Busting The Myths of the AR-15
There is so much misinformation out there about the AR platform rifle that I am writing this blog to correct a lot of that false information. I really don't need to provide more of an introduction than this and, without further ado, we are going to get right to it:
Myth: You cannot use an AR-15 for hunting because it will destroy all of the meat.
Fact: There are actually two major types of AR platform rifles: the AR-15 and the AR-10. The AR-15 is most commonly chambered in the 223 Remington or 5.56mm NATO cartridge. There is a difference between the two but, for our purposes here, they are essentially the same thing. The 5.56mm typically fires a .223 caliber bullet weighing 55 grains at over 3,000 fps. There are lighter loads for the hunting of animals like varmints and prairie dogs and their are loads which get as heavy as 77 grains for hunting and tactical applications. The second most common chambering for the AR-15 is the 300 AAC Blackout which really shines as a subsonic round, but which can be loaded supersonically to be the rough equivalent of a 7.62x39 (the round utilized by the AK-47). Ballistically, both the 7.62x39 and the 300 Blackout are the rough equivalent to a 30-30 Winchester. Other chamberings include the .224 Valkyrie (favored by competition shooters), and my personal favorite, the 6.5 Grendel (favored by hunters). The AR-15 can also utilize big bore cartridges like the 350 Legend (specifically designed for hunting) as well as the 458 SOCOM and 50 Beowulf (which are similar, or maybe even slightly better than, the 45-70 Government).
The AR-10 is most commonly chambered in the 308 Winchester or 7.62 NATO which, again, have some variations but are the same for our purposes here. The only other common chamberings for an AR-10 are the 6.5 Creedmoor, and to a lesser extent, the 338 Federal. You rarely hear of crimes being committed with these rifles despite the fact that they are significantly more powerful than the AR-15 and have considerably longer range. The 308 Winchester was developed as a short action version of the 30-06 (the advantages and disadvantages of 30-06 over 308 are beyond the scope of this article) and the 308 Winchester remains one of the most common hunting rounds used today. The 6.5 Creedmoor was developed for competition but has developed into a very common hunting cartridge over the years because of its high ballistic coefficient and light recoil. Both the 308 Winchester and the 6.5 Creedmoor commonly sold in bolt action hunting rifles and are among the most common chamberings for a bolt action rifle.
When choosing a hunting rifle, you are looking at what game you are hunting and what round will safely and humanely kill that animal with minimal meat waste. Some people in Texas hunt deer with a 5.56mm soft point and are very successful. I choose not to because I have other options available to me in the AR-15 platform (like the 6.5 Grendel) which I think are more humane. So yes, the AR-15 does well on smaller game and on medium game like antelope, blacktail deer, and whitetail deer. The 5.56mm will absolutely kill feral hogs and coyotes. However, unless I was hunting with the 6.5 Grendel (or at close range with one of the big bore AR-15 offerings), it would not be my choice for a mule deer or axis deer. I certainly wouldn't try to use one on black bear, elk, caribou or other big game animals. I would use an AR-10 or my bolt action 300 Winchester Magnum. Similarly, I would not choose those larger weapons for smaller animals because there would be unnecessary meat waste. Frankly, the best AR platform for hunting is the AR-10 because the 308 Winchester is the "goldilocks" of rifle chamberings: it's not too big for antelope or whitetail, but at 300 yards or less, it has enough power to kill a black bear, elk, or caribou. Obviously, for a very large animal like a buffalo, moose, or brown bear, any AR rifle is less than ideal. You need the power of a bolt action to humanely kill those animals.
There is nothing magical about an AR-15 or an AR-10. They are chambered in rounds for which I could also purchase a bolt action rifle. They effect of that bullet on either a human or animal is not going to change. I used to work for a game processor and saw numerous animal carcasses that had been shot with a variety of different rounds. Those with the most damage to the meat were: (a) smaller animals shot by large magnum bolt actions; or (b) animals killed with shotgun slugs or buckshot. When processing a deer carcass, I could not tell which animals had been killed with an AR and which had been killed with a bolt action rifle.
Myth: The AR-15 blows up organs and liquifies tissue while the 9mm just makes a hole
Fact: You are comparing apples and oranges. While an AR-15 can be modified to fire pistol ammunition, the AR-15 fires a rifle round. Again, there is nothing magical about the AR-15 or the AR-10. Any human shot with any rifle is going to suffer catastrophic injuries. That is because rifle rounds are traveling far faster than pistol rounds. Please do not think that a bolt action hunting rifle wouldn't do the exact same thing. It would - and since bolt action rifles tend to be more powerful the results would be even worse.
Myth: You must be a really shitty hunter if you hunt with an AR-15
Fact: Let me explain to you how guns work. When you fire a gun at an animal, it goes "boom". Animals do not like loud noises. They know that loud noises mean death. This means one of two things will happen when you shoot at an animal with an AR-15: the animal will die or it will run off (either because you missed or you shot it poorly). The AR-15 and AR-10 are actually more humane for an important reason: every hunter makes bad shots. Show me a hunter who has never made a bad shot and I will show you one that hasn't hunted. The beauty of the semi-automatic platform is that it allows a near-immediate re-engagement of a wounded animal so the hunter can ethically put it out of its misery if it is wounded. If the animal was missed outright, there isn't going to be a second chance. The animal will run off and you probably won't see it again. I think this myth comes from the idea many people have that AR-15s are machine guns. They are not. I pull the trigger and one bullet comes out. If I want to fire a second bullet, I have to release the trigger and pull it again. I can't hold down the trigger and have bullets come out like water from a hose. That is not how these rifles work.
Myth: You don't need an AR-15 to kill a deer
Fact: You don't need to kill a deer, period. You can buy meat at the grocery store. However, if I am going to hunt deer, I owe it to myself and to the deer to use the best possible tool available to me for that job. I would be foolish not to. The AR platform fires rounds which happen to be very well suited for hunting small and medium size game (even some big game if you have an AR-10). I could use a bolt action if I wanted to. For larger animals like elk, I will absolutely choose my bolt action over my AR-15. However, both the AR-15 and AR-10 are inherently accurate platforms that are ergonomic and comfortable. They give me quick re-engagements. That means, for many animals, they are the best tools for the job.
Myth: Nobody wants to take guns away from hunters.
Fact: Of course they do. There are a lot of people out there who hate hunting and would love to see it go away. These are the same people who want to reintroduce wolves everywhere because they know that more wolves mean less game animals available to hunt. Furthermore, the anti-gun lobby has targeted rifles commonly used for hunting since 2002. This article from the Violence Policy Center is exactly what I am talking about. What do you think will come next if assault weapons are banned? Well, knowing their power at close range, mass shooters will turn to pump action shotguns. Then we will be told that all people really "need" to kill birds is an Over/Under shotgun. Then, I suppose, mass shooters will go to handguns and we will be told that all anybody really needs in a handgun is six rounds instead of ten (like we have seen in New York already). Finally, mass shooters will go to bolt action rifles and we will be told that nobody "needs" to be able to shoot that far to kill an animal and that long range bolt action rifles are "unsporting" - and they will be next. The anti-gun movement will not stop until they ban all civilian ownership of firearms. They will keep politicizing mass shootings in perpetuity until they get what they want.
Myth: The AR-15 is the cause of the mass shooting problem.
Fact:The AR-15 has been available for civilian sale since the 1960s as have a number of other so-called "assault weapons". The guns have not changed all that much in the past 60 years. Something else has changed. The first thing that has changed has been the media reporting on mass shootings. The media is "all in" on the left's gun ban agenda, which is why they report on these shootings nonstop. This inspires mentally ill individuals to commit mass shootings because what most of them crave is attention and revenge. They know that mass shootings get them the attention they crave and they also know that the left refuses to harden the soft targets they select for their murder sprees. The other thing that changed was the assault weapon ban of 1994, or as I like to call it, the ten years of tyranny. People naturally want that which they are told they cannot have. The 1994 ban caused renewed interest in these weapons and, when it expired, people rushed out to get theirs knowing that another ban could be on the horizon at any time. We still see runs on gun stores any time a new ban is being seriously considered. This false demand has never really subsided because people understand that, when the government says they don't need an AR-15, it's probably a really good time to buy one.
Myth: You cannot use an AR-15 for hunting because it will destroy all of the meat.
Fact: There are actually two major types of AR platform rifles: the AR-15 and the AR-10. The AR-15 is most commonly chambered in the 223 Remington or 5.56mm NATO cartridge. There is a difference between the two but, for our purposes here, they are essentially the same thing. The 5.56mm typically fires a .223 caliber bullet weighing 55 grains at over 3,000 fps. There are lighter loads for the hunting of animals like varmints and prairie dogs and their are loads which get as heavy as 77 grains for hunting and tactical applications. The second most common chambering for the AR-15 is the 300 AAC Blackout which really shines as a subsonic round, but which can be loaded supersonically to be the rough equivalent of a 7.62x39 (the round utilized by the AK-47). Ballistically, both the 7.62x39 and the 300 Blackout are the rough equivalent to a 30-30 Winchester. Other chamberings include the .224 Valkyrie (favored by competition shooters), and my personal favorite, the 6.5 Grendel (favored by hunters). The AR-15 can also utilize big bore cartridges like the 350 Legend (specifically designed for hunting) as well as the 458 SOCOM and 50 Beowulf (which are similar, or maybe even slightly better than, the 45-70 Government).
The AR-10 is most commonly chambered in the 308 Winchester or 7.62 NATO which, again, have some variations but are the same for our purposes here. The only other common chamberings for an AR-10 are the 6.5 Creedmoor, and to a lesser extent, the 338 Federal. You rarely hear of crimes being committed with these rifles despite the fact that they are significantly more powerful than the AR-15 and have considerably longer range. The 308 Winchester was developed as a short action version of the 30-06 (the advantages and disadvantages of 30-06 over 308 are beyond the scope of this article) and the 308 Winchester remains one of the most common hunting rounds used today. The 6.5 Creedmoor was developed for competition but has developed into a very common hunting cartridge over the years because of its high ballistic coefficient and light recoil. Both the 308 Winchester and the 6.5 Creedmoor commonly sold in bolt action hunting rifles and are among the most common chamberings for a bolt action rifle.
When choosing a hunting rifle, you are looking at what game you are hunting and what round will safely and humanely kill that animal with minimal meat waste. Some people in Texas hunt deer with a 5.56mm soft point and are very successful. I choose not to because I have other options available to me in the AR-15 platform (like the 6.5 Grendel) which I think are more humane. So yes, the AR-15 does well on smaller game and on medium game like antelope, blacktail deer, and whitetail deer. The 5.56mm will absolutely kill feral hogs and coyotes. However, unless I was hunting with the 6.5 Grendel (or at close range with one of the big bore AR-15 offerings), it would not be my choice for a mule deer or axis deer. I certainly wouldn't try to use one on black bear, elk, caribou or other big game animals. I would use an AR-10 or my bolt action 300 Winchester Magnum. Similarly, I would not choose those larger weapons for smaller animals because there would be unnecessary meat waste. Frankly, the best AR platform for hunting is the AR-10 because the 308 Winchester is the "goldilocks" of rifle chamberings: it's not too big for antelope or whitetail, but at 300 yards or less, it has enough power to kill a black bear, elk, or caribou. Obviously, for a very large animal like a buffalo, moose, or brown bear, any AR rifle is less than ideal. You need the power of a bolt action to humanely kill those animals.
There is nothing magical about an AR-15 or an AR-10. They are chambered in rounds for which I could also purchase a bolt action rifle. They effect of that bullet on either a human or animal is not going to change. I used to work for a game processor and saw numerous animal carcasses that had been shot with a variety of different rounds. Those with the most damage to the meat were: (a) smaller animals shot by large magnum bolt actions; or (b) animals killed with shotgun slugs or buckshot. When processing a deer carcass, I could not tell which animals had been killed with an AR and which had been killed with a bolt action rifle.
Myth: The AR-15 blows up organs and liquifies tissue while the 9mm just makes a hole
Fact: You are comparing apples and oranges. While an AR-15 can be modified to fire pistol ammunition, the AR-15 fires a rifle round. Again, there is nothing magical about the AR-15 or the AR-10. Any human shot with any rifle is going to suffer catastrophic injuries. That is because rifle rounds are traveling far faster than pistol rounds. Please do not think that a bolt action hunting rifle wouldn't do the exact same thing. It would - and since bolt action rifles tend to be more powerful the results would be even worse.
Myth: You must be a really shitty hunter if you hunt with an AR-15
Fact: Let me explain to you how guns work. When you fire a gun at an animal, it goes "boom". Animals do not like loud noises. They know that loud noises mean death. This means one of two things will happen when you shoot at an animal with an AR-15: the animal will die or it will run off (either because you missed or you shot it poorly). The AR-15 and AR-10 are actually more humane for an important reason: every hunter makes bad shots. Show me a hunter who has never made a bad shot and I will show you one that hasn't hunted. The beauty of the semi-automatic platform is that it allows a near-immediate re-engagement of a wounded animal so the hunter can ethically put it out of its misery if it is wounded. If the animal was missed outright, there isn't going to be a second chance. The animal will run off and you probably won't see it again. I think this myth comes from the idea many people have that AR-15s are machine guns. They are not. I pull the trigger and one bullet comes out. If I want to fire a second bullet, I have to release the trigger and pull it again. I can't hold down the trigger and have bullets come out like water from a hose. That is not how these rifles work.
Myth: You don't need an AR-15 to kill a deer
Fact: You don't need to kill a deer, period. You can buy meat at the grocery store. However, if I am going to hunt deer, I owe it to myself and to the deer to use the best possible tool available to me for that job. I would be foolish not to. The AR platform fires rounds which happen to be very well suited for hunting small and medium size game (even some big game if you have an AR-10). I could use a bolt action if I wanted to. For larger animals like elk, I will absolutely choose my bolt action over my AR-15. However, both the AR-15 and AR-10 are inherently accurate platforms that are ergonomic and comfortable. They give me quick re-engagements. That means, for many animals, they are the best tools for the job.
Myth: Nobody wants to take guns away from hunters.
Fact: Of course they do. There are a lot of people out there who hate hunting and would love to see it go away. These are the same people who want to reintroduce wolves everywhere because they know that more wolves mean less game animals available to hunt. Furthermore, the anti-gun lobby has targeted rifles commonly used for hunting since 2002. This article from the Violence Policy Center is exactly what I am talking about. What do you think will come next if assault weapons are banned? Well, knowing their power at close range, mass shooters will turn to pump action shotguns. Then we will be told that all people really "need" to kill birds is an Over/Under shotgun. Then, I suppose, mass shooters will go to handguns and we will be told that all anybody really needs in a handgun is six rounds instead of ten (like we have seen in New York already). Finally, mass shooters will go to bolt action rifles and we will be told that nobody "needs" to be able to shoot that far to kill an animal and that long range bolt action rifles are "unsporting" - and they will be next. The anti-gun movement will not stop until they ban all civilian ownership of firearms. They will keep politicizing mass shootings in perpetuity until they get what they want.
Myth: The AR-15 is the cause of the mass shooting problem.
Fact:The AR-15 has been available for civilian sale since the 1960s as have a number of other so-called "assault weapons". The guns have not changed all that much in the past 60 years. Something else has changed. The first thing that has changed has been the media reporting on mass shootings. The media is "all in" on the left's gun ban agenda, which is why they report on these shootings nonstop. This inspires mentally ill individuals to commit mass shootings because what most of them crave is attention and revenge. They know that mass shootings get them the attention they crave and they also know that the left refuses to harden the soft targets they select for their murder sprees. The other thing that changed was the assault weapon ban of 1994, or as I like to call it, the ten years of tyranny. People naturally want that which they are told they cannot have. The 1994 ban caused renewed interest in these weapons and, when it expired, people rushed out to get theirs knowing that another ban could be on the horizon at any time. We still see runs on gun stores any time a new ban is being seriously considered. This false demand has never really subsided because people understand that, when the government says they don't need an AR-15, it's probably a really good time to buy one.
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