Long range shooting with an AR platform rifle
I don’t know all of the facts and figures, but given just what I see every day on the New York and Ohio firing ranges around here, I would say that the AR15 is the most popular rifle in America. Now that caliber changes are as easy as swapping out your AR15 upper receiver and possible only a minor change in your lower receiver like a hammer spring, you can go from a .223 varmint rifle to a 6.8 SPC rifle, or down to a CQB rifle at almost the pop of two pins. I was never a big fan of upping the caliber on a AR15 rifle, but I am a big fan of the 75gr HPBT for close up fighting. The 75gr bullet seems to yaw better and slower velocities and give more thump just from my experiences.
When it comes to taking your AR15 rifle to a longer range, there are records being broken every week with the AR15 platform. People use to laugh when they would hear of some one shooting an AR15 at 1000yds, but it is done and can give a .308 a run for it’s money. The real thing to consider when it comes to caliber changes on AR15 upper receivers is how powerful is the round vs just accuracy competitions. I have a friend that came back from service over in the Middle East and he gave first hand accounts of how bad 9mm ammo was in combat and that at least 3rds of M855 was necessary to take down a threat with an M4. Consider the ammunition you are using and not just how far out you can shoot, you may want to trade accuracy for energy.
I had the opportunity to get out to the range again this week. I tend to bring the same bullet weights with me to firing ranges whenever I’m shooting my ARs because there can be really big differences in bullet trajectory when shooting out to 600yds. There is also a very big difference between bullet drift with just a few extra grains of weight. I’ve pulled the trigger on 150gr FMJ bullets out to 500yds that missed targets just depending on whether or not I fired during a wind gust or not. It’s really a lot of fun to shoot distances because you find out that it’s not all about how well you hold a gun down and how well you pull the trigger. Timing is something that really plays a factor when shooting into the wind. I use to shoot at a range that had a wind that blew from right from 100-300yds and when you got out to the 400-600yds, the wind blew from the left.
There is much to debate when it comes to discussing the effectiveness of the 5.56 round. When it was originally deployed in the M16A1, the military had issues with the reliability of the gun, but I have heard not one complaint from any Vietnam vet about the lethality of the round. That was when the military was using a 20inch barrel with a 55gr bullet travelling well over 3000fps. The bullet is extremely violent at that velocity. The lethality of the round was greatly diminished when the military started using shorter length barrels and the 62gr SCBT also known as SS109 or M855. Although it is only 6grs heavier, the bullet is so well balanced that it basically zips straight through a target and the terminal ballistics are not very good below 2800fps which is practically what an M4 shoots it at near the muzzle.
If you are new to learning about defending yourself with a firearm, let me answer that question and save you from having to do any research. The answer that you will come to if you choose not to read further and decide to research on your own is NO! Using something as lethal as an Ar15 inside your home makes more sense than using any caliber handgun.
AR15s are as accessorable as legos. You can add on everyone accessory you can possible think of to an AR. There have a been a few funny spoof photos of people putting can openers and headlights on their guns, but it’s not far from the truth. There are reasons to have rails on various parts of a firearm, but most people won’t need anything more than a mount for optics, foregrip and a flashlight. Military applications open a whole new can of worms.