Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation: The AR-15 for Hunting?
Luke Cuenco 11.15.23
The AR-15 is more than just a tool for home defense and occasional pest control. The AR-15 has long been a handy hunting tool on a budget or for those who favor small and medium-sized games. The Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation has recently released a research report going over some interesting details with regard to how the AR-15 rifle intersects with the hunting world.
AR-15 Coverage on AllOutdoor
- The Best AR-15 Scope (for the Money $$$) for Your Rifle for 2023
- How to Install the Franklin Armory Binary Trigger for AR-15s
- The Coolest (and Weirdest) AR-15 Stuff at SHOT Show 2023
- Top 10 Common AR-15 Mistakes to Avoid while Shooting
The AR-15: Favored Over Other Rifles Among Hunters?
The research, entitled “Proliferation of Hunting with AR-Platform / Modern Sporting Rifles”, was conducted for OSCF by leading outdoor industry research firm Responsive Management.
Mark Damian Duda, Executive Director of Responsive Management states: “This report is chalk full of new insights and is a must read for anyone connected with hunting or AR-Platform rifles. In addition to many key findings, the report includes demographic-participatory analyses graphs that provide extra insight to the reader on how various demographic groups respond to certain questions within the report.”
The single most important reason for hunting according to the research document turned out to be “for the meat” by about 20% more than the next biggest reason which was “to be with family and friends,” Both of these are great sentiments but when it comes to the AR-15, most stated that the reason they favored it over other rifles was for its “ease of shooting,” and its “accuracy.” A majority of respondents to the research also stated that they used the AR-15 for large game such as deer or elk over small game such as squirrel or rabbit. The whole report is a bit of a dry read but it I thought might be interesting to some of you out there. Do you use your AR-15 to hunt with? If so then in what configuration and what for? Let us know in the comments!
Key findings from the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation include:
- Most important reasons for hunting last season.
- Percentage of hunters that have used an AR-Platform rifle to hunt with.
- What type of firearm hunters use most often to hunt with.
- How long they have hunted with AR-Platform rifles.
- Type of game, (i.e., large/small) that hunters have used an AR-Platform to hunt.
- Main reasons they use AR-Platform rifles for hunting.
- Likeliness of using an AR-Platform rifle to hunt with in the future (asked of hunters not currently using an AR-Platform rifle to hunt with). PS – the results will surprise you!
OSCF Board of Directors Secretary, Patrick Shay noted; “With limited data on this topic, the new OSCF report is a welcomed resource that allows readers to make fact-based decisions – which is important during these tough market conditions.”
This report expands an ever-growing knowledge library provided by Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation. To view the report and findings (free of charge) visit www.OutdoorStewards.org.
