My brother in law has a farm in New York and doesn't have much time/inclination to hunt, but gets severe crop damage from whitetails. I few years back he got 50 doe tags that could be filled by anyone hunting on his property(about 2500 acres). He gave them all to me and said have fun. After bringing up some friends etc to shoot some for meat I still had 30+ tags left. Talked to the local hunters for hungry program and they said they could take as much as I could bring them. I just can't shoot stuff and let it go to waste. Anyway, since the conditions were right(fresh snow, easy tracking, I know the property well), I decided to put the 223 to the test. Not the optimum deer caliber by any means, but I shoot alot so I was confident, and like I said easy tracking conditions. I used a sierra gameking bullets. I shot 19 deer over 2 days, at ranges from 75-200 yards. All shot in the lungs behind the shoulder. The one that went the furthest went less than 100 yards after being shot. About half of them took only a step or 2.
I'm not saying use a 223, but a 270 is more than enough for whitetails.
I'm not saying use a 223, but a 270 is more than enough for whitetails.