# 223/556 or 300 BlK



## tracker12

I am looking to buy my first AR platform gun.  Buying it for my annual trips to GA for pig hunting so was leaning towards a 300 BLK.  But after shooting my Son-In-Laws AR 556 the last couple weekends I'm am now leaning towards the 556.  Not sure I want to pay the price of 300BLK ammo for weekend paper or steel shooting.

What do you pig killers think.   556 enough of gun for body shots using the right bullet (I reload).


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## Hunt&Fish

I've killed over 100 in the last 10 years with my 308 using 150 gr Accubond handloads. Hogs are hard to kill dead right there. I've had many get up off the ground and run off carrying what I thought was a well placed bullet. Where I hunt I cant follow hogs into thickets on 2 sides of my food plot so I shoot for the head or neck.
I know many on this forum will disagree with me on this but I would not hunt hogs with anything less than a 308. The food plot in front of my stand is  190 yards long and  have killed hogs over 300 lbs at that range.


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## kinross

The 300 blackout works well . I have shot pigs with hand loaded  110 grn barnes tac tx and 125 grn nosler ballistic tips and it killed them deader than dead


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## furtaker

An AR platform in 7.62x39 is something else you might want to consider.  Way more wallop than a 5.56, a bit more wallop than the BO and commonplace, cheap ammo.


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## NCHillbilly

furtaker said:


> An AR platform in 7.62x39 is something else you might want to consider.  Way more wallop than a 5.56, a bit more wallop than the BO and commonplace, cheap ammo.



This, all the way. I have one in 7.62x39, and love it. There are a lot more calibers available in the AR platform than the two you mentioned. The 6.8 is another good hunting caliber.


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## DoubleM

I reload and love the 300 blackout round. Have had good luck with the subsonic lehigh defence round on hogs but all under 100 yards.
Have also killed them with 125 grain nosler,.


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## chainshaw

If it is your first AR, get the .223/5.56. The Blackout is finicky round. You can always get another upper, later. The Ruger is a 1/8 twist barrel that will allow you to shoot some of the heavier .223 loads, up to about 80 grains. You can kill a mess of hogs with a 64 grain soft point. Head and shoulders as your target.


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## frankwright

I agree with chainsaw. I have not killed 100 hogs for sure but I have killed a few.
Two I killed with a 10mm Glock and all the others were either a .22 Mag or an AR 223 with 62gr TSX handloads. None went more than 10 yards and most went right down. 

I wait for the right shot and shoot them in the head or neck. My hunting buddy killed three in three minutes with a 17 wsm and he said they went down like hit with a sledge hammer (head shots).
If I was going to body shoot a pig I would use a big game caliber like 270,308 or 30-06.


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## hogjumper

I'll continue to bang on the "shot placement" drum. I use 60-70gr .223 hunting ammo out of my AR and have always dropped them where they were standing. But I wait for the neck/head shot to make sure I'm not chasing anything through the brush in the middle of the night.

A good friend of mine hunts with a suppressed .300 BO and he absolutely loves it; I watched him hit a good sized sow right behind the shoulder and she made it 10 yards before dropping. But the downside is the cost of feeding that thing. That ammo is expensive!

Either way, make sure you take the time to zero and become proficient with the ammunition you plan on hunting with. You can't kill what you can't hit regardless of what you are throwing down range.


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## bfriendly

chainshaw said:


> If it is your first AR, get the .223/5.56. The Blackout is finicky round. You can always get another upper, later. The Ruger is a 1/8 twist barrel that will allow you to shoot some of the heavier .223 loads, up to about 80 grains. You can kill a mess of hogs with a 64 grain soft point. Head and shoulders as your target.



This^^^^^  I am looking to kill my first pig with my AR in 223/556....right now I am killing them with 22mag as I am a Public Land Prowler and thats what is legal most of the year..............223/5.56 is Plenty!

FWIW-I am a Lung/heart shot guy all day and twice on Sunday.........but the last one I shot only gave me a frontal shot so I went forehead! His legs gave out beneath him and he dropped like a rock


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## timetohunt

X2 with FURTAKER.  My first AR was a 223 then I bought a 7.62x39 upper from PSA so I would have a good 30 cal. gun too. Works great and I think the ballistics are better that the 300blk.


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## captbrian

I just bought one in 7.62x39.  Plenty for hogs and deer, and still real cheap at the range.


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## roperdoc

I have uppers in 223, 300blk, and 7.62x39.

 The 223 works. Placement is a little more critical, and performance on big hogs is a little less reliable. Low recoil allows quick followups, but when 10-20 hogs are in a field, each followup is a shot that could be on another pig.

The 300 blk is my choice for pigs, based on performance with Barnes vortex  110r ammo and the reliability resulting from using standard 556 magazines. I also just really like the ar I put together in this caliber.

The 7.62x39 has also accounted for a number of pigs, and is reliable with dedicated mags. Even 556 mags will feed 4 or 5 rounds of 7.62x39 ammo but to load beyond that a dedicated mag is best. This is a great plinking round due to low ammo cost. Shoot better ammo for hunting pigs. Cheap hollow points work well on deer.

My conclusion after 150+ pigs is that the 300blk is a pleasurable,accurate, and dependable choice for hunting pigs and deer. I often turn dogs out after shooting and they have caught/located pigs that ran off. This has allowed evaluation not only of the rounds that worked to stop pigs immediately, but also the rounds that did not stop a pig. I just think I get better performance and fewer runners with good ammo in the two larger uppers.
 The 6.8 and 6.5 Grendel calibers are also good choices, just pricier to build/buy and shoot. A couple buddies use these effectively.

A second upper can always be acquired in 223 or 7.62x39 for target shooting for under 300$ if ammo cost is a problem. Of course, then you'll want a second lower as well!


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## bfriendly

roperdoc said:


> I have uppers in 223, 300blk, and 7.62x39.
> 
> The 223 works. Placement is a little more critical, and performance on big hogs is a little less reliable. Low recoil allows quick followups, but when 10-20 hogs are in a field, each followup is a shot that could be on another pig.
> 
> The 300 blk is my choice for pigs, based on performance with Barnes vortex  110r ammo and the reliability resulting from using standard 556 magazines. I also just really like the ar I put together in this caliber.
> 
> The 7.62x39 has also accounted for a number of pigs, and is reliable with dedicated mags. Even 556 mags will feed 4 or 5 rounds of 7.62x39 ammo but to load beyond that a dedicated mag is best. This is a great plinking round due to low ammo cost. Shoot better ammo for hunting pigs. Cheap hollow points work well on deer.
> 
> My conclusion after 150+ pigs is that the 300blk is a pleasurable,accurate, and dependable choice for hunting pigs and deer. I often turn dogs out after shooting and they have caught/located pigs that ran off. This has allowed evaluation not only of the rounds that worked to stop pigs immediately, but also the rounds that did not stop a pig. I just think I get better performance and fewer runners with good ammo in the two larger uppers.
> The 6.8 and 6.5 Grendel calibers are also good choices, just pricier to build/buy and shoot. A couple buddies use these effectively.
> 
> A second upper can always be acquired in 223 or 7.62x39 for target shooting for under 300$ if ammo cost is a problem. Of course, then you'll want a second lower as well!



And all three of your uppers will go on the same lower right?  That is pretty awesome!!


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## roperdoc

Yes, these uppers are all interchangeable on the same lower. It's easy to take one upper with a thermal for night hunting and one with standard optics for daylight hunting or target shooting. Pull two pins and swap uppers in less than a minute. The lower and both uppers will fit in a single padded case.


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## misterpink

But a complete lower is less than $200. The more rifles the better.

556, x39, x51, 300 will all kill them.  Head shots are the way to go.  Shot them in the ear and they die with anything from 22 to 45 acp.


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## tracker12

Well I decided too start out with a 223/556 and get another upper as a dedicated pig gun.  Bought a Barrett REC7 and topped it off with a Leupold 2 1/2 X 8 VX3 to start with.  Hope to top it off with something with a lighted recital at a later date.  I have been testing some Speer Gold Dot 64 grain SP.  Groups are tight and they have a good reputation on hogs.  Hope to test it out down at Ft Stewart next month.  Thanks for all the recommendations.


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## Muddy Water

I'd go with the .223 upper. it's cheap and it'll kill any pig under 300lbs with a body/neck shot. it'll kill anything with a headshot. my last pig was neckshot with a .223 AR and it didn't move an inch

i'm not a big gun hunter so my opinion may be skewed but i've always held the impression that if a critter has a hole in it's circulatory system it's probably dead unless there's a group a pigs staffing a trauma unit in the next food plot.


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## Monty4x4

Muddy Water said:


> ...unless there's a group a pigs staffing a trauma unit in the next food plot.



HAHA!

I think you made a good choice.  Nothing wrong with any of them, but my go to hog gun is a 223, and I wait for 'in the ear' shots.


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## Darien1

I'm a big fan of the 7.62X39.  Cheap, effective, lots of platforms in single shot. bolt action, semi auto too.  My go to hog gun and under 100 yards deer rifle is my CZ 527 carbine.  It's the bomb


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## bradleyjanes06

I own a 7.62x39 ar killed a couple deer and 100 lb boar with it this year.  I use the 123 gr federal power shock or the Hornady zombie max.  Both have done amazing jobs though.  Boar ran 3 ft or so and laid over dead.  Plus I can 40 rnds for joy shooting for 10 bucks can't beat it really.


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