Rifle Dilemma

[GreyShirts]

I'm currently in the process of building a bolt rifle in .308, with the single purpose of hunting. I have everything but the scope and stock(which is on order at manners). I'm considering selling everything except the stock and saving it for future build. I would like to get an AR in the 12.5-16 inch barrel range. I would use the AR for work(police), hunting(coyotes, whitetail deer, and hogs). My only real option for calibre is .223/5.56, because thats all our department authorizes. What I would like to know is...have any of you ever hunted deer with this similar setup. All I have ever hunted with is .308, but I know a .223 will stop a deer dead. What velocities are you getting out of the shorter barrels, and what are the twist rates. If I go with the AR option my max range will be 300 plus or minus 50-100yrds determined by conditions. If I stay with my single purpose bolt action I can reach 1k at our farm shooting steel, but 500yrd max for hunting(my personal limit). Just looking for some of you that have hopefully tried this route on an AR platform. My price range is $1500-$2500.

I also posted this in the hunting/fishing section, but no one spoke up....so here it is in the semi-auto arena.

 

[DP425]

Re: Rifle Dilemma

I think you may see that most hunting ammunition/bullet manufactures recommend a minimum velocity at which their bullets perform correctly--- and I imagine it is around 300 yards. I don't have any experience with SBR's (other than issued M4 @ 14.5"), but I wouldn't be surprised if the velocity loss knocked 50 yards off your range for minimum velocity. Also have to consider energy at the minimum velocity may be lower than ideal.

I would look into the load you would like to use for deer and what either the ammunition or bullet manufacture recommends for min velocity, or max range.

For example- using the Federal load recommendation, they offer a short range for standard deer (0-100yd) (we will skip this) and a medium range (100-200yd) (two different loads). It doesn't appear that barnes advertises their minimum impact velocity. So the TSX load we'll skip. The other load however is Nosler Partition @ 60gr; Nosler does give a minimum velocity; 1800fps. Their ballistic data on the Fed web site looks like their load w the 60gr Nosler will drop below 1800FPS around 320yd. That is 500Ft/Lb of energy- about the same as a one of the highest .40 S&W loads at the muzzle. Some say you need at least 1000ft/lb (I say they are idiots)... You make your own call.

Now, keeping in mind the energy you feel safe at and the minimum velocity... if you can find what the "typical" velocity difference is between a 20" and 12.5" barrel for a similar weight bullet, you can approximate at what point you drop below your "safe" threshold using their data- won't be super accurate but would give you a realistic idea of if the trade-off is worth the shorter barrel. Could also just plug data into a ballistic app. Only looking for approx. practical range on deer right?

That all might have been way too much for a simple question- I don't know. I can't believe however that the velocity will be so much lower that deer within 200-220yd would be expecting too much from an SBR AR.



Oh and I personally use a 16" AR for my "walking gun" on deer hunting- I run the 62gr TAP LE Barrier round as Hornady has gel photo's for rifle and pistol loads on their web page and it seemed to give the best combination of wound cavity and penetration. Plus I can get as much as I want at the LE supply store about 5-7 minutes from the house- no hunting down a specialty deer load just to get raped at over $1 a round. However, have never taken deer w .223 so I can't tell you how it performs in the field.

 

[GreyShirts]

Re: Rifle Dilemma

Thanks for the info. Anyone else????