Crosshair
Member
Gonna give my thoughts.
Personally, there are many reasons that others have covered. I'm going to commit hearsay by suggesting this one: The 16" AR in 223 is a pretty mediocre HD gun in a couple areas. I'll toss out a couple.
PERSONAL OPINION ZONE!!! Worth exactly what you paid for it.
Noise and blast indoors. People handwave this objection in any number of ways. All of them are wrong. Needlessly crippling your ability to ever hear silence again is not something to just handwave away. Instead, it should be seriously considered.
Absent a suppressor, it's true that there's nothing hearing safe for HD. However, there is absolutely a diffrence in HOW MUCH your hearing will be damaged by each. A short 5.56 is pretty much the worst, among common HD options, for your hearing.
Even with ear and eye protection, these guns can be simply not fun to shoot in a partially or fully enclosed range. Let alone a house. The blast can make your head ring and eyes water, depending on how sensitive a person is. People have told me they don't like shooting centerfold rifles. In actuality, they had been given a 16" AR or AK with a flash hider and they didn't like the muzzle blast. Give them a plain muzzle 18" Mini-14, a PC-9, or even a 30-30 and they're having fun. Practice and proficiency are important.
So why give yourself permanent tinnitus to shoot a 300 yard cartridge in a 10 yard hallway when a 9mm PCC is going to be much less damaging to you and your families hearing and be just as effective? If you actually pull the trigger, you're gonna keep pulling it till they're on the floor or out the door. So nerding out over single round stop statistics is not the end-all some think it is. If it was, we'd still all be using 12 gauge for HD.
The AR charging handle. A great many "pro-gun but not gun nut" shooters work the AR charging handle like a monkey doing a math problem. Like it or not, many HD guns are kept condition 3 or 4. Side-charging designs are much more newbie friendly and just easier to operate in general.
There are others, but I think those two should spark enough discussion for now.
That's only relevant if we are defending ourselves with muzzleloaders or Thompson Encores. For everyone else, we can shoot the BG more than once. So terminal ballistics becomes just one of many factors to consider.Because they’re the same size as a rifle, but their terminal ballistics aren’t quite as good. Would be my guess.
No, the reason was logistics. Same reason why the military standardized on JP-8 for fuel.Same reason that they became less popular with military and police over the years. Rifle caliber carbines are the same size, are more effective and have fewer over penetration issues.
In my opinion, the diffrence is not enough to matter. The "Box of Truth" guys demonstrate that pretty well. Actually relying on it is as foolish as relying on the police to protect you. Both will significantly overpenitrate. Plan accordingly.The bolded has been disproved in testing.....with properly selected ammo.
Personally, there are many reasons that others have covered. I'm going to commit hearsay by suggesting this one: The 16" AR in 223 is a pretty mediocre HD gun in a couple areas. I'll toss out a couple.
PERSONAL OPINION ZONE!!! Worth exactly what you paid for it.
Noise and blast indoors. People handwave this objection in any number of ways. All of them are wrong. Needlessly crippling your ability to ever hear silence again is not something to just handwave away. Instead, it should be seriously considered.
Absent a suppressor, it's true that there's nothing hearing safe for HD. However, there is absolutely a diffrence in HOW MUCH your hearing will be damaged by each. A short 5.56 is pretty much the worst, among common HD options, for your hearing.
Even with ear and eye protection, these guns can be simply not fun to shoot in a partially or fully enclosed range. Let alone a house. The blast can make your head ring and eyes water, depending on how sensitive a person is. People have told me they don't like shooting centerfold rifles. In actuality, they had been given a 16" AR or AK with a flash hider and they didn't like the muzzle blast. Give them a plain muzzle 18" Mini-14, a PC-9, or even a 30-30 and they're having fun. Practice and proficiency are important.
So why give yourself permanent tinnitus to shoot a 300 yard cartridge in a 10 yard hallway when a 9mm PCC is going to be much less damaging to you and your families hearing and be just as effective? If you actually pull the trigger, you're gonna keep pulling it till they're on the floor or out the door. So nerding out over single round stop statistics is not the end-all some think it is. If it was, we'd still all be using 12 gauge for HD.
The AR charging handle. A great many "pro-gun but not gun nut" shooters work the AR charging handle like a monkey doing a math problem. Like it or not, many HD guns are kept condition 3 or 4. Side-charging designs are much more newbie friendly and just easier to operate in general.
There are others, but I think those two should spark enough discussion for now.
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