Some good advice here already. Sounds like you’re looking for a complete build. I agree your location is really important in determining what restrictions you have but I daresay equally important in making sure that you can make clean ethical kills at the range you are shooting from.
- what is the terrain like? Clear cut or wooded? Brush or hilly?
- what does the average deer dress out at?
Have you hunted with .223 before? I have long before I owned an AR, but it was never my first choice for deer hunting. In East Texas our deer had better foraging and plus the terrain is often heavily wooded. A 223/5.56 was not optimal in that type of terrain and our deer were more healthy, which required a heavier round for clean kills plus shots that wouldn’t be so easily deflected. However if you are located near me in Central Texas where we grow midget deer, 5.56 may be sufficient. Personally I’d rather err on the side of bigger is better, so I would recommend bumping up in caliber. You can buy a good .308 for less than $2K (or have someone build you one) and you’d have a much bigger chance of dropping with one clean shot than you would with 5.56. .308 is a very common round and there are ammo manufacturers that produce .308 ammo for .60-.75/round that is plenty accurate at the distance you mentioned.
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