What is a better round 5.56 or 7.62?

Question

I just bought a AR-15 that is 5.56.

Answer 1

Well depends on what you want to hunt. The 5.56 is good for smaller deer and antelope at decent ranges, but you can't argue the size and power of the 7.62 (.30 Cal) round. Most of the tried and true hunting rounds are based on the .30 Cal anyways. Of course there are exceptions, but everyone has their own opinions and preferences.
As far as your Ar. Nice weapon. I am sure you could take out some deer or antelope with it up to a couple hundred yards.

As far as accuracy, that will depend on you, and what rounds you shoot, but the 5.56 can be accurate enough to do what you want it to do as long as you aren't hunting elk or moose!

Answer 2

7.62X39 is just about equal to a .30-30 round. More deer have been taken with that cartridge than any other. The 5.56 nato or it's equivalent .223 winchester is more of a varmint cartridge. In it's original configuration the AR-15 used a bbl with 1 in 14 twist with a bullet traveling at approx 3300 ft per second. This meant that the bullett was unstable and would "tumble" on impact causing a massive wound channel. This resulted in some pretty nasty things happening to soft skinned (human ) targets. But it could be easily deflected by brush etc. Then the military decided to "improve things" and went to a bbl with 1 in 12 twist. This still produced very good results in wounds because the bullet was still relatively unstable. Then they improved things again and went to a 1-10 inch twist which made the bullet more stable, thus increasing downrange accuracy, but suddenly the wounds produced changed due to the stable bullet. So, they "fixed that" by going to a heavier bullet to cause more damage and reach farther down range. Marginal improvement in performance. Then they went to the current 1 in 9 bbl and shortened it to the current m4 configuration with the shorter bbl. Now the results are that our soldiers are reporting hits to the bad guys that aren't stoppin them. This, because they are sending a more stable bullet down range that is passing right thru the bad guy without transferring any energy to him.
OK, enough, I could go on but I think you get the point.

Answer 3

Better for what? Shooting a moose with a 22 caliber rifle isn't a good idea, and shooting little varmints with a 30 caliber is burning a lot of powder without good need. If you're talking military use, it's been known for over 50 years that the ideal general-purpose round would be one that fires a 7mm bullet of about 130 grains' weight at around 2400-2500 fps. It's just that nobody's bothered to make that round and rifle so far. If you wanted to make the ideal assault rifle, you'd make something a little bigger than the AR15 but smaller than the AR10, and chamber it for something just a smidge bigger than the 6.8 SPC.

Answer 4

Depends upon what you're hunting, if smaller game, the 5.56 is adequate, for deer, the 7.62 mm ( i presume 7.62 x 39 mm for the AK/SKS series) would be better. for larger game, the 7.62 X 39's 129 grain bullet is marginal.

Answer 5

5.56 is beneath mention; no long range use, no good for hunting, the military is now getting away from it too and going back to a caliber closer to the old 7.62. The 7.62 is a thirty caliber round that does the job first time, every time, is very accurate and can bring down all game on the lower 48. It seems that we have to keep reinventing the wheel.

Answer 6

For target use or varminting, 5.56 every time. For deer and other game, 7.62.

Answer 7

Ar, more accurate. 7.62 Better penetrator. Your call.

Answer 8

If you are hunting, then the 762 is always better for several reasons. If you are killing lots of paper targets at the range, your AR is better bc of cheap ammo. It all depends on what you are doing with your rifle.