Deer hunting round for AR

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Redfisher60

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What have any of you had a good experience with, or bad?
I want to bag a couple this year for the freezer and I have a 1 in 9 barrel with a red dot.

I want to neck shoot them.
 
I'm assuming you mean .223/5.56 since it's 1:9.

I'm also not a fan of neck shots to compensate for using a small or marginal round. The .223 can take deer, it just wouldn't be my first choice.

I think you can't go wrong with Federal Fusion 62gr, Remington Hog Hammer 62 gr, or Hornady GMX Superformance 55gr
 
I don't hunt deer or hogs with an AR but have shot them as targets of opportunity. 64 grain Winchester PowerPoints are very accurate in my 1:9 twist AR and do well on deer and hog.
 
My late departed good friend who was wheelchair bound loved to hunt deer. He used a Steyr .223 carbine that looked like a Star Trek rifle. On his wall were many Trophy Bucks, all neck shot. That carbine came with a fixed scope too.
He bagged many does for the freezer too.
I don't plan to take long shots at all where I'll hunt. I could never free hand steady enough to feel good about taking a neck shot with my ol' 270. With the AR I feel confident I can.
 
I'd pass on the neck shots. If you have to resort to a precision shot with a marginal caliber, IMHO you need to move up in caliber, maybe buy yourself a .450 Bushmaster upper or something.

When I got my M4, a political purchase, really, I loaded some rounds with 21 grains of 4198 and a 62 grain Barnes TSX. I took it out a couple of nights, but no hogs came around. I had a green spot light mounted to it.

I decided to scope my SKS again and put a green laser spotlight on it. I like the scope/rifle set up better and the caliber, 7.62x39. I've taken a couple of night pigs with an old spotlight on it, but I really like this new green laser. The mount clamps to the top of the scope and it has elevation and windage adjustment knobs as well as a spot diameter adjustment to allow me to perfectly collimate the light to the scope. Nice set up. :D

I'd use that Barnes handload if I wanted to use the AR/M4, but I'm not that stuck on tacticool hunting for deer. My .308 ain't broke. :D
 
Redfisher60 said:
My late departed good friend who was wheelchair bound loved to hunt deer. He used a Steyr .223 carbine that looked like a Star Trek rifle. On his wall were many Trophy Bucks, all neck shot. That carbine came with a fixed scope too.
He bagged many does for the freezer too.
I don't plan to take long shots at all where I'll hunt. I could never free hand steady enough to feel good about taking a neck shot with my ol' 270. With the AR I feel confident I can.
Click to expand...
That's counterintuitive.
 
The last 3 deer I killed were with 75 grain Hornady BTHP. I saw what this round does to people, so I tried it on deer. 2 DRT, 1 ran 50 yards and laid down for the last time. All classic broadside shots. People keep telling me this round (and sometimes this caliber) are unsuitable for deer, but they keep falling down dead and ending up in my freezer. 2 were killed by a Mossberg MVP, one by an AR- both 1:9. The round is 1 MOA or better through either rifle.
 
Put any 60 gr or heavier soft point bullet in the lungs = dead deer. If you want to use solid copper bullets such as Barnes, any weight.
 
I was totally against using the .223 cartridge on deer for years. Pretty much felt the same way about hogs.

I've changed my mind. I've seen it work too many times. If you believe shot placement is king, I do, then the .223 makes sense. Since recoil is so light I believe it enhances the ability to put a bullet in the vitals. I hunt hogs with a 30-30, coyotes with a .243 during the day, .223(AR) at night for coyotes. I hunt deer with a 6.5x55 mostly and occasionally with a .270. As stated in a previous post I've taken deer and hog with a .223 when I wasn't specifically hunting them, with good results. I've taken more Axis with a .223 than with my deer rifles because where I hunt you only see them at night.

I'm not a proponent of neck shots either unless you are a really good shot. I'm also with entropy, if you can't steady a .270 why do you think you can do it with an AR?
 
The hold is different than with the wood stocked .270 on an AR for me. It seems lighter. On another forum GON there are a lot of Ga hunters that use .223 and kill deer quickly. The deer around here aren't huge.
 
Another vote for a 62 grain or higher weight bullet, and a lung shot with that .223. I'd avoid the neck shot simply because of the mobility of that part of the animal, and it's not necessary to whack the spine with the .223 for it to be effective. My Mossberg Predator bolt action in .223 takes deer just fine, broadside.

LD
 
A 223 with a good bullet and some common sense behind the trigger will be fine for deer.
A shot in the spine/neck will drop a deer in it's tracks but it's a small target surrounded with a lot of meat. A broadside heart/lung shot with any well constructed bullet will fill your freezer. Instead of shooting "freehand" use a tree for a rest or carry a shooting stick.

Every year I hear stories about how hard it was kill a particular deer, usually when shot with a 12 gauge slug.
At the root of the story, without fail, is a deer shot in the butt.
 
Before the AR's, a .22 centerfire bullet was never considered adequate for deer. Not by hunters, not by writers. There were soft tipped bullets back then, too. So what changed, just the popularity of the platform it's shot from suddenly makes it OK?

Shooting a large game animal like a deer with a round that's acknowledged to be barely adequate, and only under certain circumstances, is not OK to me. I'm sure some poacher in Africa has killed an elephant with an AR, that doesn't make it an elephant gun.
 
Bullet makers' R&D changed the .22 cartridges from purely varmint-oriented use to now work well on larger animals. Still some limitations, of course, but the .223 is known to be effective on Bambi with the proper load.

As for neck shots? The majority of my kills over a thirty-year period were neck shots. Bang/whop/plop means I didn't have to go searching, after the shot.
 
Speedo66 said:
Before the AR's, a .22 centerfire bullet was never considered adequate for deer. Not by hunters, not by writers. There were soft tipped bullets back then, too. So what changed, just the popularity of the platform it's shot from suddenly makes it OK?

Shooting a large game animal like a deer with a round that's acknowledged to be barely adequate, and only under certain circumstances, is not OK to me. I'm sure some poacher in Africa has killed an elephant with an AR, that doesn't make it an elephant gun.
Click to expand...

All one needs to do is look at ballistics gel shot with a .22 centerfire. It's not the bullet that typically does the killing in almost every instance. It's the cavitation. The cavitation is so violent that it tears flesh and severs spinal cords. Your spinal cord is so delicate that it doesn't require much force at all to render the body of said spinal cord immobile.
 
I do think the platform made the .223 popular. You get this great tacticool rifle, then you have to find a use for it. :rofl: I fell prey to this, but I got over it. I just like to shoot the thing and, hey, the ammo is as cheap as my .22 magnum and I can RELOAD the brass. :D Hunting ain't the only reason to own a rifle, but I'll admit, it's always been my primary reason.
 
Redfisher60 said:
What have any of you had a good experience with, or bad?
I want to bag a couple this year for the freezer and I have a 1 in 9 barrel with a red dot.

I want to neck shoot them.
Click to expand...
i too am not a fan of .223 for deer, but im from the western states, and mule deer tend to be a further distances...from a blind, feed or stand would work. that being said i +1 the federal fusion msr or regular. the eld match work very similar to the amax as well. ive done some ballistic testing at 400y. the 73gr eld-m probably had the best results...the at 300y the 62gr fusion had similar results...with an 18in barrel. barrel length will matter and actual velocities will matter considerably. That is kind of the problem, only certain set ups with certain ammo, going at certain velocities will work for deer....at certain ranges. Shot placement would be the next thing. There is no margin for gut shots or what have you, you may very well lose that animal, and it will probably die a lengthy death. So i can see peoples weariness on the topic. In the UK, they supposedly support the idea of headshots at close range on roe deer. there are issues with that as well. It all comes down to shot placement, right set up, right ammo, either way.
 
MCgunner said:
I do think the platform made the .223 popular.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I think that my M4 with a red dot is the perfect setup for woods hunting. Light, compact (with the folding stock it gets really small), and accurate. If you don't think .223 is adequate, there are 6.5, 6.8, and bigger variations. A low power scope would be a good addition as well.
 
Laphroaig said:
Agreed. I think that my M4 with a red dot is the perfect setup for woods hunting. Light, compact (with the folding stock it gets really small), and accurate. If you don't think .223 is adequate, there are 6.5, 6.8, and bigger variations. A low power scope would be a good addition as well.
Click to expand...
Yes I will be in the thick woods, maybe 40 yd shots.
 
Speedo66 said:
Before the AR's, a .22 centerfire bullet was never considered adequate for deer. Not by hunters, not by writers. There were soft tipped bullets back then, too. So what changed, just the popularity of the platform it's shot from suddenly makes it OK?

Shooting a large game animal like a deer with a round that's acknowledged to be barely adequate, and only under certain circumstances, is not OK to me. I'm sure some poacher in Africa has killed an elephant with an AR, that doesn't make it an elephant gun.
Click to expand...
I can't answer why hunters and shooters said that, I wasn't part of the conversation. But I've heard it too. Also that its not adequate for people. However, I have seen it work on deer and people many times- and "adequate" isn't the word I would use for what happened. I'm thinking outstanding. Maybe these writers and hunters were just repeating what someone else said- like if you hear something enough times it becomes true? For some people, rounds like 30-06, 270, etc. aren't adequate because they couldn't hit the side of a barn if they were in the barn. As for me, the 3 deer and myriad hogs I have killed with the 223 couldn't tell the difference. So I have gotten the same-or better- results from the "inadequate" 223 as I have with "ideal" rounds like 30-30, 243, 7.62 x 39, and 308.
 
6.8 SPC shooting the Federal Fusion 115 grain bullets. That would be my choice for a common caliber and common ammo.

For the "exotic" and if you're a handloader get yourself a 7mm Valkyrie from MDWS. Gives 7-08 performance in the AR-15 package.
 
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