Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles learning curve on ARs

Well, son and I built my first AR in May, but I went to China a couple of weeks and when I got back, he went. So, it's been a slow go on getting everything all together.

Things I learned (some reflect on my ignorance/oversight/stupidity):
1. torque wrenches/drivers are good when putting on scope mounts.for the first time ever in putting on a mount, I overtightened it and ruined a base. So, I bought a torque driver.

2. I mounted the base with one part on the frame and the other on the handguard originally. I know, dumb. I wasn't paying attention. but it cost me nothing, and as soon as I realized what I had done, I fixed that.

3. I bought an 18in SS 223wylde with a 1:7 rifling. After a few trips to the range, I was exasperated in that at 60 yards my pattern was like 6 inches. thinking I had a bad barrel or the barrel nut is loose. What did I learn?
a. Bulk ammo sucks. it shoots awful in my rifle. I then began using some better ammmo in same weight and it got much better but not good enough. about a 2-3 in group at 60.
b. Heavier bullets are better for a 1:7 twist. Slightly heavier bullets helped. group narrowed to 1.5 inches at 60. I am purchasing some 70 and 77 grain bullets prior to going back to the range.

I am mostly wanting a hog bullet. the 62 gr hog hammers were ok for 50-60 yards, but aren't accurate in my rifle.
So, I ordered:
1. Barnes Vor-tx in 70 grain.
2. Black Hills 77 Grain Sierra MatchKing Hollow Point Moly

I will see next week which ones work best.
I assume either of these ought to be fine hog bullets????
New to hog hunting also. Will be going mid-July to a friend's place.

My range day yesterday was frustrating, but I was/am ignorant when it comes to ARs. Hadn't shot them since I was in the army national guard 30 years ago.
But, fortunately, I took along my Savage 22. It put 20 shots in a dot assuring me the AR accuracy wasn't from my poor shooting ability. Still, though, frustrated that I supposedly bought such a good barrel that shot awful. But, I think I;ve figured all that out and will be even better with the new bullets.

A few of the bullets I would tend towards would be the Nosler 60 grain Partition or 64 grain bonded, and any Barnes that will shoot well in your rifle. The Barnes 62 grain would be a focus for me, with your 1:7 twist and the 70 grains should also shoot good, but can be limiting for powders. It appears you are a handloader, though that is not stated. Trying different powders will make big differences in groups. An obvious statement but one worth stating. Many of the tactical bullets will have heavy jackets that limit expansion and some match bullets may expand too much. A little research into bullet construction and profile is required rather than assuming based on grain weight.

6.5 twist shot down to 52 bthp matchkings just fine for us for years.

That said, I don't use light bullets... 68/69 typically are the lightest cup and core... TSX type bullets I"ll drop back to 55ish if I can't find 62s...

77bthp matchkings and 75 bthp hornady have never failed to kill anything I've shot at. But be aware they are not a hunting bullet, fwiw. And I"m what I like to think of as above average at trailing... plus have a dog now that takes all the fun out of looking for deer, other than seeing how happy he is and making shorter work of finding dead/wounded ones...

Hey guys. I'm not a reloader.
I know hunting bullets for deer size up.
Know nothing about these AR bullets for hunting.
I could not find TSX bullets in a higher weight, so looked at the 2 choices I mentioned.
I saw they were hollowpoint and assumed they'd do fine.
I'm a good trail person, but would rather see it pour blood like from a bucket or be DRT.
Am I wrong in those 2 choices?

if you want bigger holes, you have to go to a softer bullet IMHO.

63 sierras always did ok. 55 soft points made even bigger holes.

But as always you trade off...less penetration.

If I wanted closer to DRT, I'd be buying the best of both worlds with a 50-55 TTSX bullet and drive it hard and be picky about bullet placement.

I have a 1:7 twist 18 in barrel and it just isn't shooting lower weight bullets well. Tried good quality 62gr bullets and could not get it to tighten up.

Shot the 2 different bullets today that I had mentioned.
1. Barnes Vor-tx 70grain. It shot well. Much more accurate than anything I tried in lower weight.

2. Black Hills Ammunition 223 Remington 77 Grain Sierra MatchKing Hollow Point.
These shot very well. I am very happy with them.

I suppose I will try the Black Hills on the first hunt. I am actually taking someone that's never hunted before. He is going to use my 7-08 and I will just back him up with the AR. Hoping we will have 2 hogs and shoot at the same time.

weird crap, I got cheap Colt barrels that will shoot about an inch or two at 100 yards, with cheap crap ammo like 3-4 inches for 10 rounds. Something be wrong somewhere, maybe scope. Yep maybe your scope, a barrel like you have is either a bad barrel or a good barrel, or more likely your scope is trashed.

What lower weight bullets are you trying?

Take off the muzzle device and shoot it. If you still have problems check the crown. If it shoots without the muzzle device it was on too tight. If using shims find the right combination to just get it snug and timed correctly. If using a crush washer you'll need a new one, but same thing, just snug and timed correctly. I work for an AR 15 pattern rifle manufacturer, and it's usually these two things. You can get a bad barrel though, usually flared slightly over bore/land diameter at the muzzle. Anything over 0.005 inches will start affecting group size.