck(spinal) or head. If you've got a stout wind and haven't been well practiced in the wind, then it's not worth taking the shot at a longer range than 100 yards. Chances are that you'll wind up with a jawless deer or miss completely.

Just something to keep in mind with regards to wind, a 20mph wind coming at full value (90 degrees from you) is enough to push a 150 grn. .308 caliber boat tail about two inches left or right at 100 yards, depending on wind direction.

 

[Texas1911]

I know but you are not very far off from a 55grn .22 cal bullet than a 45grn ballistic tip .20 cal bullet. I was just trying to emphasize that smaller bullets can also kill. Granted the .220 swift is a big step up from the .204. From my post though it did make it seem like I was saying the 204 was a .22 but I was generalizing because I wanted to tell my story about that article

Give or take yeah, I'd even like to try loading .204 cases with .224" bullets to make a new .223 Remington Improved. The .204 is slightly larger in case volume.

 

[Texas42]

There are a few 'deer' .224'' bullets. I couldn't find any .20''. Doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

[thedoveshooter]

To me, I don't really think this is a matter of if a .204 can do it, but rather if it is ethical. I just hate to wound animals. I like their death to be as quick as possbile and there are just too many things that could go wrong with such a small caliber.

The projectile alone is way light and it will be going way fast...it will just explode and have no penetration. I've read a few artilces from the Turn-of-the-Century where they used the 8mm Muaser to kill elephants. Yeah, with a well placed shot it can easily do it, but if not, they will just be wounded (and pissed lol).

Just my 2 cents!

 

[Superdave70_02]

I tried it last year. I tried a lung shot because his head was down and couldn't get a good shot at his neck. Even though I aimed pretty far back, he was quartered away just enough that it went all the way through the chest cavity and exploded on the opposite shoulder completely dissolving the bone. The lungs were complete soup and the trechea was severed. It was a shot of about 150 yards. Better to find a less destructive caliber/round. If just killing is the goal I would choose it in a heartbeat!

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Killed my first Deer when I was 8 with a .222, shot in the neck, dropped dead at ~190 yds.