308win and LFAR’s (AR-10, LR-308’s) are obviously capable of shooting small game, but it’s largely wasteful, overweight, and overpowered for the task.

There are plenty of cartridges which are compatible with the AR-15 which are easily capable of harvesting even the nation’s heaviest of deer species, which aren’t wasteful and aren’t so dramatically overpowered for smaller game. 6mm ARC, 6.5 Grendel, 6.8 SPC, 6x45, 25-45 Sharps, 350 Legend, 300 Blackout, 7.62x39... frankly, even the 223/5.56 will cleanly kill deer with few concessions. They don’t make heavier deer than I’m able to hunt every season, and there’s never been any argument against any of my AR-15’s which have perforated deer - this particular whitetail knocked down by a 6.5 Grendel.



A wise trick many of us enjoy with the AR platforms is to keep multiple uppers on hand, chambered for disparate cartridges to allow significantly different performance with each. I keep uppers built for laying in the bed of the truck overlooking a Eastern Colorado prairie dog town (204 Ruger 22”), built for hiking through scrub brush of Western Oklahoma stalking hogs (10.5” 6.8 SPC), built for ambushing deer over beanfields in Kansas (24” 243 LBC), and built for calling coyotes over Midwestern prairies (20” 233/5.56). All of them swap within seconds onto the same lower. The same can be done with LFAR’s, swapping between an 18” 338 Federal when hunting deer in woodlands and a 24” 6mm Creedmoor when calling coyotes over pasture...

Diamondback firearms aren’t particularly great, but they’re serviceable. My money wouldn’t be spent on them, but a guy could do worse.