AR Question

[bonefish]

I shot my first AR last night (Rock River Predator) and I think I'm in love. I honestly never, ever thought I would want one, but the versatility of it for predator hunting is too good to ignore. THose of you that hunt predators with AR's, what calibers have you decided on? 223, 243, something else? I've heard .223 can be light for coyotes, but my thought is if I have a shot at a fox, I won't tear it up, and if I want to take it hunting smaller stuff (chucks, prairie dogs, etc) it works fine for that too. Your thoughts?

[HC Eye Hunter]

.223 PROS: Cheaper to shoot, plenty of snoose for a yote most of the time, less likely to tear up a fox or a yote, less recoil for constant target aquisition, good 300 yard+ gun, good accuracy most ARs will shoot most anything as far as ammo even though some ammo is better than others. CONS: Strong cross wind can effect bullet performance, caliber designed mostly for predators/varmints and not big game even though it is legal and will still kill deer sized game in the right hands.

.243 PROS: good wind bucking performance, good deer gun as well as a decent predator gun, good accuracy, good long distance shooter. CONS: Expensive to shoot, tears up predators, more weight to the gun (AR 10 frame in some guns unless you go to a .243 wssm) loss of target aquisition likely. Hope this helps, I am sure I missed something.

[bonefish]

Thanks HC. Your comments follow my line of thinking. Since this would be for predators/varmints only, .223 seems like the best choice unless I plan to spend time outside on MN where the shots could be long, and likely have more wind. That would be a nice problem to have, but not too likely any time soon.