• AhismaMiasma@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Assuming proper training and ammunition, they’re perfectly capable for hunting small to medium game such as rabbits, coyotes, tyrants, wild hogs, and whitetail deer.

    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      I don’t think some people know how much damage a pack of wild hogs can cause to crops and farmland in short order. If it wasn’t going to be an AR-15 keeping them off the farm it would be another intermediate or higher caliber semi-automatic rifle that accepts standard magazines. Everyone want’s to laugh at that excuse until the farmer has a bad season and has to sell his land to Bill Gates or Chinese investors, they don’t exactly make large margins.

      • Greg Clarke@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        The magazine capacity is an issue though. The standard 30 round mag is far to large for any realistic hunting purposes (you can also get up to 100 round drum mags). While you can hunt with an AR-15, it’s not the best rifle for the task.
        I live in Canada and the government is in the process of banning semi-automatic centre fire rifles capable of holding more than 5 rounds. Given that 3D printers exist, this pretty much bans all rifles with interchangeable mags. I’m a gun owner on a rural property and I think that’s a reasonable compromise. I can still own a decent bolt action hunting rifle and a semi-automatic rim fire rifle with no mag limit.
        It does suck for people who’s rifles are getting banned though.

        • Dettweiler@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          You’ve obviously never been surrounded by a pack of coyotes or hogs.
          .223 is also an excellent caliber for that size game.

          • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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            2 months ago

            Anecdote time!

            I was once semi-surrounded by coyotes while hiking in some back country with a friend.

            I did not have anything except my camping knives and a very small axe for splitting kindling.

            My buddy had a compact 9mm in his waistband.

            Honestly, I can say an AR would not have made me feel safer. A larger capacity on my sidearm, on the other hand, would. The AR is just too bulky to move quickly in close quarters.

            Luckily a single round to the trailside was enough to scare them off, since yelling and throwing things wasn’t. We then ran/sprinted a few miles down the trail toward the vehicle before we even considered slowing down.

            Not many situations in which either one is something I’m desiring though, and while I’m not a fan of limiting people, I can’t say I’ve ever needed 30rds at once. Honestly, I buy 10rd mags just because they fit very nicely in some cases I already had, and the 30rds don’t.

            Rambling anecdotes over, have a nice day!

            • Hathaway@lemmy.zip
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              2 months ago

              Anecdote time! I went to infantry basic training and we were told over and over again, if you have to draw your sidearm, you’re dead. The AR absolutely is not too bulky for close quarters and I would feel much better with one on my hand than anything else. The US army has murdered a lot of people with M4 rifles in CQC. (My politics don’t align with a stereotype of a former infantryman. Please do not assume too much)

              In either situation, with adrenaline, good luck getting shots on target.

              Hmm, I don’t understand the downvotes but okay lmao I’m sorry that the AR platform is actually fine in close quarters?

              • daltotron@lemmy.ml
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                2 months ago

                I think it’s probably that your anecdote and experience is kind of out of left field considering this guy was only dealing with a couple coyotes, and honestly you probably don’t even need a gun in that circumstance, and I don’t think you’d much need anything larger than pistol-caliber.

                Hmm, I don’t understand the downvotes but okay lmao I’m sorry that the AR platform is actually fine in close quarters?

                As far as I understand it, the main problem people have with it, which they also have with pretty much every gun larger than a foot or so, so most guns, is that you can’t really cross a threshold horizontally. About the only thing that could qualify against that maybe is like, a pistol or one of those shotguns with a bird’s head grip, or like, some smaller pdw or something. I also dunno how much of a problem that is, of, oh it’s gonna snag on something, or whatever, right, I guess it’s just the idea it’s going to present a higher snag risk or something when turning around, or, when getting up to a ready position? I dunno I’m not a gun nut.

                I think it probably also isn’t helped by the increasing consumerist trend to load up their guns with more and more extraneous shit and go for longer and longer rifles on their AR platforms to try and increase accuracy on the range, which means they tend to conceptualize of them as being unsuitable for close quarters despite that kind of being the idea of an intermediate cartridge and all that. It also doesn’t really help to cite our military engagements with it considering over the last like 3 decades of the rifle’s service we’ve mostly only fought like, random middle eastern terrorist organizations that don’t have a great reputation for good training or good equipment or anything like that. You could maybe look at uses of the rifle by other organizations like the IRA or whatever, but I don’t think they had any close quarters engagements.

                • Hathaway@lemmy.zip
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                  2 months ago

                  Most of this comment is out of left field. Wow. Uh.

                  Dealing with a couple coyotes. Honestly probably didn’t need a gun.

                  This study shows coyotes predate on humans up to 37% of known attacks. That person was fortunate to have a firearm.

                  Dude said he wouldn’t feel better with a rifle, well, from his personal anecdote, to mine, I would. I am much more likely to be accidentally shot by my friend with the handgun imo.

                  I don’t know how much of a problem that is, oh and it’s going to snag on something. I’m not a gun nut.

                  Your lack of experience is obvious. I’m not going to go into all the reasons you can clear buildings and rooms without reaching for a handgun, as muzzle discipline and accuracy become exponentially more difficult. There’s a reason SWAT breaches with rifles and not handguns, well, them and any one else that has quick access to a rifle in the situation.

                  consumerist trend to load up guns with extraneous shit and go for longer and longer guns.

                  I work at a gun store, that’s simply not true. SBRs and AR pistols exist and are extremely popular.

                  don’t compare what we did to terrorists, look at the IRA.

                  right, or the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Or the literal decades of combat US special operators have with the platform since Vietnam, or any other of its long, violent life. Or you can ask any of these countries, or, look into any of these use cases

                  Maybe don’t chime in on things you’re absolutely clueless on? I’m trying to figure out how to put this somewhat nicely but you clearly have some misguided thoughts here. And none of this comment has anything to do with the fact that, if surrounded by a pack of hungry animals, I want an AR-style rifle personally.

            • Dettweiler@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              In the late Winter/early spring they start getting a bit braver and start moving further into the cow pastures. That’s when we have to cull the pack to keep them away from the cattle.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Oh yeah, I thought you meant in regards to humans. I’ve never seen a coyote so much as growl at a human without a cub nearby.

                • Dettweiler@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  They will definitely come after humans if they are hungry enough and their pack is large enough. It’s around that season that they start getting a bit braver because they are hungry coming out of winter and it’s breeding season. Usually they run after the first shot, but sometimes they don’t notice you dropped one and they keep coming until the follow-up shots. It’s not out of the ordinary to bag multiple coyotes in one spot.

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          2 months ago

          While you can hunt with an AR-15, it’s not the best rifle for the task.

          It’s not the best rifle for any task. But it’s a good enough rifle for most tasks, and between real AR-15s and the various clones they are cheap, in common calibers, and have accessories widely available.

          Which is why it’s the most common rifle in the US by a fair margin.

          It being the most common rifle in the US by a fair margin is in turn why it’s so often used in public mass shootings, as those are usually done with weapons of convenience rather than something bought for purpose. Likely also why the guy who shot Trump used one.

          If a public mass shooter wanted the best gun for the job, they’d get something closer to a PS-90 (the civilian version of the P-90 which is a military rifle designed for urban combat).

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            If a public mass shooter wanted the best gun for the job, they’d get something closer to a PS-90 (the civilian version of the P-90 which is a military rifle designed for urban combat).

            You’re neglecting the fact that mass shooters are murderers, so close combat isn’t their thing - and the best gun for the job has already been shown - ar15-style rifles - 14!! - with drum mags and bump stocks:

            On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada from his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel. He fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 60 people[a] and wounding at least 413. The ensuing panic brought the total number of injured to approximately 867. About an hour later, he was found dead in his room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting

              • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                That’s a lie. Anyone familiar with guns knows he had a machine gun up there.

                roflwhat?

                this is such a silly response I can’t even.

                he purchased 24 firearms over the course of years. Most were AR types - 14 .223 ar15 patterns but also AR-10s and a .308 bolt action.

                you could argue he made them machine-gun like with the c-mags and bump stocks; as the shooting went on his firing came in longer and longer bursts, 90+ rounds - but there were no ‘machine guns’ in the ATF tax stamp sense.

                Just stupid american laws crafted by idiot politicians owned by the gun lobby allowing civilians to approximate a half ass version that’s basically only effective for murdering unarmed civilians. A real machine gun is belt or box fed, has changeable barrels, a tripod or bipod with T&E, an AG…

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Honestly external magazines need to just be banned. That way it’s immediately clear a rifle is legal or not. It’s also great for hunting still, and okay for self/collective defense. But not great as a mass casualty producer.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        We cleaned about 250 boar out of our farm over a four year period with the same 3-5 shot rifles we hunt deer and moose with. They mill around long enough you can reload. I have an SKS but I don’t bother, I’d rather sneak over a hill and pop half a dozen slowly and cleanly with my .338. And I can do it from far enough away that they don’t really get upset until 3 of them are lying on the ground, kicking.

    • anachronist@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      You’d really want something bigger for hogs and deer. Never known anyone who hunts deer with .223. You really want one of options in thirty caliber.

      While I’m sure someone hunts rabbits with a rifle you’d really use a shotgun or a really small rifle for them.

      .223 is a good coyote round though. There are better coyote rounds available and there are better coyote rifles in .223.

      • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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        2 months ago

        .300 Blackout for hogs.

        You can get an AR-15 chambered for this, or easily swap a few parts if you already have one.

        AR-15’s are popular because it’s an easily modifiable platform. It’s not the best for any one thing, but it’s pretty good at a variety.

      • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I’ve taken deer with 556. Even if I hadn’t, I know people do because all the heavy loads sell out around deer season.

      • LordCrom@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Actually, are we allowed to shoot coyotes in the city limits? Alligators are mostly chill and will just take off, but coyotes hunt around at night here.

        • DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          5.56 is a ridiculous waste of money for rabbits and totally excessive. 22 or even a pellet gun would be perfectly adequate and waaaaaay cheaper.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      i was under the assumption an ar15 would explode something like a rabbit without useable trace?

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        2 months ago

        Nah, it’s a small round as rifles go. “High powered military rifle” is a complete misnomer.

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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          2 months ago

          The likely issue there is less the size of the round and more the impact of the pressure wave on tissue. Body shots with a standard high-powered rifle round may not leave much useable meat on something the size of a rabbit.

  • Andy@slrpnk.net
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    2 months ago

    People joke about the shooter “missing”, but at a few hundred feet away, a 2" miss is clearly within the influence of wind.

    Trump got extremely lucky. I don’t think this was the result of a poor shot.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Most people using an AR buy cheapo 115 grain FMJ to shoot from their $600 AR. Cheap ammo from a cheap AR will group at 5-6 inches shooting with a bipod from a bench with a minute between shots with no wind at that range.

        Throw in wind, stress, sub-optimal support, and rapid fire and it’s a very difficult shot.

        Which is good and bad. Good in that assassinations should fail. Bad in that it means this asshole was shooting up a crowd.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Are you grouping that at 100 yards? Because I think your barrel is screwed up if that’s true. 2-3 inches on a mass market AR is common from a controlled setup. Of course most people are not as accurate as their gun so if they’re shooting then yeah it can be wild.

          • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            He was shooting closer to 200 yards I thought.

            My main AR groups better. I’ve got a higher-end AR with a .223 Wylde 1:7 barrel and when I shoot SMKs through it it’ll group a ragged hole. But that’s not the setup most people are buying and shooting.

            But my gun is triple the cost of a standard AR-15, and the glass on top is even more expensive.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              400ft, 120M, 130Y.

              And yeah that’s the thing. What a modern gun can do locked into a bench is going to be way better than what most shooters can do.

    • daltotron@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      I mean I think I’d say it was more the result of poor preparation than anything. I think most places are saying he had like, 3 shots or somewhere around there, and apparently his rifle had no optic on it at all, which is kind of an insane idea at that distance. Which I think also maybe lends credence to the idea that this was just some impulse decision rather than a prepared kind of thing. I don’t think it’s that hard of a shot to make in general, even given the single opportunity that you’re going to be working with, I’ve hit soda cans with .22s at similar ranges. You barely have to take into account windage or holdover and I haven’t seen any evidence of heavy wind on the day of, really.

      So, I dunno, I think it’s probably just an idiot kid killing himself in like, some elaborate suicide by cop or something. or just a dumb groyper, jury’s still out.

  • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    They are good hunting rifles for feral hogs actually, 30 round mags included.

    Plus, banning certain magazine sizes or particular models of rifle isn’t really going to fix anything, but things like universal background checks would probably help.

    • Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      TBH, I would not trust a .223 to take down a hog intent on fucking me up. If feral hogs were a threat, I’d want a semi-auto .308 or similar larger more powerful round.

      • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
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        2 months ago

        10mm carbine would be good too if they aren’t too far, but most farmers tend to hunt them from relative safety in a stand or even from a helicopter sometimes: 5.56 is a popular choice but that might be in part because it’s pretty ubiquitous in the states.

  • anachronist@midwest.social
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    2 months ago

    Ar-15s are potentially ok hunting rifles for large birds and small mammals although there are better options out there.

    The main argument I’ve heard for an AR besides the larp thing is that it’s easy to find compatible accessories because it’s a popular “open source” common platform.

    But honestly any hunter who is serious about hunting with .223 probably has a better gun that they hunt with.

    • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Its also cheap and can be handled by most people of all sizes. Its probably the best overall gun to own for most purposes.

  • Grayox@lemmy.mlOP
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    2 months ago

    For the record I would rather 45 lose and continue to drag the GOP down than have a quick death.

    • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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      2 months ago

      I’d rather he rots in a state jail for the rest of his life, and give him the same standard of care as every other inmate. No special treatment. If he needs to be put in solitary “for his own protection” then so be it. It’s the system people like him loves to protect.

      To be clear, I think the US treatment of prisoners is inhumane and bordering on criminal (and all too often crossing said border) and the whole penal system needs drastic change and made entirely nonprofit, and the constitution needs another Ammendment because the 13th was a mistake.

      But that’s not the world we live in, and the people who crafted this world should be forced to live in it.

      • Grayox@lemmy.mlOP
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        2 months ago

        That would be so nice. Wish we focused on rehabilitation instead of retaliation in our criminal justice system. Its such an ass backwards system.

        • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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          I love seeing prison photos from other countries that show how well prisoners can be treated while still being in prison. Countries with extremely low recidivism.

          And there are plenty of people I know who would see that and balk, because “that’s being too soft”

          I’ve had people insist that stronger punishment over rehabilitation is what you need, and ignore my bringing up that there’s decades and decades of data that shows otherwise.

          At best, the harsh punishments serve as a deterrent to other people doing similar things that might result in similar punishment, but that just creates new and sneaker crimes and criminals. It’s better to rehabilitate, help people turn their poor choices around, and eliminate the cause of the problems that led to the crime in the first place.

          But that’s “too much work” so might as well not even try, right? As we all know, the light bulb famously was invented on the first couple tries.

    • Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I would prefer Trump to have a long and miserable life in prison. Preferably in an underground cell in SuperMax somewhere. For his own protection of course.

  • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    hunting human rifles.

    let’s be honest, it was designed as a lightweight emergency carbine made of space aged materials. 60 years later we’re arguing if the founding fathers meant bump stocks and cmags when they said well regulated militia.

  • Iron Lynx@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Y’know, this is in this weird spot where it’s right between canon and as seen (which, by the way, can be explained even with canonical things). If it was truly as seen, the shots would have gone way wide. If it was truly canon, the Reps would be scrambling for a new candidate now.

    • Iron Lynx@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The explanation for Stormtroopers’ shoddy marksmanship on screen in A New Hope is because Vader wanted Leia & company to escape, but by the skin of their teeth, so that they would basically drop their guard the instant The Falcon took off from the Death Star and not realise there was a tracker bug installed. If Vader just let them fly off unopposed, that would probably be hella sus, and they’d probably pull over at the first asteroid to find and chuck said tracker bug. So the Stormtroopers were specifically instructed to shoot to thrill, not to kill.

      When faced with opposition without plot armour and reasons to keep them alive, Stormtroopers are fucking brutal, as seen in The Empire Strikes Back - Hoth was somewhere between a decisive Imperial victory and an Imperial Curb Stomp

      • anachronist@midwest.social
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        2 months ago

        When faced with opposition without plot armour and reasons to keep them alive, Stormtroopers are fucking brutal, as seen in The Empire Strikes Back - Hoth was somewhere between a decisive Imperial victory and an Imperial Curb Stomp

        Their shooting was also terrible on Endor. Maybe those were the flunky storm troopers that got put on the imperial guard due to nepotism or corruption?

        • Iron Lynx@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I suspect that any modern force ambushed in a jungle, or any type of complex, unfamiliar terrain, by primitive fighters who know the place like the back of their hands will suffer.

          There are stories of UK soldiers in the sixties being ambushed by a man with a scimitar, and it took them a while and several fairly serious injuries before they could line up a shot with their FALs.
          Not to forget the Vietnam war which, despite the advanced force being a coalition led by the US, and said coalition resorting to torching the jungle and other war crimes, still ended being up a North Vietnamese victory.

          The Endor force, while not outgunned, was maybe outnumbered and definitely outwitted.

          • anachronist@midwest.social
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            2 months ago

            The storm troops on Endor were not ambushed. They knew the attack was coming. They were fighting from prepared defenses on a fire base. The fact that they were drawn out of the base to fight in the jungle was a lack of judgement on their part. Their whole mission was to protect the shield generator.

  • anachronist@midwest.social
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    2 months ago

    Everyone’s saying the guy used an AR but given the relatively small number of shots and the fact that the bullets went everywhere except where the guy was presumably aiming my bet is he was a Socialist Rifle Club guy with an SKS.

    • Restaldt@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      No… it was an AR with no scope fired from the prone position by someone who definitely was not trained to land shots precisely at that range from that shooting position in a highly tense unsurviveable situation again all without a fucking scope

      Tmz had a video of the moron opening fire and getting counter sniped

      • Grayox@lemmy.mlOP
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        2 months ago

        He didn’t even have an optic?!? What an absolute idiot… haven’t seen that video yet.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I mean… At the risk of landing on a list… Any infantry private could have landed that shot.

          But if I were to do it it would be a larger round that’s more resistant to the wind, capable of penetrating the light body armor the secret service wears, and from about 3 times the distance with 6x optics. There’s at least a chance to E&E from that position and the likelihood of a kill shot is far higher.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          It’s not nearly that hard. To put it into game terms he tried to use the grenade launcher without any practice.