Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles anyone hunt with an AR?

64 grain Winchester SP over H335 powder has taken a number of deer and hogs for me. It's not particularly sexy or cutting edge, but it works. AR, AR180B, Ruger Mini-14, CVA single shot rifle. Same load, same results.

Those 64 Winchesters are a great bullet. The best non “premium” bullet out there. A lot of law enforcement agencies use them as well.

Great bullet for TX sized whitetails.

Loaded them for nearly all of my nephews & nieces first deer kill with my T/C Contender Carbine in .223.

I shot a little mule deer buck with my lightweight 16" ar last year. First shot behind the front shoulder through the lungs showed no response on impact so I put on higher through the shoulder blades and clipped the spine and it went right down.

The first one would have worked if I would have waited but it was running during both shots so I wasn't certain the first was good so I sent another. I used 60g partitions loaded to about 2825 iirc.


Years ago I used to load the 64g win pp for my little brother who insisted on using 223 for deer. It usually worked until one year he lost a big buck hit with one. Then he stepped up to bigger rounds.

Bb

Depends on the state. In Pennsylvania semi auto rifles are still illegal for deer hunting. I talked to 2 different wardens about using an ar platform with an adjustable gas key so you could shut off the gas floe and essentially create a bolt action. Which the first warden said they could still fine me for. I then found a gas key called a cali key that does that same thing as closing an adjustable key but it never opens. The second warden said either one would be fine. I didnt want my legality to be a grey area determined by what kind of day the warden was having. I would probably want something in the ar10 platform but you could have a 300 blackout on the ar15 platform that would have plenty of power for whitetail.

A good one though. I've found I like hands free yet still at hand so much, I've started to use them on many of my other hunting rifles as well.


(I hate and never use over the shoulder slings. I only keep one in my pack for use when dragging something out.)

64 gr pp bullets are the tits in a 22-250 that has enough twist in the barrel for them...mb

If wanting to stay with AR platform for deer- I say it depends. If the deer are northern corn belt deer, I wouldn’t want a 223 to take the buck of a lifetime. You might get away with 223 on smaller bodied deer.

Personally if limited to AR15 I would use 7.62x39, and keep shots under 150 yds. Ammo is available and it can be made to shoot reliably in the AR15. A hamr, grendel, Beowulf, legend, bushmaster, or socom would work too- but good luck finding ammo.

What I have used with great success is a Stag 10 308. It knocks down the big ones; up close and far away. I don’t like second guessing my choice when the animal I want is in front of me.

I don't see any difference in deer size vs how hard to kill.

The 5.56mm/.223 works fine on the biggest bodied mulies with good placement/good bullets just like how it works on 100lb does.

I think the 5.56mm is limited to about 300yds so it brings a significant limitation.

I've got one in .223 but, never hunted with it. I would like to work up a good handload for coyotes.

Not yet….but, the time is fast approaching! So far ….only for coyotes! memtb

AR-15 yes. 223/5.56, 6x6.8 SPC, 6.8 SPC. Deer, coyotes and ground hogs with all three.