ARs For Deer Hunting
BY Herschel Smith
8 years ago
There’s no question – the AR-15 doesn’t look like your daddy’s deer rifle. Of course, the Winchester Model 94 lever-action rifle your granddad used doesn’t look anything like his father’s Hawken, either.
However, we see progress all around us. The smartphone is nothing like the rotary phones I grew up with, and if my grandpa stepped in my pickup truck, he’d think it was a spaceship.
The American hunter is experiencing this same thrust into the 21st century. While it might not have the lure, feel and warmth of walnut and blued steel, performance matters over nostalgia. I’m not suggesting you trade in your old .30-30 on an AR, or regulate your bolt rifle to the closet for all eternity. What I hope you will do is consider the many factors that make the AR-15, and its bigger brother the AR-10, ideal for deer hunting.
We’re living in a brave new world and the AR is the hunting rifle of the new millennium – and here’s why.
He goes on to describe a number of things my readers already know about the AR that make it a good choice, including man-machine interface, modularity and adjustability, reliability, etc. Then there is this.
There does exist more powerful options for those who demand it. Nine of the 41 states permitting centerfire rifles for deer hunting prohibit the use of the .223 Remington. If you hunt in one of those states, the 6.8 SPC or .300 Blackout are an option, as is the new .25-45 Sharps, which duplicates the performance of the old .250 Savage. If you want to stretch your range or just think you need more power, you can step up to an AR-10 and choose a cartridge like the .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Winchester, and in some cases even magnum cartridges.
The semi-automatic AR-15s that shoot anything but the 5.56/.223 or 300 Blackout are non-existent to my knowledge, and the AR-10s that shoot anything else can be very pricey (except for .308). Or in other words, designer cartridge black guns are very expensive – even the AR style bolt action guns.
But I do like the idea of the 300 Blackout, where I can swap out an upper receiver quickly and easily and have a larger round, slightly slower muzzle velocity, but better long range ballistics than the 5.56/.223 (while I would also assert than the 5.56/.223 is ideal for many situations that don’t suit the 300 Blackout).
So in summary I would say to the old time hunters with puzzled looks at the kids bringing out the new fangled black guns, you need to welcome them and perhaps even learn something. They are carrying on a proud tradition. To the Fudds who refuse to accept it, I would say get over it. Your opinions don’t matter.
But here is a word of caution for the AR hunters. Know you rifle, know your round, and know your limitations. Make ethical shots. Only make ethical shots.
On November 15, 2016 at 12:02 pm, Pat Hines said:
I have an AR-15 in 6.5 Grendel, which has an ideal bullet weight of 123 grains. Mark LaRue, owner of LaRue Tactical used a rifle in this caliber to kill an Elk a few years back.
Like the 6.8 Remington, it does use a unique bolt, barrel, and magazine; but it’s a good choice if you want to stay with the AR-15 pattern rifle. All AR-15 accessories work with these rifles. Magazines are from 25 round to 5 round capacities.
Scopes with 308 reticles work for the 6.5G, the flight paths are very close.
http://media.fotki.com/1_p,ssqkkqssqrdwskqxsrfddtdgbdk,vi/ttbgfkkkwxswbggrtrr/5/41655/8298317/65_Gren-vi.jpg
On November 15, 2016 at 4:49 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Yea, Lewis Machine & Tool makes a 6.5 Creedmoor in semi-auto too (as do a couple of others), but most of these off-standard calibers are HIGHLY expensive and they are custom builds. I don’t know about the 6.5G (Bob Owens like that round). But if I’m going to shoot anything off-standard (by that I mean 5.56/.223 or .300 BO), I’m just as likely to choose a boltie. Then again, a precision bolt gun isn’t necessarily less expensive than a semi-auto. My goodness we have to spend money to get quality machines, yes? It’s exhausting.
On November 15, 2016 at 5:45 pm, Pat Hines said:
Yes, it’s a subset of the old axiom from gear heads (like me),”speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?”
Hornady has at least three loads in 6.5G, Wolf has 6.5G at 40 cents a round. None will be as cheap as 5.56NATO can be. Hornady is now loading its Black Ammunition, which is match quality.
I didn’t buy the rifle for hunting, however, I wanted something in an AR-15 package, with significantly more power than the 5.56N. The 6.5G has about three times the power, with only about double the recoil. I did a lot of research on the round before I moved to it. I still have a number of 5.56 rifles, including my “truck rifle” that is very short, it’s legally an AR pistol.
The 6.5 Creedmoor requires a 308 length AR, by the way, it is an interesting round though. Ruger makes a M77 Varmint/target model in that caliber with a 28 inch heavy barrel.
On November 16, 2016 at 4:56 pm, Horatio Bunce said:
This being hunting season for me , I have been using both my standard .270 bolt action but also my AR-15 in 7.62×39 . Love the AR and has enough knockdown power to take anything but a moose down in my area .
Some have told me my 7.62×39 isn’t powerful enough but it has essentially the same ballistics as a 30-30 , which is the caliber that has killed more deer than any other in my state .
On November 16, 2016 at 5:02 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Interesting. AR-15 7.62X39. That’s when an AR and an AK get together and reproduce, right?
On November 16, 2016 at 5:10 pm, Horatio Bunce said:
Any of my AR lowers with a Palmetto state upper . Great thing about their uppers is they are not conversions . They are specifically made as 7.62×39 . Only way to tell the difference is seeing markings or the bigger hole at the bang end .
Btw , several thousand rounds through it and never had a malfuntion other than cheap ammo not going bang . Same ammo , same issue in my SKSs .
Chose the 7.62 over an AR-10 because I can swap uppers/lowers for different configurations . Can’t swap between AR-15 and AR-10 . And still gives me a decent increase in power when I need or want it .
On November 19, 2016 at 8:01 am, Pat Hines said:
I haven’t seen much on the AR in 7.62×39, but have seen a torture test on an AR in 5.45×39. They wanted to see how long the rifle would shoot without cleaning it, just lubing the bolt rings every 400-500 rounds. It went a long time, I’ll see if I can find the test.
Indeed, the 7.62×39 is almost an exact duplicate of the .30-30 energy wise, with better ballistics due to better bullet shape. The .30-30 requires a flat nose bullet for the tubular magazine, so isn’t as aerodynamic as the bullets you can run in the 7.62×39 box magazine.
On November 16, 2016 at 5:15 pm, TheAlaskan said:
I used to always hunt with my 35 whelen or my 375 H&H (big stuff up here…especially the mosquitoes.) Now I always hunt with my AR 10 chambered in 6.5 Creed. It’s an evolution. Money is only made to buy…more…guns.
On November 19, 2016 at 8:02 am, Pat Hines said:
I’d like to see the ballistics on the Creedmoor in an AR-10. What barrel length are you running?
On November 19, 2016 at 3:40 pm, TheAlaskan said:
twenty four inches