Saturday, April 01, 2017

Nope! No AR15's in Pennsylvania Deer Season!

Pennsylvania has decided that semi-automatic rifles (aka: AR15) are NOT legal for big game hunting.

Deer Hunters Relieved Over Semi-Automatic Weapons Law Change | WNEP.com:

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Game Commission made a last-minute change and decided not to legalize semi-automatic rifles for hunting big game like deer, black bear, elk, and turkey.
I agree with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The .556/223 is an underpowered caliber, deliberately designed for "war", where a wounded foe is better for the aggressor than a dead enemy ...  a wounded warrior hopes he has two buddies to get  him to medical help.

I've never been a fan of the .223 and its kin, because it is a wimpy  cartridge and over-touted; it is best suited for small game like woodchucks and prairie dogs

(ASIDE:  I own a .22-250 which is MUCH more effective even on small game, but much more powerful than the .223 cartridge.) 

MEAT:
I've hunted deer and antelope, and I'm a firm believer that a cartridge of at least .25 caliber is most likely to bring a quick and humane end to their life as fauna, and immediate transformation of their body into a locker.  Yummy!  (No .. Antelope does NOT "taste like goat"!)

I've served in Viet Nam, where wounded prisoners were brought in, and those were almost invariably 'wounded', not killed, by the 5.56mm/AR16 .. unless it was a "Head Shot".

Conclusion:
I agree with the Pennsylvania Game Commission that the 5.56mm/.223 caliber is not an appropriate (or at least a "controversial"  cartridge) for medium-size game such as deer.

Certainly, the .22* cartridge is not optimal for Elk, which are closer in size and vitality to a horse, than to a deer.

POSTSCRIPT:
Now, if the AR15 frame is presented with a more powerful cartridge than the .223/5,56 cartridge, I think that an overly broad definition of the term "AR15" is premature; that frame is capable of accepting more powerful cartridges (if only barely' the AR15 is not a "robust" frame, after all) and for the folks in charge in Pennsylvania to (apparently) have made such a broad statement is to accept that .
That's all I have to say about that.

On the other hand, I'm dumb as a stump and if you read down this far ... you already knew that.

3 comments:

Mark said...

I dunno some stumps are pretty dumb.

Anonymous said...

Browning makes a semi-auto hunting rifle in 300 winmag, Remington makes a 30-06 hunting rifle, there are several other firearms makers that make semi-auto rifles in popular big game calibers. The AR15 isn't the only semi auto rifle in the world.

Anonymous said...

ARs also come in .308 Winchester. Isn't that adequate for deer?