AR Pistol in slug zone

Stute Slap · Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:17 pm

A guy I know just told me a deer hunts in southern MN (slug zone) with an AR pistol 223......and its legal?

Anyone heard of this before?

Anyone hunt with one and have advice on a good set up?

Hard to believe in MN they would let this slide.

Drunk_Dynasty · Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:22 pm

Very legal. Killed my last two deer with .300 BLK AR pistols, although I don’t think they are necessarily better than a 12 gauge slug gun. I’m kinda wishing I just got a rifled slug barrel and good LPVO for it.

Just looking at the ballistics, I don’t think .300 BLK, and especially .223 are good out of pistol length barrels, and really not even too great out of rifle length barrels. 6.5 Grendel or 6.8 SPC would be better options. I can post pics of what I’ve got if you really wanna see my set up.

It’s a pistol by definition of law, not much the DNR can really do, and it really doesn’t seem like they give a chit to be honest. Guys that really think they are pulling a fast one are actually pretty dumb, because .223 sucks azz for deer.

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Mallard_maniac · Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:05 pm

^^^^do yourself an enlightening favor and google “77 grAin TMK’s for deer”. I promise you there is not a load out there in any caliber that would leave you wanting more than what a 223 77tmk from black hills or reloaded will give you. Somewhere online it’s been successfully used for elk & moose where there weren’t caliber restrictions as well.

A 62gr fusion is unreal deer medicine as well

Drunk_Dynasty · Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:44 pm

Even out of pistol length barrels? Hard to find data that wasn't done with 24" test barrels. I'll look into the TMK's but right off the bat I'm a bit leery of using a match bullet for deer. I really think I'd want something that would hold together better on a deer.

Even if they aren't necessarily bad, I'm going to have a hard to believe they are BETTER than a 12 gauge slug, especially at 100 yards or further. I get it if someone is recoil sensitive and what not, we all are to some degree whether we realize it or not,

Quack · Fri Dec 10, 2021 7:55 pm

I’ll admit I’m not AR savvy but this is the dumbest thing I’ve seen in our over regulated socialist state.

Maybe one of you can politely inform me how these things are legally defined as a pistol. Looks like an AR to me.

My issue is that the majority of license holders are not skilled in marksmanship and certainly aren’t ballistically savvy enough to make this legit. All I see is spray n pray road hunters and Busch lattes.

When I was a lad I could fling five slugs with the best of em… now we have a bunch of weenies with big magazines and the same small brain I was armed with.

Quack · Fri Dec 10, 2021 7:57 pm

I suppose I could add that thankfully most license holding bobos are sitting in office chairs surrounded by a heated cubicle and road hunting and deer drives seem to be less common

Drunk_Dynasty · Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:30 pm

Quack wrote:I’ll admit I’m not AR savvy but this is the dumbest thing I’ve seen in our over regulated socialist state.

Maybe one of you can politely inform me how these things are legally defined as a pistol. Looks like an AR to me.

My issue is that the majority of license holders are not skilled in marksmanship and certainly aren’t ballistically savvy enough to make this legit. All I see is spray n pray road hunters and Busch lattes.

When I was a lad I could fling five slugs with the best of em… now we have a bunch of weenies with big magazines and the same small brain I was armed with.

ATF defines a pistol as less than 26” overall length, no vertical foregrip, and barrel under 16”, thus these AR Pistols are legally…. Pistols.

People are always thinking the grass is always greener but 20 and 12 gauge shotguns straight wreck deer.

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emptymag · Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:46 pm

I believe the lower has to be marked as a pistol and if scoped it needs to have a pistol type scope. IE long eye relief.

I know of about 10 guys that have been using them for the last 5+ years.

All of them are shooting 300 blk.

I may or may not know a guy that shot a deer with his, suppressed with a subsonic.

How does the length part come into play if running suppressed?

emptymag · Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:48 pm

Also one of my dads friends has been hunting with a Thompson center contender pistol in 7mm-08 for 20+ years I’d guess.

Mallard_maniac · Fri Dec 10, 2021 9:04 pm

Drunk_Dynasty wrote:Even out of pistol length barrels? Hard to find data that wasn't done with 24" test barrels. I'll look into the TMK's but right off the bat I'm a bit leery of using a match bullet for deer. I really think I'd want something that would hold together better on a deer.

Even if they aren't necessarily bad, I'm going to have a hard to believe they are BETTER than a 12 gauge slug, especially at 100 yards or further. I get it if someone is recoil sensitive and what not, we all are to some degree whether we realize it or not,

No idea on short tubes. My experience has been 18” and beyond with the 77’s, have a good bit of time behind 62’s out of a 16” and would/have had no issues killing deer out if that. Also…. Arguably the beloved 6.5 manbuns most successful pill has been an eldm which of course the “m” means match. More and more people are catching on that “match” doesn’t necessarily mean bad for everything besides paper. I’d shoot almost every match bullet out there over a mono like a TTSX… and I have 3 bulls with monos that can prove (to me) why they’re less than ideal despite the industry telling us they’re premium