Why hunt with an AR? There’s a cartridge for every centerfire situation

The easy answer to the perennial question “why would you hunt with an AR rifle?” is the same as the answer to “why would you hunt with a lever action rifle?”

“Because I want to!”

If it’s legal in the jurisdiction where you hunt and for the game you hunt, go ahead. Handicap yourself with an AR-style rifle. Wait. What? Handicap?

Yes. An AR makes hunting more difficult than it has to be. In my opinion. And you know what they say about opinions…

Now that I have your attention, if not your ire, let me explain. An AR-style rifle is functionally no different than the auto-loading hunting rifles that have been on the market since the early 1900s – Winchester’s M1905, Remington’s Model 8, the Winchester M-100 in 1960, Browning’s High Power of 1967…

The mechanisms are slightly different, but they all “self-load” from the magazine using energy, whether inertia or gas, from the previous cartridge fired. The shooter then pulls the trigger for the next shot. Quick. With minimal disturbance to the rifle other than recoil.

The advantage this provides is questionable. Faster follow-up shots? Sure, but this reinforces the wrong mindset for a hunter. Are you assuming you’ll miss first? Or does an autoloader falsely inspire sloppy shooting? “Don’t worry, I have plenty of backup shots!”

Of course one can overcome that and train to be a deadly first shot hunter with an autoloader, but it takes a bit more effort. And once you have trained to make the first shot count, fast follow-ups and large capacity magazines matter little or not at all, so why drag them around?

So we are back to our original question. And the answer remains: Because you want to.

MORE FIREARMS COVERAGE FROM OUTDOOR NEWS:

Dan Ladd: Is another ammo shortage on the horizon?

How to make your AR pistol New York Safe Act compliant

Take proper care when mounting your scope

Many hunters, especially those who trained with an AR-style rifle in the military, feel comfortable with that platform. Others simply like the look and feel of one. That being the case, what should you look for in a hunting AR?

First, an adequate cartridge. The short action length of an AR-15 limits you to a .223 Remington-length cartridge. This minimizes potential power, keeping cartridges in the mid-range/mid power category.

The popular 6.5 Grendel, for instance, spits a 120-grain bullet about 2,500 fps for 1,666 foot-pounds of muzzle energy that drops to 1,000 f-p by 350 yards. Effective point blank range for a 6-inch target is about 260 yards.

Move up to the slightly longer .260 Remington in a short-action AR-10 and and you’ll add 500 fps to that same bullet! You’ll have much longer reach. But if shots are never longer than 100, perhaps 150 yards where you hunt, why bother with a .260 Remington?

My point is that you should choose your rifle platform after you’ve chosen your cartridge – or at least consider them simultaneously.

Additional suitable AR-15 cartridges include 6mm ARC, 6.8 SPC, 7.62x39mm, and several 22 centerfires like .223 Rem., 224 Valkyrie, and .22 Nosler. The .30 Remington AR of 2008 was a superb option, but poorly marketed and now obscure if not obsolete.

If you are limited to straight-wall cartridges, where you hunt, the .350 Legend, 400 Legend, and .450 Buckmaster are top picks. The less common .458 SOCOM is a smidge more powerful, but bottlenecked.

Going subsonic is another option, and the top dog here is the .300 Blackout with the newer 8.6mm Blackout (using a .338-inch bullet) offering more power. The little .300 Blackout throws a 165-grain bullet 1,850 fps, which sounds pathetic compared to a 308 Win. at 2,700 fps, but it’s faster and more powerful than a .30-30 after about 100 yards thanks to the higher B.C. bullets in the Blackout.

Of course, a MV of more than about 1,100 fps is super-sonic. To go sub-sonic, you want .300 Blackout rounds topped with 190- to 220-grain bullets powered down. They kill via momentum, the bullet mass driving them deep to cause hemorrhaging.

The 8.6 blackout does the same with bullets 285 grains to 340 grains flying under the sound barrier. The idea with both of these is to add a silencer to your rifle. The combination keeps muzzle blast down to decibel levels that will not damage your hearing. Some say this also confuses game so that it doesn’t necessarily bolt after your first shot.

Move up in action size to an AR-10 and you have many options around the common .308 Winchester length including 243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor, 260 Rem., 7mm-08 Rem., 338 Federal, 358 Winchester, and of course the 308 itself. Each of these will stretch effective range to 300 yards.

Another feather in the cap of the ARs is the ability to change chamberings relatively inexpensively. Just by a new upper (barrel) and you can switch from, say, a .243 Win. to a .358 Win., or a .223 Rem., to a .458 Bushmaster. That’s versatility!

With that kind of firepower acknowledged, why do I consider the AR-style rifles a deer hunting handicap? Partly it’s my old Fudd grounding. I grew up with and recognize the balance and smooth handling of traditional lever- and bolt-actions.

But mostly my opinion is based on pragmatism. Most of the features and attributes that make an AR effective in battle and altercations don’t matter for game hunting. Here’s a partial list you might want to consider.

A pistol grip is not as smooth and fast as a traditional straight grip or open-curved semi-pistol grip. It can help with lateral stability.

A high capacity magazine isn’t needed (or even legal in some states) and can get in the way when shooting prone.

The slotted hand guards on most ARs often catch in brush and limbs. They aren’t needed for attaching co-witness sights, flashlights, etc.

Chambering a round quietly in an AR is challenging at best compared to a bolt action, pump, or single shot. For safety reasons I hike and still hunt most of the time with an empty chamber. When I spot a buck I want to shoot, I can almost silently jack in a round with my bolt actions or single shots. Not quite as quiet or easy with an AR.

Am I nitpicking? Probably. But that’s OK. Most hunters love their chosen rifles for what are often nitpicking reasons. And that is one of those small but wonderful things about the USA. Freedom!

Freedom, to a large degree, to choose to hunt with a magnum rifle with high power scope, standard rifle with low-power scope, lever-action rifle with open sights, single-shot rifle, caplock muzzleloader, flintlock muzzleloader, handgun, crossbow, compound bow, recurve bow, long bow, or AR!

The final thing you might want to consider before buying that AR hunting rifle is legality state to state and country to country. If you hope to some day hunt in a state that doesn’t allow such rifles, you’ll be out of luck.

If you dream of sheep or caribou in Canada, they won’t let your AR accompany you. Africa, New Zealand, Argentina… Many, if not most, political jurisdictions do not allow autoloaders for hunting.