My main shooting buddies will absolutely not shut up about how "impractical" of a deer rifle my 20 inch AR-10 (308) with 5-30x scope is.
If I had a desire to kill a deer with it, that deer would DIE. But, uh, not exactly the point.
(Edit to elaborate/clarify: I don't have any particular desire to hunt, so I am annoyed that my friends insist on discussing the suitability of my long distance precision target rifle for hunting. That said, if I indeed did desire to hunt with it, it would be more than adequate for the task)
how exactly is that impractical?
Fudds (gun dudes that have lots of backwards, antiquated, and/or folk-medicine-ish ideas about how guns works) think that any cartridge invented after the start of the Vietnam War is impractical and over-engineered. They love to fixate on the grain of a bullet (the mass of the projectile) as the end-all-be-all of stopping power, so rounds like 7.62x54R, 30-06, and .45-70 Government are the greatest rounds ever conceived by the spirits of the holy gun inventors, while things like .300 Blackout and 6.5mm Creedmoor are too tiny to kill anything larger than an overweight rabbit. It's the same mentality of fuddy-duddy car guys who think you need 300 HP to safely merge onto the interstate.
I do want a 45-70 really, really badly though. Ideally lever gun and revolver, because I have zero respect for my wrists and I think it will be funny to refer to a 45-70 lever gun as a pistol caliber carbine.
Oh totally, I'd love a .45-70 lever carbine as much as I want a VEPR Hunter in .308. I want to be in pain after I'm done at the range, ideally.
Oh the VEPR is PRETTY!
45-70 lever gat is on my list for sure
Also using the term Fudd in this case specifically for those who only think of guns in terms of hunting value, instead of, you know, the place where political power flows from.
I have no idea how anyone could think that about .308. I'd say that's the ideal hunting round for most anything in NA.
It's NOT! UGH.