Hunting with an AR

[Iwant1]

This is the important part of his post. I doesn't matter whether I or he or she or they use a bolt or a semi-auto or whatever as long as they are accurate and HAVE FUN

I want to thank you guys for your attitudes about this thread. I just hope this acceptance can be propagated. I guess we're the best ones for the job. So, when you hear someone spouting off at the mouth about "assault rifles" or them being used to hunt, throw down and change things. Thanks

 

[surjimmy]

ez bake... you might check out a Tikka T3 for a sub $2000 hunting bolt action rifle with supreme accuracy. My 300wsm was under $500 NIB. IMHO I just don't like the 223 round, I think it's too small for deer but that's just me. Before I get blasted for small bore bashing I shot my deer this year with a 243, I also hunt with a 270.

 

[THE JOKER]

First off - I've yet to see a factory hunting rifle that had better accuracy than any decent AR until you get into well higher prices that are equiv or more than an AR.

And an AR-10 will carry more rounds than a typical "hunting rifle" and do it with the same level of accuracy as long as there's a decent barrel on it.

I would love to see an example of a scoped 7lb bolt-action hunting rifle that has supreme accuracy for less than $2000.

You must have some bad luck with bolts. I have the cheapest ADL 700 that shoots 1/2 MOA with the cheapest hunting ammo.My pricey 700 shoots 3/4 -1 MOA two friends 700's shoot the same using core-lokt or Federal classic who knows what they would do with decent ammo.

 

[dennishoddy]

My brother just bought the S&W .223 and no one will let him hunt with it because its an "assault rifle" and is used in the military. They think he's just going to go rambo on their land.

What a joke!

Every bolt action rifle in use today is a derivative of a battle rifle starting with the 303 british, the 8mm mouser, the 30-40 krag, the 06 springfield, and I could go on forevcer.
The black powder rifle came as a result of battle field improvments from match lock rifle, that begat flint locks, that begat percussion guns, and then god forbid the rolling block! All Battle rifles!
The 742 Rem that is legendary along the east coast for driven deer hunt shares the same action as the AR series of guns. One is an assualt gun, and the other is a revered sporting gun???

Here is my take on it:

Here is a deer I took a few days ago with a 73 year old Japanese Arisaka rebarreled into a .300 savage. Tell me that is not an "assault weapon"??

 

[WhiteyMacD]

What a joke!

Every bolt action rifle in use today is a derivative of a battle rifle starting with the 303 british, the 8mm mouser, the 30-40 krag, the 06 springfield, and I could go on forevcer.
The black powder rifle came as a result of battle field improvments from match lock rifle, that begat flint locks, that begat percussion guns, and then god forbid the rolling block! All Battle rifles!
The 742 Rem that is legendary along the east coast for driven deer hunt shares the same action as the AR series of guns. One is an assualt gun, and the other is a revered sporting gun???

Here is my take on it:

Here is a deer I took a few days ago with a 73 year old Japanese Arisaka rebarreled into a .300 savage. Tell me that is not an "assault weapon"??

DH, I like yer style.

 

[ignerntbend]

The Arisaka isn't an assault rifle.

It's the even more evil sniper rifle.

 

[weav199]

I thought I would go for the semi auto for hunting, I liked the idea of light weight and a semi auto. At my gs, I compared the .308 AR against a bolt .308, and was disappointed that I couldn't tell the difference of weight. The AR did have a quad rail on it, that only counts for a few ounces. Blew my theory out of the water.

 

[ez bake]

You must have some bad luck with bolts. I have the cheapest ADL 700 that shoots 1/2 MOA with the cheapest hunting ammo.My pricey 700 shoots 3/4 -1 MOA two friends 700's shoot the same using core-lokt or Federal classic who knows what they would do with decent ammo.

Not at all - I'm just saying that I've yet to see a decent-quality AR that had less accuracy than that. I've never seen a 7Lb scoped rifle that had "superior accuracy" to an AR that didn't cost an arm and a leg due to Titanium action/bolt, special barrel, etc...

ez bake... you might check out a Tikka T3 for a sub $2000 hunting bolt action rifle with supreme accuracy.

Again, not dogging anybody's rifles or saying that you can't achieve very nice accuracy with a bolt-gun - I believe totally the opposite and understand that all bolt-actions that have the same level of quality in the barrel/bolt/action as a semi-auto will be more accurate due to the lack of a need to use excess gas to cycle the bolt.

Love the Tikka T3 Lite - but its no more accurate than an AR-15 of decent manufacturing quality (Noveske, Saber Defense, Hell, I've heard stories that Daniel Defense's $169 barrel will give you 1/2 MOA accuracy).

The difference is that even the T3 Lite weighs over 6Lbs (and that's not including the Base, rings, scope, sling, or any other accessories) and it only holds 6rds max (I think - there might be a model/caliber that holds like 7?), and is still more cumbersome to carry around than a carbine.

Yes there are a lot of reasons to use a bolt-action over an AR in some instances, but I can think of almost as many reasons to take an AR out instead and Mag cap (and ability to quickly shoot again and quickly reload are some of those reasons).

I'd say that until you get into a much heavier rifle (or much more expensive due to exotic materials), the accuracy of any bolt-action weighing only as much as a lightweight M4gery is only going to be marginal at best (especially when hunting anything like a deer at Oklahoma Distances).

As for the 150gr ability - well, I'd say that 150gr isn't the only way to go (presuming this is a .30 caliber stab at why a .223 isn't adequate enough for deer) and I appreciate everyone's opinion on the matter, but like SurJimmy stated, this is purely up to individual opinion as long as no one's taking bad shots and only wounding deer (something I've seen done with much larger calibers - I'm convinced that caliber is much less important than shot-placement and patience when hunting), and also - deer aren't the only things to hunt in OK.

I'm not for taking lasers, lights, or anything else that's specifically designed for non-hunting purposes (or more specifically, against the ODWC rules) out on the trail with me, but I don't have any qualms about taking a "evil looking" rifle out into the field and not feeling a bit bad because people are sitting around asking "why do you need to use that?".

I'm probably being over-sensitive to the "assault weapon" crap that has been spewed out by the biased media for years but I honestly just I find it incredible that on a gun-message board I'd hear things like "why do you need that gun" - that's a very good way to loose all our guns.

And I want to point out that I'm not picking on MoBoost - I totally understand the need to provoke some creative thinking every now and then and since he understands that "just because I want to" is an acceptable answer, I completely respect his opinion on the matter.

I'm just quick to defend my semi-auto sporting rifles when they're called nasty names

(I'm also pumped full of sinus medicine right now and am probably typing in an almost incoherent state - I'm off to bed to try and sleep this allergy crap off)

 

[Stephen Cue]

DH, I like yer style.

Ditto!

 

[Cue]

I think people need to start hunting with an AK. If everyone hunts with the rifle used by the devil himself, there would be less complaining about ar15s.