I have been thinking of building an AR for my wife to hunt with. I want to use the AR15 platform because of weight. I'm thinking about the 7.62X39 because it is readly available, has sufficent knock down power for white tail and the recoil will not be excessive. I saw on a discussion that there is a problem with this caliber in the AR15 platform. All advise and guidance will be greatly appericated.

There are long technical threads about the issues running the 7.62x39 on ar15.com.

Good choices for >.223 rounds in the AR-15 platform are the 6.5 Grendel and .300 Blackout.

The .300 Blackout (which is almsot identical to JD Jones' .300 Whisper) is very hot right now, which several subsonic and supersonic factory loads available from Remington and others.

Why the AR? The AR will weigh more than s similarly chambered bolt-action.

George

My wife has killed several turkeys with an AR.

For deer sized game I would take a look at the 6.8SPC.

For bigger stuff could she handle a 450 Bushmaster?

300 Blackout, plain and simple. Four or five different manufacturers offer dual loads. A 125-130gr load pushing 2200fps; and a 200-220gr subsonic load. I have an AR-pistol in 300BLK I am tinkering with. I like the idea of my 240gr cast bullets at 1060 fps, and the same magazine capacity as the 223 case it is based on.
That load is the same as most 44 magnum cast bullet loads from the factories, and yes ma'am, there are thirty of them in this magazine!

Rich

Does using the cast bullets gunk up the bores in the barrels of the AR's ?

I was think about the 6.8 after I posted. It seems to have enough energy and easy on the recoil. She shoots my old 788 6mm rem. It is very accurate. I just wanted to build her an AR, no real need just a thought.

I've built a lot of 6.5 Grendel and 264 LBC's for guys in the last 4 years. I would highly recommend either one. Very accurate, light recoil, and plenty of power for deer at any reasonable range.

quote:

Originally posted by matt salm:
I've built a lot of 6.5 Grendel and 264 LBC's for guys in the last 4 years. I would highly recommend either one. Very accurate, light recoil, and plenty of power for deer at any reasonable range.

No dubt those would be good cartridges as well.

Hornady is now loading the 6.5 Grendel.

Matt
Does the 6.5G feed out of standard AR magazines OK???

My daughter don't weigh 130 lbs, got her a 6.8 stag and she has killed a few blk bear & bunch of caribou with it. Nice AR for any girl.

If you go w/the 6.8SPC make sure you use a "II" chamber. The "II" is supposed to be able to handle the better/hotter loads the original can't.

Do not overlook the 6.8SPC. For me it has proven to be an excellent hunting ctg. Last year I took seven hogs that were bang flop shots with the 110gr Hornady HPBT. SPC II chamber is a must. Lots of guys like the small primered brass as it tends to be more accurate. In hunting situations I prefer the large rifle primed R-P brass for reliability. I would not go with the 7.62x39 as there are too many weird angles created by the case dimensions for an AR platform.

Lots of good ideas so far. If you're hooked on 30 caliber, the 300 Blackout is so similar to the 7.62 x 39 that animals won't have a clue which one killed them.

Another vote for the .300 BO!

AAC makes a sweet .300 BO AR with 16" barrel for about $1600 or you an buy a complete upper only for about $1080.

Put a can on it....... what more could wifee poo want?

Here's a round I may be putting together. I wanted to make an AR I could call an AR 15 Sturmgewhr. To save the complication of a special bolt and barrel extension to run the original 7.92x33 Kurz, which isn't all that hot of a round, I was going to neck up the 6.5 Grendel to 8mm. I think it would be a tad better then the light 30's on the market now.