this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2024
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Assuming proper training and ammunition, they're perfectly capable for hunting small to medium game such as rabbits, coyotes, tyrants, wild hogs, and whitetail deer.
I don't think some people know how much damage a pack of wild hogs can cause to crops and farmland in short order. If it wasn't going to be an AR-15 keeping them off the farm it would be another intermediate or higher caliber semi-automatic rifle that accepts standard magazines. Everyone want's to laugh at that excuse until the farmer has a bad season and has to sell his land to Bill Gates or Chinese investors, they don't exactly make large margins.
The magazine capacity is an issue though. The standard 30 round mag is far to large for any realistic hunting purposes (you can also get up to 100 round drum mags). While you can hunt with an AR-15, it's not the best rifle for the task.
I live in Canada and the government is in the process of banning semi-automatic centre fire rifles capable of holding more than 5 rounds. Given that 3D printers exist, this pretty much bans all rifles with interchangeable mags. I'm a gun owner on a rural property and I think that's a reasonable compromise. I can still own a decent bolt action hunting rifle and a semi-automatic rim fire rifle with no mag limit.
It does suck for people who's rifles are getting banned though.
You've obviously never been surrounded by a pack of coyotes or hogs.
.223 is also an excellent caliber for that size game.
Anecdote time!
I was once semi-surrounded by coyotes while hiking in some back country with a friend.
I did not have anything except my camping knives and a very small axe for splitting kindling.
My buddy had a compact 9mm in his waistband.
Honestly, I can say an AR would not have made me feel safer. A larger capacity on my sidearm, on the other hand, would. The AR is just too bulky to move quickly in close quarters.
Luckily a single round to the trailside was enough to scare them off, since yelling and throwing things wasn't. We then ran/sprinted a few miles down the trail toward the vehicle before we even considered slowing down.
Not many situations in which either one is something I'm desiring though, and while I'm not a fan of limiting people, I can't say I've ever needed 30rds at once. Honestly, I buy 10rd mags just because they fit very nicely in some cases I already had, and the 30rds don't.
Rambling anecdotes over, have a nice day!
Anecdote time! I went to infantry basic training and we were told over and over again, if you have to draw your sidearm, you’re dead. The AR absolutely is not too bulky for close quarters and I would feel much better with one on my hand than anything else. The US army has murdered a lot of people with M4 rifles in CQC. (My politics don’t align with a stereotype of a former infantryman. Please do not assume too much)
In either situation, with adrenaline, good luck getting shots on target.
Hmm, I don’t understand the downvotes but okay lmao I’m sorry that the AR platform is actually fine in close quarters?
I think it's probably that your anecdote and experience is kind of out of left field considering this guy was only dealing with a couple coyotes, and honestly you probably don't even need a gun in that circumstance, and I don't think you'd much need anything larger than pistol-caliber.
As far as I understand it, the main problem people have with it, which they also have with pretty much every gun larger than a foot or so, so most guns, is that you can't really cross a threshold horizontally. About the only thing that could qualify against that maybe is like, a pistol or one of those shotguns with a bird's head grip, or like, some smaller pdw or something. I also dunno how much of a problem that is, of, oh it's gonna snag on something, or whatever, right, I guess it's just the idea it's going to present a higher snag risk or something when turning around, or, when getting up to a ready position? I dunno I'm not a gun nut.
I think it probably also isn't helped by the increasing consumerist trend to load up their guns with more and more extraneous shit and go for longer and longer rifles on their AR platforms to try and increase accuracy on the range, which means they tend to conceptualize of them as being unsuitable for close quarters despite that kind of being the idea of an intermediate cartridge and all that. It also doesn't really help to cite our military engagements with it considering over the last like 3 decades of the rifle's service we've mostly only fought like, random middle eastern terrorist organizations that don't have a great reputation for good training or good equipment or anything like that. You could maybe look at uses of the rifle by other organizations like the IRA or whatever, but I don't think they had any close quarters engagements.
Most of this comment is out of left field. Wow. Uh.
This study shows coyotes predate on humans up to 37% of known attacks. That person was fortunate to have a firearm.
Dude said he wouldn’t feel better with a rifle, well, from his personal anecdote, to mine, I would. I am much more likely to be accidentally shot by my friend with the handgun imo.
Your lack of experience is obvious. I’m not going to go into all the reasons you can clear buildings and rooms without reaching for a handgun, as muzzle discipline and accuracy become exponentially more difficult. There’s a reason SWAT breaches with rifles and not handguns, well, them and any one else that has quick access to a rifle in the situation.
I work at a gun store, that’s simply not true. SBRs and AR pistols exist and are extremely popular.
right, or the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Or the literal decades of combat US special operators have with the platform since Vietnam, or any other of its long, violent life. Or you can ask any of these countries, or, look into any of these use cases
Maybe don’t chime in on things you’re absolutely clueless on? I’m trying to figure out how to put this somewhat nicely but you clearly have some misguided thoughts here. And none of this comment has anything to do with the fact that, if surrounded by a pack of hungry animals, I want an AR-style rifle personally.
Coyotes? Literally just shout at them. They're scavengers not fighters.
In the late Winter/early spring they start getting a bit braver and start moving further into the cow pastures. That's when we have to cull the pack to keep them away from the cattle.
Oh yeah, I thought you meant in regards to humans. I've never seen a coyote so much as growl at a human without a cub nearby.
They will definitely come after humans if they are hungry enough and their pack is large enough. It's around that season that they start getting a bit braver because they are hungry coming out of winter and it's breeding season. Usually they run after the first shot, but sometimes they don't notice you dropped one and they keep coming until the follow-up shots. It's not out of the ordinary to bag multiple coyotes in one spot.
Maybe I've just never had a pack big enough and hungry enough, but I live out west and I've never seen them be aggressive towards humans. Even when they got into my camp once, the second I sat up out of my sleeping bag they scattered.