Shooting up to 500 yards.. Can an AR hold up to a bolt gun?

[someoneeasy]

I know the USMC trains out to 500 meters. It is part of their qualification fire. They are using rack grade rifles with who-knows how many rounds through the barrels.

Could your pristine AR with a match grade barrel shoot as well as a bolt gun at 500 meters? I would think so . . . but you need to compare like condition and quality weapons. The biggest difference I can see is the sights. The AR is a total package, designed to be effective on a man size target at 500 meters WITH OPEN SIGHTS! Will your compared bolt gun have the same requirement?

Marines Do It

^^^this^^^

Can/should you be able to shoot better groups with a scoped bolt gun at 500 yards? Yes

I'm one of those guys who could consistently put my shots "in the chest" of the target at 500 yards with an M16 - at 29 Palms - with the range flags sometimes blowing in different directions at various yard lines.

It all comes down to the basics. I've never taken a 500-yard shot with any of my bolt guns - but of course, I've never put as many rounds through any of my bolt guns as I might in any given day back in the Corps.

Same here, consistently 10/10 or 9/10 depending if I messed up my windcall.

Like some of the posters said and along with the Marines before me, 500 yards all day everyday with the M16 and iron sights, but from what I heard, they don't learn with iron sights anymore. Digi Marines.....

[Guns and guitars]

732 yards

Very nice!!!

[milotrain]

Given good match grade ammo, can a AR upper be built to perform as good as a bolt gun up to 500 yards?

As good? No. Good enough? Yes. If both are 5.56 you can easily build an AR that shoots 3/4MOA which is plenty accurate for doing anything you want at 500 yards. An excellent bolt action might be 1/2MOA, or even 1/4MOA. Worst case your AR will print 2.5" larger groups than the bolt gun at 500 yards.

The AR is fine. You'll need a $700 upper, the lower can be whatever you want as long as your trigger control is excellent. You can certainly buy an off the shelf bolt rifle for cheaper, and if you are careful with your shopping it will be more accurate (10 foot pole from the Rem/Sav/Tik/How debate).

[1911Operator]

have you guys seen this vid? Maybe I should opt for an Ar10 build? damn i have a lot of options. Id like a heavy hitter on my roster but still not sure if I want to invest into another caliber.. I have a good amount of 556 for plinking right now so still got some thinking to do.

[fmunk]

My mindset: I dont think i would be making any shots past 500 yards, id like to stick to my AR platform since I already have so much gear/parts for it.

The question is: Given good match grade ammo, can a AR upper be built to perform as good as a bolt gun up to 500 yards?

Id like to stick to 5.56 but going with a AR10 is not out of the question for me. Should I invest in a good upper when I go shooting 100-500 yards or should I build/buy a completely different rifle for this?

Depends entirely on your skills, specs on the AR, optics and ammunition used. Those are the 4 factors. With the right combination, you can punch sub-moa paper holes out to 600 all day long.

[Jimi Jah]

AR-10 is a lot more money to buy and feed. If you want to play sniper it might be fun.

[ExtremeX]

Just a personal observation and looking at this from the ammo / hand loading standpoint...

I get much better SD/ES figures with fire formed brass in my bolt gun. I can see those figures open up a little when I bump the shoulders or FL size my brass.

The ammo I make for my semi auto just isn't as good as what I can make for my bolt action.

So with the rifles being equal, I can squeeze more out of my ammo when loading for a bolt action, which again gives it the edge.

My vote goes to the bolt action...

[NytWolf]

For those saying semi-auto is better than bolt, just remember that Barrett 50BMG rifles are semi-auto. You can't really generalize just the class of rifles.

In OP's question, he specifically asked about an AR platform semi-auto with bolt guns. I'm sure that each will hit 500 yards with accuracy, but consistency is the real question. If both a semi-auto and a bolt gun were made to hit 500 yards consistently, I would tend to believe that the AR shooter would be the one putting more effort into the shot. If you want the same amount of effort required, the AR would be a more expensive rifle to build.

[23's Dad]

No, the AR can't really keep up

You can make a direct side by side comparison at an NRA Mid-Range Match. You'll see the F-Class rifles firing on a target that has scoring rings 1/2 the diameter of the scoring rings used by the rifles being shot from slings. There aren't any winning F-Class shooters using ARs with bipods and scopes. There aren't any winning bench rest shooters using ARs either.

Take a look at some of the "artillery" being used as bench rest rail guns. The object is to eliminate any extraneous motion. Having a gas system is not helpful. If it was, you'd see it on the wire.

That being said, I shoot my AR at 600, prone with a sling, because I can. It's fun, and a real challenge.

[ar15barrels]

For those saying semi-auto is better than bolt, just remember that Barrett 50BMG rifles are semi-auto.

Barret makes 50bmg bolt rifles and semi-auto rifles.
The semi-auto barrets have floating barrels and atrocious precision.
They are excelent for shooting at vehicles (area targets), but not very good for point targets.

[milotrain]

1. Your plinking ammo is useless except for the brass. You aren't doing anything precision at 500 yards with plinking ammo in an AR.

2. If what you want to do is get better at known distance shooting and position shooting then you want an AR set up to NM spec. You feed it right and it's a 1/2MOA gun. All the rest is on you. It's the cheapest way to shoot in competition and get better at known distance position shooting.

[surfer321]

FJOLD

I think you are a little off in your response. If you take a same quality AR to bolt gun an AR can DEFINITELY hold its own against a bolt gun out to 500yds. No question!
I do a lot of shooting against expensive (not always quality if expensive) as well as good well built bolt guns with my AR's and do not have any problems shooting as accurately or better than they do. If you put the same quality guns and shooter ability behind the guns they will both be equal to 500yds. We have proven it time after time. This is not a mystical answer as some will post but proven fact.

To make a statement that bolt guns will always prevail is 100% not accurate I can appreciate that maybe you have not had the success with AR's but we have. I see your posts of kills on coyotes at over 700yds and those are good shots. We have also killed coyotes with YES Ar's to 900+yards again not fiction. It has a lot to do with time on the rifle, quality of ammo ( and matching your rifle to what it likes) plus good optics. Again all things equal out to 500 we have not seen a difference apples to apples. Everyone wants to compare custom built bolts to off the shelf AR's. Not a realistic comparison. I build my own AR's with quality components they perform not only for me but the group of hunters, shooters in our group.
Good luck with your hunting

[mif_slim]

When i was shooting at long range clubs, me and another person were the only 2 who shot AR. Im not saying we are great shots, but our scores were a few below or above those fancy space guns out to 800 yards. Now, are AR better? I cant say, but i can say shooters play a huge role in accuracy. If your best abilities can ring out 2moa, a 1moa gun can never be 1 moa of you keep jerking the trigger.

So, at 500 yards, i say its easy. Its when you shoot longer distances that a good shooter with a good bolt will out shoot a semi.

[CK_32]

Just pick up a bare bones AR and slap a scope on it.

500 yards is cake for the 5.56/M4 16" platform.

But if you have to get the best, I would get a barreled upper with a SS wuality barrel and call it good. With a solid mount/scope. Invest in quality match ammo. Done.

You don't need a $10k competition bench rig for plinking. Even for weekend comps under 500 it's more the shooter than the rifle for basic CAPRC type stuff.

[vintagearms]

Just pick up a bare bones AR and slap a scope on it.

500 yards is cake for the 5.56/M4 16" platform.

But if you have to get the best, I would get a barreled upper with a SS wuality barrel and call it good. With a solid mount/scope. Invest in quality match ammo. Done.

You don't need a $10k competition bench rig for plinking. Even for weekend comps under 500 it's more the shooter than the rifle for basic CAPRC type stuff.

Speaking of CAPRC, we had one gas gun at Clinic "A". Don't think he did to well and after the first stage don't remember seeing it on the line after that. It was a high end AR. For CAPRC type shooting, the recoil management is very different to a bolt gun and much harder to do prone in an AR.