Hunting with the AR-15 is achievable without much effort. I've been doing research over the last few years and I've come up with a few things that someone should be cognizant of. I am confident in telling you that short action and similar cartridges such as .308 Winchester or 6.5 Creedmoor are much easier to select a working combination. I would argue that you'd have to be trying to get the selection wrong and even if you did, you'll still likely get a kill. It just won't be pretty. I had plenty of stories from people with .308 Winchester and .30-30 rifles talk about poor experiences with those cartridges. When I hear those stories, the first question I think of is "what ammo did you use?"
Let's look at the things I'd like you to consider before taking an AR-15 out to hunt deer.
First is bullet selection is hugely important. I know many people have been successful in using .223 Remington for taking whitetail. I won't argue that but the .223 Rem case capacity in combination with the bullet diameter limits you in two factors that either larger bullet diameters or larger case capacities help solve.
Materials selection such as copper are proving to be great at holding together under impact. The correct design would be needed depending on the velocities expected but I hazard a guess that proper engineering, i.e. adding and removing material from certain locations, helps make these bullets work great.
Bonded soft points seem to help correct issues with JSPs. I assume that the copper jacket helps to support the lead core as it mushrooms out staying together. That would be like Federal's Fusion or Speer's Gold Dot line of rifle caliber JSPs. I'm pretty sure they are the same bullet.
So far, the two best factory loadings I can find that keeps to the confines of using .223 Rem or 5.56 NATO are the Barnes VOR-TX TSX based factory loadings and Hornady's Black HD SBR. The Barnes loads are the only loads that I am aware of that expands acceptably and will penetrate deeply similar to a short action cartridge. The Hornady is the only jacketed soft point that I am currently aware of that would come close to those Barnes loads. The Hornady isn't a bonded bullet but does have a mechanical connection. Most of the loadings I'm seeing using jacketed soft points will mushroom nicely but won't penetrate nearly as deep as I'd prefer. I'm looking for at least 18 inches in ballistic gel. There just isn't enough velocity or mass combined for most current JSPs to push deep. I'm not saying they won't kill the whitetail you're hunting. What I am saying is that you will need to focus on broadside and frontal shots to mitigate penetration needs. You're probably doing that already. Just don't pull a Robert Ruark and shoot a tough animal up the back end and wonder why your .220 Swift didn't work. There's a lot more to that story by the way.
I personally chose the Barnes for use as a general purpose cartridge as it can take whitetail but also works for defensive applications if needed.
Consider that if you are using .223 Rem with most factory HP or JSP loads, you might not get a pass through depending on the shot taken. If you prefer a double lung pass through and can't be choosey about your bullet selection then I would recommend you go for either a larger diameter bullet such as .300 Blackout. 20 inches worth of penetration in ballistics gel is a good metric for larger game than most East Coast whitetail by my guess. I've never hunted mule deer or larger. I can say that my .357 Magnum rifle with Remington HTPs penetrates to around 18 inches in gelatin and I got a pass through on the freezer-grade doe I got at the start of the 2023 season. That shot was around 80 yards. I can't confirm how it would work on a big Ohio buck or a Western Muley. I would like to fix that one of these days.
All the above is assuming that you are focusing on a more traditional wounding method. That is to say, large wound channel that penetrates deeply. The other school of thought is the varmint style bullet that, on impact, fragments into numerous smaller pieces that creates numerous tracts that penetrate into the lung cavity. .243 Winchester and .220 Swift are great examples of popular cartridges that perform or can perform this way that historically have taken whitetail. I still need to spend more time researching this school of thought more in-depth but there appears to be merit based on anecdotal data from other hunters. .223 Remington works well within this school of thought. I have seen much from Hornady that plays well here. I don't have much to say on this as I haven't done enough research or field work to be confident but I suspect this area is where deer hunting with .223 Remington is being done the most.
An aside in this section is bullet weight. Just because a bullet did well in one weight doesn't mean the same bullet in the heavier or lighter weight will do just as well or same.
My second consideration is chambering selection. You can use .223 Remington and as I attempted to highlight above, the parameters of the .223 Remington cartridge can do the job with careful consideration and research of the bullet being used. What I'm learning is that instead of relying entirely on using the standard .223 REM, you can change over to .300 Blackout or similar cartridge for more factory options. I was able to take a doe using a subsonic .300 Blackout in 2022. I have some SIG 120 gr copper hollow points that I haven't field proven yet but used the same methodology to select as I did the Barnes. So far, that's proving to have been a stellar choice based on the final steps of validation work. In fact, the only thing left to do with the Barnes is shoot a deer. Same with the SIG 120 grain.
Alternatively, 350 Legend is proving to be effective in field from testing by other hunters but gel testing is showing that many of the loadings, even the cheaper ones like the Winchester 180 gr Power Point, are quite capable. I would recommend watching Lee Mason's gel testing videos for the .300 Blackout, 350 Legend and even the .223 Remington loads. He proves much of what I'm trying to articulate here but in a visual representation.
The two cartridges I mentioned in addition to the .223 Remington have larger diameter bullets. Larger diameter bullets mean you have less distance to expand to before you start reaching somewhat of a minimum diameter. They also mean heavier. I personally look for, at least, expansion to .40 cal from any given initial diameter but prefer anything above .45 caliber. If your bullet can expand to somewhere close to .50 caliber and penetrate to at least 18 inches in gelatin, then I would call that a winner. The Barnes loads will do around .45 to .47 caliber after expansion in gel which is why I give it the winner spot. The Remington HTP 158 gr .357 Magnum SJHP bullets do that as well.
If one wishes to hunt larger animals or wants a larger bullet diameter in general, the cartridges such as .450 Bushmaster, the Legend series, .350 and .400, the SOCOM series, .375 and .458, or even the .50 Beowulf can offer a much larger diameter bullet design. That could give you access to much larger animals, though likely at shorter ranges. That will be for you to figure out.
Finally, I would like you to consider barrel length. Many AR-15 rifles have shorter barrels and pistols definitely. Be considerate of your selections and the intended barrel length. A cartridge may have tested very well from a 16 inch or 18 in barrel but if you are using a 14.5 in barrel with a pin and weld or a 10.5 inch pistol, you may find that your bullets just aren't penetrating or expanding as desired due to reduced velocity. For example, in Tools&Target's video on the Hornady Black SBR 75 gr, the expansion and penetration from the 10.5 in barrel aren't great but the 16 inch barrel did very well in my opinion. In another example, the Hornady Black SBR from an 11 inch barrel only achieved 2320 fps and at 100 yards appeared to have no expansion. Given the plethora of JSP factory loads, I would recommend sticking with the longer barrels for the more traditional JSPs. If you have an all copper bullet based load, feel free to tinker with your barrel length.
That should cover the things I would like you to consider. Actually, all of these things apply to any cartridge and you should be doing research on which ever box of ammunition you are using but I want to add one more thing. Gelatin testing is extremely helpful and shouldn't be ignored. There is a reason it was developed though for hunting, the metrics need tweaked. That said, there are numerous videos on YouTube of people shooting into gel but are doing so at short ranges. That will not be an accurate representation. Make sure that whatever video you are watching, the testing was done at distance or will a reduced velocity to compensate. Shooting at gel with a rifle from 15 yards is not a good representation. Make sure they are shooting at distances more akin to what you are hunting. Please be stingy about what ammo you use to take deer.
P.S. - I know everything I said is anecdotal and I don't have tangible evidence to support what I'm talking about. I am working on piecing together a more evidence based discussion and laying out the selection methodology in a more detailed way. So far, I have chosen 4 cartridges using my methods. I have taken deer successfully with 2 of the 4. A third cartridge, the Barnes 5.56 TSX load in gel is working out well. At this point, I haven't taken that ammunition out to try to take a deer but that will happen probably during the next deer season. Same goes for the SIG 120 gr Elite load.
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