I'm in Arkansas. I checked and it's legal.
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I understand $200+ is quite a bit for a mount simply for deer hunting. On the other hand, you don't want to spend $20 and lose zero when your gun bangs around in the truck.
Here is a decent mount for a decent price (I'm assuming you have a 1" scope). You want your eyepiece lens to be in front of the charging handle for proper eye relief. This mount will allow for that.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/154...op-ar-15-matte
In terms of bang for the buck (i.e. not terribly expensive but still works well) the Aero mount (previously mentioned) and the ADM Recon mount for $148 shipped are tough to beat.
Just use the irons. You should be keeping it to under 100yd anyway, since it sounds like you're not an experienced hunter, and .223 is lame for deer.
Buy a few boxes of hunting ammo and zero the gun carefully at 50yd. It will be expensive ($1-2 per round). Barnes TSX would be my choice if you can find it. Nosler Partitions (60gr) are good, too.
For cheap, and it actually worked, the RRA scope mount that I picked up at a LGS a few years back, isn't too bad. It hasn't fallen off yet and has held zero on the rifle I have it on. Think it ran around $50 bucks. I was also putting a cheap Bushnell in the mofo so for like $125 I had an optic mounted on the rifle. For those who go that you need to have more in the optic than the rifle, I do, so shut up.
Now that said. I would seriously consider a better mount if I were using the rifle for something more than punching paper. The Aero comes pretty highly regarded, lots of people swear by the PEPR mount, and Larue, ADM, Bobro are all pretty highly regarded. When I decide to mount a better scope on the rig I will likely go with one of the aforementioned mounts, because to save $40 bucks or so ain't worth the ammo or aggravation of chasing zero. Been there, done that, ain't no ****ing way.