06-04-2012, 04:47 PM
feetpiece Wrote:I think I meant in the sense that the common perception is that AR's are not suitable for hunting by many folks.
Most of the problem lies with the association of the AR platform with the .223 caliber, which is considered by most to be severely disadvantaged if not entirely inadequate for deer hunting. There is an abundance of people who hunt who are not serious gun owners in the sense of reading Internet forums and magazines and keeping up with the latest for the simple reason that they don't have to. The same .270 or .30-30 they got as a hand-me-down or at a Walmart accomplishes the basic task of putting holes in paper and occasional deer or pigs or whatever without a whole lot of thought or knowledge, and the general rule of thumb is that anything with .22 in front of it doesn't get that job done or often it isn't legal in their state to even try. Again, because they're not hardcore gun geeks they go by the easy-to-come-by knowledge that AR = .223 because that's been common knowledge for 50-60 years and that's what's on the shelf where they conveniently buy their guns and ammo.
I'm currently living in Pennsylvania where you can't hunt with an autoloader of any kind regardless of whether it's 6.5, 6.8, .308, or even .30-06. I'm mad as hell about that and will be making regular trips to Harrisburg as often as it takes to get that changed.