The best attended serious precision competition shooting event in the western hemisphere is the CMP NTI Service Rifle match at the National Matches at Camp Perry each year. 98% of the over 1000 shooters use AR-15 style rifles. I spent all morning today at a service rifle match, that's 200-300-600 yards, shot a Master class score.

The AR is the greatest hobbyist rifle ever invented, for reasons mentioned above. Less popular for hunting, but that's changing.

Here in AZ I'd bet the majority of Coyote hunters use AR's and I've even started to encounter deer hunters using them, one guy in my deer camp carried one in .300 BLK this year.

I still prefer the Ruger #1 for hunting.

Poole