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Need help to decided on ar 15 caliber

OP said he wanted the 15 platform so I didn't go there but my meat stick is a plain Jane .308. Put thousands of pounds of meat on the table over the last six years with it, usually 5-6 hogs between the end of turkey season and start of hunting season then whatever pigs wander through while I'm hunting deer. .308 is uber cheap ammo by comparison to Grendel/6.8/.450 and capable far beyond the Grendel or 6.8.
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All of this is true story. The AR10 platform smokes the 15. OP wanted an AR15 platform. Nice triple
 
My son recently bought a Pulsar thermal scope and got into hog/predator hunting at night. I had never shot or owned a black rifle but knew he had to have one for this use and we got the 300BLK with 16 inch barrel. I have loaded 6-7 different bullets to try in both sub and super sonic and I am thoroughly impressed with it. He comes home at 2 am showing me the videos he recorded on the thermal scope where he is whacking the pigs and they always die, but he does pump them full of lead. If shots are kept under 150 yards it seems plenty powerful so far. He killed a 320 pound boar recently that he slipped in to 28 meters on before shooting and plugged him 7 times before he went 20 yards from first shot and died.
 
My son recently bought a Pulsar thermal scope and got into hog/predator hunting at night. I had never shot or owned a black rifle but knew he had to have one for this use and we got the 300BLK with 16 inch barrel. I have loaded 6-7 different bullets to try in both sub and super sonic and I am thoroughly impressed with it. He comes home at 2 am showing me the videos he recorded on the thermal scope where he is whacking the pigs and they always die, but he does pump them full of lead. If shots are kept under 150 yards it seems plenty powerful so far. He killed a 320 pound boar recently that he slipped in to 28 meters on before shooting and plugged him 7 times before he went 20 yards from first shot and died.
That sounds awful, and is exactly why I dumped the BO. I feel bad when I have to shoot something twice, YMMV.
 
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Wanting to build a dedicated pig ar. What caliber would you choose? I was looking at the 22-45 sharps but open to people opinions.

I am certainly no expert, so I'm just asking. Why would you consider building an AR 15 over an AR 10 if it's to be used for hunting? If you build an AR 10, almost any 308 length cartridge is available. The world is your oyster.

However, if you wanted to run a suppressor, it might be very advantageous will hunting hogs. I would think that 458 SOCOM would be the obvious choice? I don't have one yet. I hope to build one fairly soon.
Johnny
 
"I am certainly no expert, so I'm just asking. Why would you consider building an AR 15 over an AR 10 if it's to be used for hunting?"

Weight and compactness and easier handling.
In the real world most pigs and deer are taken inside 200 yards so you don't need the larger cases.
For those talking about certain bullets construction in 6.8 they make the same constructed bullets in .264.
From looking at multiple loading manuals comparing 6.8 Rem and 6.5 Grendel with equal barrel length the 6.5 Grendel out performs the 6.8 Rem as to velocity achieved and within the same weight range of bullet the .264 bullet most often has a better coefficient so it will retain it's velocity better.
I don't own a 6.8 Rem. but do own two 6.5 Grendel's and have killed white tail deer with them and they kill as good as anything I have ever used within 300 yards. Over the past 50 years I have killed hundreds of white tail deer from most about everything between a sharp stick and a 45-70. I did crop damage control for 15 years with my hunting buddy where we had to take 100 deer a year off a big farm. One lessen we learned is it's not what you shoot them with it is where you shoot them. Shoot them in the gut and you may not recover them because they can go for miles. Shoot them in the heart/lungs and about 70% of the time they will run off a ways. They are dead but they just don't know it yet. Shoot them in the central nerves system and they drop in their tracks.
You need to use a bullet that is constructed to accomplish putting a hole completely through your chosen impact direction to accomplish interruption of intended system.
The only hogs I have ever killed have been domestic because where I live or have lived feral hogs have not been around. The domestic hogs were killed with a 22 long rifle bullet to the brain. So again it is not what you shoot them with it is where you shoot them.
Oh, my Ford will out run your Chevy.
 
In your state where night hunting isn't an option (at least when I lived there) I would go big boar - .458 Socom range. There are a lot of wildcat calibers if you are into reloading.
 
Not much love shown for the 7.62x39...I would not have said much about until I started reloading for it last year. The Comm Block ammo isn't any where close to hand loads in accuracy or lethality!

Nothing in this thread can match it for cheap blasting ammo...

I've had a 7.62x39 for a long time. For hunting its heads above a 5.56. But I did fall in love with the 6.5 Grendel about two years ago, so I have 4 AR's in that chambering.

But once i shot a few hand loads out of 7.62x39 it became my go to rifle for the entire deer season here in Texas. So now i have 3 AR's in that chambering.

I shoot a 16" SS barreled rig that is suppressed...SWEET! I would trade it for any of the AR-15 chambering mentioned.

Oh OLT...i had three 6.8 SPC at one time...they are all gone now!
 
Check https://vasilentarsenal.com/
They make wsm options that run flawlessly through the AR 10 platform. Calibers like 300, 338 and 338 fed, 358, 375, and 458. Depending on how far you want to shoot.
Ritchie is a great guy give him a call and he can help figure out what will fit your requirements.
 
For those that don't know, 450 bushmaster brass can be made from 284 Winchester brass if you have trouble finding the bushmaster brass (I have not) simply by trimming the neck and shoulder down to 450 length.

The 450 bushmaster is about the most powerful cartridge that can be fired in a AR 15 and 10 round magazines will be all you need with the firepower on hogs. I have found that 2 to 300 yards is well within the range of the 450 for hogs and depending on your rifles accuracy, 4 to 500 yards is possible for game.

J E CUSTOM
 
I had a 6.5 Grendel at one time. Just trying to figure out if I want to go down the same route. Give me the pro and cons of the 6.8.
Used a 6.8 for several years and found it lacking in pork pounding department. Works fine on hogs under 100 lbs with perfect shot placement. But it is not a long range cartridge, lacks bullets of high BC, SD, and velocity. My hunting partners and I usually encounter pigs at 150 yds or less so we switch to the 458 SOCOM and we stopped wounding pigs and recovered all the pigs we shot, including 200lb ers. It really puts em down.
 
Grendel. Light, fast, accurate, affordable. Easy to reload, good selection of bullets, powder, brass. Compared to the .223, it has a lot more knockdown power, you can reach out much farther than the 6.8, with it still being accurate.
 
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