Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles AR for hunting and plinking

How old or how big is the son? The last thing a young'n needs is a 10 lb gun.

He is a 120 pounds but I agree no one wants to lug around a 10 pound gun especially in these Tennessee mountains

I have not seen many ARs that wouldn't work and shoot fine in the last 15 years or so really. CErtianly since the late 90s to early 2000s, most kinks were worked out.

And while certain names I"ve never seen a flaw with, the rest, the things that make em hiccup, are generally minor and easy and cheap to solve.

There is never anything wrong with buying better though as noted.

Personally if you were not relying on it for personal defense, I"d buy what I wanted and see if I was happy with it. You can't hardly go wrong these days.

Me personally I simply shoot what I build, and make sure its right in case it ever has to be used to defend, but that does not mean that I buy the best parts or pay for big name parts.

One downfall to the AR is the overall weight at times, do be careful of that. Couple of Carolyns and couple of my match guns pushed 18 pounds or more...

You do sometimes get what you pay for, but the world of hte AR has come a long way since my first parts gun in the early 80s...

Two of my nephews both started hunting deer & hogs with an AR-15 when they were 11 or 12. Both were small for their age, and had no trouble handling and carrying an AR for hunting.
When they first started out, I only let them hunt with a 5 round mag, with a total of 3 rounds, only , and of course, an empty chamber, while walking.

One of them has a DPS Oracle, and the other has a S&W MP-15.
Both guns have been very reliable and shoot sub MOA 3- shot groups @ 100 yards. Both guns are Flattops and have Leupold scopes mounted.

Like others mentioned, I see no need for a Mill-spec AR for deer hunting.
IMO, based on price and usability, I would recommend, a flat top model in:
1. S&W MP-15
2. Ruger AR-15
3. Stag Arms AR-15
4. DPS Oracle AR-15.
5. Rock River builds a great AR-15, but they are quite a bit more expensive, for a beginners AR.

And unless you just want to spend the extra money, I see no need to buy a Colt, for hunting, unless you plan to sell it later on. The Colt AR will always hold it's value, better than the others.

For Factory Ammo for deer & hog hunting, the Winchester 64 grain Power Point ammo, and their new hog ammo both work great. If your going to Handload, a Barnes TTSX works very well on that sized game as well.

In the $500-$600 range they're all a crapshoot. We just got a shipment of replacement uppers from S&W because of how awful the first batch of rifles were.

I'd buy the cheapest name brand AR you can find. For what you wanna do it'll be fine.

I've had good luck with Federal's 62grain bonded load on hogs.

I would recommend Stag Arms. You can buy a lower and then pick the Upper you want and put it together with the push of two pins! Wallah your done.

How many uppers and replacements are we talking here? What was the specific problem?

About a dozen.

Rusted bores. Chambers so rough that they'd shave the brass and filings would get stuck under the extractor. Bores with burrs in them that would snag and rip patches.

Wow, thats bad.

Goes to show you can get bad chit from anyone these days.

Assumedly not the true custom guys that are 2-3 times the normal dollar cost. But I've even seen a front sight fall off a pretty big name gun.

For your purposes I would buy the first one you pick up at a gun store.

Don't be surprised if you hit what you aim at and the gun goes BANG and cycles every time you pull the trigger. Assuming there's ammo in the mag...



Travis

That is sad. I thought they either chromed or nitrided their bore? I got a bad Colt once, if you lit the barrel you could see where the drug the broach straight up the barrel without a twist about 2 inches below the muzzle. It was nicely chromed however.

These were CL barrels.

CL? CLE?

Chrome lined.

will keep that in mind regards smith and wesson! My MP10 had a nitrited barrel, it was a pretty good gun, not more than 1.5-2 inches for 3 shots but it was a functional weapon not overly heavy, I got smart and got me a DPMS Gen2 which lasted a month I think.

pride in ones work is a thing of the past in the USA.

sometimes pride of work is related to pay and instructions, or even both.

PSA kit........ $379
Anderson lower...... $40

$420 AR that 98% of most gun guys would be happy with