eelj wrote: Wed Jun 06, 2018 8:51 am
The requirements of a military round is much different than a hunting round. The thinking behind military ammo development is that when you hit an enemy and they lay there screaming medic is preferable to actually killing them.
A 5.56 for use as a dedicated varmint rd would be better served with a barrel that is very stiff and about 24"s long, preferably with a twist fast enough to stabilize long heavy bullets.
You also said that you "built your ARs" how is that any different than someone building his bolt gun by glass bedding the action and replacing the trigger?
You're right about the intent of FMJ in military service, at least according to the folks over the years that instructed me on the M16 prior to each overseas assignment. The military's using hollow-point boat tail 'match' ammo as well, though, and I'm hearing that hollow-points are used in some 9mm sidearms.
The difference between the colloquial 'building' of an AR and bedding a bolt gun is that I simply shopped for and assembled parts. I didn't bed anything or modify any parts once they arrived. I'm not even sure I'd count the trigger swap, since most hunting rifles don't have 8-10 pound military triggers out of the box.
I've not varmint hunted, and haven't shot beyond 300 yards, so I'll have to defer to those that have. I don't think a 24" barrel is necessary for a .223 or 5.56. I'll have to run numbers, but my gut's suggesting that...well, skip the gut. This from Walt Kuleck and Greg King in the AR-15 Complete Owner's Guide (p 89):
Hunting Rifle: Varmint
The Varmint Rifle may start out looking something like the long range defensive rifle, but its character is quite different. For one, sight redundancy is not only unnecessary, it is superfluous. One will not be shifting to iron sights if one's scope goes bad whilst plinking groundhogs at 300 yards. One will, as a rule, simply go home, or hike back to the pickup for the backup rifle. Yes, there are those who enjoy the challenge of the stalk. For them, reversion to iron sights might just add to the pleasure of their hunt. I would imaging them to be in the minority. thus, iron sights will be generally entirely omitted. The front sight will be supplanted by a simple gas block with no provision for sight mounting. the barrel will be of 20, 24, or even 26 inches in length, and of "bull" configuration: very, very heavy. A handguard float tube will provide a convenient place to mount a bipod without affecting the barrel and shifting the point of impact....
https://www.americanhunter.org/articles ... artridges/
The .223 Remington is to varmint hunters what the .30-06 is to big game hunters: a cartridge that can do it all, even if it isn’t the best for specific tasks.
CMP service rifle competitors shoot out to 1000 yards, throwing 80 grain hollow-point match projectiles from 20 inch barrels.
http://thecmp.org/training-tech/shootin ... d-tactics/
Very early M16s had 1:12 or 1:14 twists for the light bullets, but the common twists used today - 1:7 and 1:8 will stabilize 75-80 grain match lead.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/10019 ... -box-of-20
As for hunting game larger than groundhogs... There's not much difference between the Winchester Power-Point for deer, the Speer Gold Dot used by police around the country for 2-legged game, or the Federal tactical bonded ammo used by Feds - they're in the 62-64 grain range.
The Winchester 64 grain Power-Point will be supersonic past 500 yards. It crosses the 'magical' 1000 lb/ft of energy just pass 100 yards, but will still kill a deer or bear at 300 with good shot placement. I'll bet it'll take coyotes to 500. With a 200 yard zero, the bullet will drop 8.2 inches at 300 and 53.8 inches at 500.
http://gundata.org/ballistic-calculator/
https://www.weather.gov/epz/wxcalc_speedofsound