Poor Man's AR

These black semi-automatic AR's in .223 seem to be popular for hunting nowadays and I've noticed threads on here about what ranges they are good for etc. So it made me keen to haul out my el-cheapo version of a AR .223 for a hunt.

Yesterday I was up country working so it wasn't hard to drive from PNth to a hunting spot.
It was a nice evening following a little bit of rain and almost straight after getting to a lookout I spotted deer. 2 velvet stags were resting up on a little clearing. It took about 20 minutes to stalk to 80 yards of them in a swirling wind but when I crested a little rise for the shot they had disappeared.

So that meant a steep 40 minute climb to the next glassing spot.
I know the area pretty well and know where to look and soon enough spotted a lone deer on a Punga face a few hundred yards away. It looked like a hind but I stalked in closer in case it had a friend. At closer inspection I could make out velvet spikes. "Unlucky you", I thought to my self. The deer was partly obscured, and then disappeared. So I waited. 5 minutes later it reappeared in amongst the Punga's and presented its shoulder for a shot. 224 yards with a bi-pod, my pack under the butt and Swarvoski 3-9 wound up isn't a difficult shot, but I still took my time. When the deer was slightly quartered to me I held in line with the from leg and squeezed the excellently crisp (but cheap) trigger.

There was no sound of a hit, and no reaction from the deer apart from it instantly scarpering. I sat there for several minutes watching and glassing and there was no movement - sometimes you can see trees moving or flashes of a deer if its falling or wounded. Nothing. So Tilly and waited another 5 m minutes before crossing the gully and looking for it.

There wasn't a breath of wind, and it was hot. Not very good conditions for the dog to find it in. I kept her in and quietly stalked to where it had been when I fired. Not a sign and apart from sniffing the ground Tilly wasn't very interested. So I sidled the face with her at heel, and there down below me I could see the deer hooked up on some trees. She still wasn't interested so I sent her off to "find", and she shot off in the opposite direction. I could hear her back tracking as I wandered down to the deer and when I was about 10 yards from it she came rushing past and claimed it as her own. She had obviously back tracked and picked up the scent, and then followed it back down to where it was. The deer had travelled about 25 yards from where I had shot it

There was neat little .223 hole where I had aimed high-ish on the shoulder and the 69 grain Sierra Tipped Matchking had penetrated right through and exited out through behind the opposite shoulder. Good performance for a little bullet.

The deer was in a great position for a bone out job which made it easy and it was only 7.00pm so I had plenty of time. Its so much better when when there is plenty of time and you are not fighting nettles in some shitty wet gully.

I saw another deer carrying this one out but I had a good load so I let it be. it was 10pm when I got back to my vehicle and to top off a wonderful evening 2 deer jumped the fence off the road on my way out to the tar seal.

It was 1.15 am when I hopped into bed and announced to my wife "I got one". "That's nice" she said automatically in her sleep.

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And oh, here's my poor man's AR...a shitty old lightweight Savage .223 ...

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Nice to hear your leaving a few deer for the young fellas to chase !! amazing what those little projectiles can do , iv got 1 here iv pinged a few with but haven't been game to shoot at anything around the 200m mark but myn has the 1:12 twist so limited to 55gn

You have inspired me... my next deer will also fall to a .223.

🦌

Legend mate

good shot, good looking dog. what breed?

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Originally Posted by gonetropo

good shot, good looking dog. what breed?

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8 3/4 yr old Geman Wirehaired Pointer bitch

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Originally Posted by Tahr

8 3/4 yr old Geman Wirehaired Pointer bitch

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Hi @Tahr your bitch is the spitting image of my one and the exact same age also.
was she breed by Teresa in Okoka, Canterbury ?

:)

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Originally Posted by akaroa1

Hi @Tahr your bitch is the spitting image of my one and the exact same age also.
was she breed by Teresa in Okoka, Canterbury ?

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No, she came from Jason in Hamilton. She's by an Australian dog.

You cant fool me by calling it a Savage, its obviously an evil black gun wearing camouflage and as it's still doing the devils work.

And the evil .223 will spark heated debates on politics, religion and the US 2nd Amendment.

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Originally Posted by berg243

did that bullet go through shoulder blade or just ribcage.thats pretty good penetration either way.i thought the matchking where supposed to disintergrate fairly quickly.will put them on the list to try when I get a new 223.

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Top third of shoulder blade and out through the lungs/rib cage. I shot a mature stag with the same bullet a while ago @240 yards and that went right through too (lung shot). I'm impressed by them. Need a fast twist though.

Oh deer Tahr. Not only an evil one but an ugly Savage to boot. You won't find one in my safe, ... well only if we take two out.

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Originally Posted by dogmatix

And the evil .223 will spark heated debates on politics, religion and the US 2nd Amendment.

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And who brought that into this thread? ;)

Point taken.
@Tahr, what happened to your hunting diary thread on Fishnhunt? I cant find it.

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Originally Posted by dogmatix

Point taken.
@Tahr, what happened to your hunting diary thread on Fishnhunt? I cant find it.

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@dogmatix It was surrounded by 1080 bull shit so I deleted it and shifted it to here to the Hunting section.

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Originally Posted by berg243

i am impressed by the performance of those projectiles.i have shoot all the few deer I have got with a 223 Remington factory 55 grain supposedly core lokt projectiles no pass through even on a fallow deer.last one I shot with 223 was a big stag at 53m was underwhelmed on performance even though the stag only went 30m and lay down.after that one decided I needed something better but now looking at the results of your one I think I might get another one.

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The Barnes TTSX are primo in .223 too. I use 55 grn.

2nd to last hunt dropped two fallow with the 55 Hornady training rounds. Bang flop . On a day at the range afterwards found the Fiocci equivalent real accurate so bought a pile.
Next Fallow hunt what a shambles. 1st hit laughed and walked away. Took a while to find it. 2nd the same if not worse... Proved a point to me and wont use those again ...
Funny how you d think same weight same speed both accurate as at the range but huge result difference.. Wont be doing that again for sure.. Man @thar you do the work and the miles
and get the results awesome...

Tahr I think Mr Cahill should disarm you as you are running amok killing deer with evil firearms and who knows where it might end? Ha ha ha ha good on ya!

Nice bit of prime venison for Xmas.
Well done Sir:cool:

Nice going again Tahr. The 222, 223 are underrated as deer calibers. Many years ago in the Forest Service and in my meat hunting days I used the 222 Rem and it performed well even on longer shots.
It was common for shoulder shot animals to run 20-30 meters before going down. I shoulder shot a 100 odd kg red stag one time in the shoulder at about 40 meters and he piled up 20 meters into the bush. The beauty of these light calibers is they were accurate and you seldom missed so a short follow up most times resulted in a dead animal.
I currently have a Mod 7 223 which I don't use much these days but it has knocked a few animals over with those 55gr Hornady SP/WC projectiles.

This is my second 223. The other was a Sako 75 wood/stainless when they first came out and I didn't like it. Too heavy for calibre and it would just flop the empties back onto the chamber/magazine. I used a Brno 222 when I was meat hunting for a few years (used Sako and Hertenburg (sp?) ammo).

This Lightweight Savage is the best of them. Light and portable, accurate, reliable and excellent trigger. Oh, and a slow twist barrel that I can load heavier projectiles for.

I was kicking myself for missing out on a left handed Savage 223 for TimeRider a couple of months back. It sold for a song too.

You really are showing me up, getting out there and doing it. :cool:

awsome to see these ar's out there doing it, as allways- a few questions: what grip is that? I cant tell, is that a free float forend? if so, what brand? standard triger? or did you also feel the need to upgrade it? I see you went for a long barrel, did you think this was necasery or just what it came with?

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Originally Posted by Mooseman

Nice going again Tahr. The 222, 223 are underrated as deer calibers. Many years ago in the Forest Service and in my meat hunting days I used the 222 Rem and it performed well even on longer shots.
It was common for shoulder shot animals to run 20-30 meters before going down. I shoulder shot a 100 odd kg red stag one time in the shoulder at about 40 meters and he piled up 20 meters into the bush. The beauty of these light calibers is they were accurate and you seldom missed so a short follow up most times resulted in a dead animal.
I currently have a Mod 7 223 which I don't use much these days but it has knocked a few animals over with those 55gr Hornady SP/WC projectiles.

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My first animal was taken with the guides .222 Remington, a fallow stag about 80 mts, bang flop, no follow up shot needed, was very impressed......... he told me though, dont try this caliber on a stag in the roar....(Tui ad):P

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Originally Posted by res

awsome to see these ar's out there doing it, as allways- a few questions: what grip is that? I cant tell, is that a free float forend? if so, what brand? standard triger? or did you also feel the need to upgrade it? I see you went for a long barrel, did you think this was necasery or just what it came with?

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To answer your questions @res :

Its the standard wooden grip. I'm trying to source a FN SLR wood grip for it but I can't find one that match's the grain.

The barrel is free floating if you mean did I pay to have it floated? It was like that when I bought it, so yes it was free.

Its the standard trigger. If you pull back on it hard enough it makes the rifle fire. I find that adequate. You have to remember though to push the safety to the "kill Zombies" position for it to work.

It came with quite a short barrel so I had a gun smith lengthen it.

You might be able to answer a question for me though @res; how long do you think it will be before they ban these??

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Originally Posted by Tahr

This is my second 223. The other was a Sako 75 wood/stainless when they first came out and I didn't like it. Too heavy for calibre and it would just flop the empties back onto the chamber/magazine. I used a Brno 222 when I was meat hunting for a few years (used Sako and Hertenburg (sp?) ammo).

This Lightweight Savage is the best of them. Light and portable, accurate, reliable and excellent trigger. Oh, and a slow twist barrel that I can load heavier projectiles for.

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My .223 Sako 75 Stainless laminate does the same thing. But my .270 75 Finnlight flings the brass a mile.
I've looked at a strsinger ejection spring, but Brownells charge an arm and a leg for the factory springs/unit.

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Originally Posted by Tahr

To answer your questions @res :

Its the standard wooden grip. I'm trying to source a FN SLR wood grip for it but I can't find one that match's the grain.

The barrel is free floating if you mean did I pay to have it floated? It was like that when I bought it, so yes it was free.

Its the standard trigger. If you pull back on it hard enough it makes the rifle fire. I find that adequate. You have to remember though to push the safety to the "kill Zombies" position for it to work.

It came with quite a short barrel so I had a gun smith lengthen it.

You might be able to answer a question for me though @res; how long do you think it will be before they ban these??

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You are a bloody worry mate :thumbsup:

good girl Tilly....I use the 50 grn ttsx with great results but seldome stretch barrel and call 150ish my limit.

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Originally Posted by Tahr

This is my second 223. The other was a Sako 75 wood/stainless when they first came out and I didn't like it. Too heavy for calibre and it would just flop the empties back onto the chamber/magazine. I used a Brno 222 when I was meat hunting for a few years (used Sako and Hertenburg (sp?) ammo).

This Lightweight Savage is the best of them. Light and portable, accurate, reliable and excellent trigger. Oh, and a slow twist barrel that I can load heavier projectiles for.

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Yes I used a Sako Vixen bought while working for Forest Service ( cost $180 dollars new and $ 60 dollars for mounts and Weaver 4x scope )and strange you say you used Sako and Hertinberg ammo , so did we. We were mostly on goats but deer were present in the Rangitoto Range out of Otrohonga and the little Sako worked a treat on anything it was aimed at.
Beeman bought it of me and used it culling in the Kaimai's ; Wish I still had that rifle still.

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Originally Posted by Tahr

how long do you think it will be before they ban these??

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about 20 years after "they" ban self loading ones :(

but its your fancy sniper ammo that the really smart "theys" will ban first