[richard33]

Mostly big game hunters prefer centerfires like Ruger American Rifle, Winchester XPR renegade etc. Why AR 15 is not in big game hunting lists. Is there any Customization ideas out there for an AR 15 build to make it for big game hunting?

 

[BigEd]

6.5 Grendel, .450Bushmaster and .458 SOCOM are larger calibers more suited to big game if used within their respective ballistic range.

 

[boati]

it depends mostly upon your ability to get within 100m and get a solid brain hit. Then a 223 softpoint drops them like rocks.

 

[Terry G]

Your much better served with a larger caliber. You don't specify what "Big Game" your after, but since Whitetail Deer is the most common we'll start there. .223 can take Whitetails but it certainly is not an optimum choice. Shooting at the head/brain is a poor idea and will result in misses or wounded animals. Something in the .270 to .30 caliber is a better idea as ideally your going for a heart/lung shot which will result in a quick kill and will preclude you from chasing a wounded Deer across half the county. Deer are large and tough in the Northern states and require a heavier load than the .223 offers. I have shot a lot of Whitetail with a .30/06 and (once) with a 7MM Magnum. I've never had to chase one. The one Deer I shot with a .223 Remington soft point was retrieved after being followed for over a mile and then required a second shot. No more Deer hunting with a .223 for me!

 

[boati]

there's people who really CAN hunt (and shoot) and then there's people like the lops here. who are lucky to be able to hit a deer's vitals at 100m, if they cant shoot from the bipod.

 

[Terry G]

there's people who really CAN hunt (and shoot) and then there's people like the lops here. who are lucky to be able to hit a deer's vitals at 100m, if they cant shoot from the bipod.

When's the last time you shot a Deer Melvin? Like never? 100 yard brain shot is optimum with a AR-15 .223? You really don't know anything do you?

 

[Garand]

Back when I did a lot of deer hunting, my caliber of choice was .308 Winchester. It is one of the calibers of choice in the AR platform. At that time I did a lot of long range shooting regularly so I felt very confident with engaging a target at 500 yds.

I had a Remington M788 in .308 for 14 years, bought it in 1979, fantastic rifle. For a 5 year period i used to put a 1000 Canadian 7.62mm Ball through it each year. After 5 years it still gave groups of 1 1/4" at 100 yards.

I shot my bragging shot with a Remington M788 fitted with a Bushnel/Banner 4x scope fitted with a BDC. I was using Remington 150 grain Core Lokt. I was hunting on the prairies and only able to get within 450 yds. I got into the prone, snuggled up to the stock, dialed into 450 and gently squeezed. 6 pointer mulie buck, 1 shot, heart shot! He went straight down. I never started out hunting season unless I had fired a minimum of 200 rds in practice for that year.

If you have an opportunity , buy one, great guns

 

[BigEd]

Back when I did a lot of deer hunting, my caliber of choice was .308 Winchester. It is one of the calibers of choice in the AR platform. At that time I did a lot of long range shooting regularly so I felt very confident with engaging a target at 500 yds.

I had a Remington M788 in .308 for 14 years, bought it in 1979, fantastic rifle. For a 5 year period i used to put a 1000 Canadian 7.62mm Ball through it each year. After 5 years it still gave groups of 1 1/4" at 100 yards.

I shot my bragging shot with a Remington M788 fitted with a Bushnel/Banner 4x scope fitted with a BDC. I was using Remington 150 grain Core Lokt. I was hunting on the prairies and only able to get within 450 yds. I got into the prone, snuggled up to the stock, dialed into 450 and gently squeezed. 6 pointer mulie buck, 1 shot, heart shot! He went straight down. I never started out hunting season unless I had fired a minimum of 200 rds in practice for that year.

If you have an opportunity , buy one, great guns

I'd love to find one but all the reasonable priced ones around here look like they were dragged behind a tractor.
I currently have 3 Remington's a 1903A3 and two heavy barrel model 700's a .308Win and a .300Win Mag.

Still would love to happen upon a 788.

 

[Garand]

I'd love to find one but all the reasonable priced ones around here look like they were dragged behind a tractor.
I currently have 3 Remington's a 1903A3 and two heavy barrel model 700's a .308Win and a .300Win Mag.

Still would love to happen upon a 788.

I bought a beautiful 1919 Rock Island Arsenal 1903 with a burnt out barrel about 8 years ago. I had a horse shoe up my butt when I found 3 brand new 1903 barrels on the internet, bought them and rebarrelled mine. Once I got it finished I found out that BATF wouldn't let me bring it into the US for matches. It was considered to be "US Ordnance supplied to a foreign power".

 

[John in AR]

it depends mostly upon your ability to get within 100m and get a solid brain hit. Then a 223 softpoint drops them like rocks.

Getting "a solid brain hit" at only 100 yards sounds easy doesn't it, when we're sitting comfortably in climate-controlled living rooms tapping on our computer keyboards. Let's look at the real world application, and the tolerance-stacking that comes into play.

So we have a target that is on average 2.5” in size. It’s covered by bone from most directions. It’s mounted on a swivel base, on the end of a flexing lever (ie, neck) that sometimes stays still and sometimes moves erratically & without warning.

Good factory 223 softpoint ammo is capable of (usually) 1.5-2.5 MOA accuracy, but that’s when fired from a solid bench rest in a gun that’s built for accuracy rather than compactness. Say we use a really good load that runs 2MOA from your preferred SBR barrel length, which means 2.1” at 100 yards. Awesome. Got the ammo variable nailed down.

That leaves us with the following scenario: our target is roughly 2.5”, and our ammo — under ideal conditions, when fired from a perfectly stable, fixed shooting platform — is capable of 2.1” accuracy if it’s not affected by wind, tree branches, etc. So that leaves us less than a half-inch margin of error (in other words, less than a quarter inch in either direction) allowable on the shooter’s part. In field conditions, without benefit of a bench rest, on a sporadically moving bone-covered target, when we’re cold & hungry.

Never mind ~2.5” scope-over-bore considerations inherent in an AR; are we zeroed for 25/200, or 100, or what; and is the deer perfectly 100 yards away, and not 10-15% off of that in one direction or the other…?

And this is the recommended strategy to determine whether or not we eat? No thank you.

 

[BigBassMan]

The 10" AR with a homemade, falling apart can will never miss anything under 500 yds. Mel said it so must be true.:headbang: