ARs for hunting

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Jayhawkhuntclub

New member
Just wanted to provide a review of my hunting season for those who are thinking about hunting with the ar15. Wasn't a fan of hunting with the 223/5.56 last year. But the upgrades in my arsenal paid off this fall. If you're thinking about an AR for deer, get the right cartridge and you'll be glad you did.


My daughters fist deer. Shot at 25 yards with a 300 Blackout and 125 gr SST. Went straight down.


45 yards with the 6.5 Grendel and a 123 gr SST. Ran 25 yards.


My son's first buck (a monster). Shot at 50 yards with the 300 Blackout and a 125 gr SST. Ran 50 yards.
 
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smee78

New member
Thats great, always glad to see a young'in get to put meat on the table. I also wanted to use an AR for hunting so I built me a 7.62X39 and as a reloader I could build a round that meets my needs. Thanks for sharing the pic's. :D
 
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Wyosmith

New member
I am quite a fan of the 6.8SPC.
Here is a pic of an exit along side my fist. I have removed the shoulders as I butcher the animal, so I thought I'd take a pic before I was done. This was about 7 years ago.
Pretty typical of the performance. The bullet was a 100 grain Remington.
It's a buck antelope shot at about 175 yards.

The 5.56 with proper bullets work ok but the 6.8 is WAY more effective.
 
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dvdcrr

New member
I think ARs are OK for a lot of hunting. My 10 year old son looked more comfortable with my kimber 8400M than with the 16" AR carbine, even with the collapsible stock. The Kimber is trim. Needless to say the 270 WSM did quite well on his deer.
 
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GeauxTide

New member
After two spine surgeries in the past two years, I got a 6.5 Grendel, a 450 Bushmaster, and a .223 Oracle. The Grendel and 450 shoot one hole groups, so the bolts are on IR.
 
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USMCGrunt

New member
While I have used my M-4gery for deer (64 grain Winchester Power Point ammo) to good effect, that was more along the line of really not serious hunting for me. By that I mean during the day, our deer don't move too much so I'll take a "not so serious" rifle out that is still capable but I'm not expecting anything to show itself. Dropped without any problem so I have no problem using a 5.56mm round on deer. Hell, my very first deer rifle as a kid was a Remington 788 in .222 Remington and that rifle killed many a deer so it's IMHO, not an issue of the round it fires.
However, during early morning light and dusk, that's my higher odds of taking a shot at a decent deer and this fall did not disappoint me at all in that regards. I use a Basha style ground blind and get in place before the sun comes up. In this case, it was 0701 that I pulled the trigger on this guy. I was kind of disappointed in the short range (327 meters) that he was standing at but you take the shots as the target presents itself I guess. Anyways, one round of a Sierra 168 grain BTHP and he dropped right on the spot. The brass is lying on the entry wound. At that range, had I been using my M1A DMR clone, I would have gone for the head shot but being a new rifle, I chose to go for the traditional front shoulder shot instead. I guess I can't really complain about this one.

 
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Xfire68

New member
Fantastic Jayhawkhuntclub!

There are tons of great AR 15 hunting calibers out there now. Many are still just for reloaders but that can be a fun family activity as well.

I am collecting parts to build a .277 Wolverine upper.
 
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Xfire68

New member
I'm partial to hornady 75 gr using 22.5 gr of reloader 15 on my RRA predator pursuit.
Click to expand...

Match ammo is not the best choice for game. I guess if you are a great shot and go for head shots it is ok but not for general hunting.

Nosler 64g bonded are a much better choice. As are a few others. A number of bullet manufactures are offering quality .22 small/medium game projectiles now.

Nosler also offers the 60g Partition.
 
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bamaranger

New member
AR's on deer

Good for the youngsters and their fist deer!

And I will fully admit that bamaboy at age 11 took his first two with Mark X Mini Mauser in .223, with Federal bonded bullets, (62 gr tac-load) from support, at sub 100 yds, me coaching at his ear, and a bunch of practice and skull sessions about where to hit'em. He could have done just as well with an AR so chambered, but we did not have one at the time. We moved to the .243 bolt rifle pretty quickly, now I have to arm wrestle him for the .308.

But regards AR's in .223, it seems about every season now, I'll run up on somebody that has lost a deer shooting at it with an AR or a Mini14 (sometimes an economy bolt rifle). In the course of listening to their lament, which they usually are voluteering freely, their seems to be a common thread(s).

1) they equate getting a shot and losing a deer as some sort of accomplishment, ie, at least they were "good enough" to get a shot. I hear the same thing from some bow hunters. (no flame intended)
2) Their hunting experience and overall savvy is a bit low, shot too quickly, shot in bad light, bad angle, did not track or work to recover the deer very long, shot at a running animal, etc
3) When asked, they will have no good idea of the type of projectile they used in .223, other than, perhaps, the bullet weight, or more typically, just the mfg and that it was a "soft point" or lead tip, or some other broad description. And there are .223 rounds that are just not suitable for deer.

Now, items 1 & 2 above can occur irregardless of what the culprit is shooting. So too, item 3, but in the larger "deer calibers" there is a lot more room for error. Yes, a gut shot is a gut shot, but mix up your bullet weights from about .25 cal and up, and the likelihood of having a slug fail to penetrate to vitals drops significantly, on an angling or shoulder shot.

Not so the .223. And with the absolute rage of the AR/223 in full cry, I hear more and more about guys using one on deer where legal. I write all this to encourage all AR/.223 shooters to pay attention to their ammo selection, and pick their shots carefully.

But if your on this forum, your likely enough of an enthusiast to know all this already.
 
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Txhillbilly

New member
Never had any problems with the Sierra 65 grain Gameking or the Speer 70 grain Soft point bullets taking deer with a 223,but I limit the range on them at 200 yards. Most shots are 100 yards are less.

I rarely hunt deer with a 223 anymore because I mainly carry one of my 6.5mm chamberings in the field.
 
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COSteve

New member
There are deer and there are deer. Eastern and southern deer usually are on the smaller side than the larger mule deer common in the west. Dressed, our deer can top 190lbs which is twice what some small eastern deer weigh on the hoof. Hence the .223 might be OK for smaller species but is inhumane for use on the larger ones.
 
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Jayhawkhuntclub

New member
Wow sure didn't mean to start a thread about hunting with 223 for deer.:rolleyes: I've hunted and killed deer with the 223. Yes the 223 will kill deer. Hell lots of deer have been killed with 22 mags. But I've also seen/know of several failures too. There are a lot of factors involved in it being effective (projectile, distance, size of deer distance, shot angle, shot placement, luck...etc.). Personally, I've only hunted with 60 gr Partitions in the 223. IMHO, it is a sub-optimum cartridge for deer in most situations, if not all. My point is there are much better options in the AR platform. I'm glad I didn't have the 223 when I encountered that big buck. I might have taken him home either way. I'll never know. But I'd rather have a much more powerful round and a bullet weighing twice as much.
 
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