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This fancy dressed AR is a big part of the reason some have lobbied for light rifles in the field. However, at what price in wounded game?

With my partner’s kills and the example I just related to you, am I saying that the .224 or any light bullet is appropriate for taking big game animals the size of deer or even antelope cleanly? Yes – but only if all the conditions regarding bullet placement location, range, and rifle accuracy have been met. In South Dakota we often hunt rolling, open prairie land, flat grain or crop fields, or other areas that allow a good visual and ideal tracking conditions on an animal that takes a hit. Lacking these conditions, the net effect can be a lost animal.

EASTERN STATES AND .22S FOR DEER

While we can and do get away with shooting very light rifles on deer and antelope out here in the wide-open west – again, due for the most part to being able to locate an animal after the shot – I don’t believe the same can be said for areas of the country that contain whitetail in heavy cover. Based on what I have seen and will elaborate on a bit later, I tend to believe that it is asking for trouble to allow a hunter into the woods in, say, Minnesota with a .223 Remington loaded for deer. How can I make that judgment, being a Dakota hunter? Because I spent about 50 years of my life hunting whitetail not just for trophies, but in old-school meat events in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Believe me, friends, I know what I am talking about here, and slapping a bullet into a big northern Minnesota swamp buck’s vitals and then tracking him through black willow, swamp bottoms, and heavy buck brush ain’t my idea of a good day at the office. The bottom line here is that you’re going to lose game. Woodland states that enact legislation that allows the use of light cartridges such as the .223 for big game seem to be missing the obvious, and according to some I have discussed this issue with, seem to care less about wounding the critters. I think the .22 as a big game cartridge in these conditions, or for the most part in almost all conditions, is nothing but a careless stunt!