I stand Corrected. Your knowledge or the AR15 seems to be above average. Are you X Military, or do you just have a thing about Assault rifles? If you can get any version of the  M14, that was the best military weapon ever produced (semi auto also), the only draw back was the 20 round clip, besides the AKM, AKMS (both Russian & very rugged) it (M14) was completely convertable into fully auto if needed to be, shot a heavier round then the AK series, but just as rugged.

Jesse James don't be a jerk. A 5.56 only puts at a maximum 77 grains of led into a meat which would be easily extracted. How much lead do you think a shotgun puts in your deer (1 oz +)? or a .308 (180 grains or more)

I'm future military ha ha ha. I know a ton about guns in General though. Ask away

Not always true about the M-14 either.... the M-14/ M1A is a fine weapon but it has its many draw backs as well same as any other rifle. There is no PERFECT rifle out there you have to go with what you like. For example here, the M-14 was very complex to clean because it has a rather complicated gas system to work the action and if it wasn't cleaned on a semi-regular basis they began to Jam same as any other rifle. The other thing about the M-14 was that on fully automatic it was uncontrollable for any fire you would call accurate and on fully Auto many soldiers in Vietnam later reported nerve damage in their shoulders from the constant M-14 recoil. The other thing is the ammo, 7.62 NATO is very heavy ammo. For one 7.62 x 51mm round you could carry roughly five or more  5.56 x 45mm rounds. I've shot the gun multiple times and I can say this. It is a great gun, I shot a 3 inch group at 800 yards with it (scope obviously). Not perfect but nothing to laugh at. Where the gun really fails though is its Close quarters capability because of the guns sheer length. It is a very long gun, its just not a good idea at all to take one any where you may be getting face to face. Now we are getting away from hunting though and into people.... for long to medium range hunting though the M-14/ M1A is a great choice it will put a deer down no problem (and maybe the one behind it too). The thing with it would be carrying though. It would probably catch on tree branches  and bang around a bit just because of how long it is. Even cross slinging or shoulder slinging it wouldn't keep it from totally banging around. The last thing I would like to point out though is the M-14/ M1A series is Rugged and reliable but no where near as reliable as the AK series.

NOW onto the Ak family.

You can basically group all these guns together because they work on the same design. Just with little tweaks that make little to no difference except in the name of the gun. So I will be talking about these as an entire group. Most guns in the AK series fires one of two rounds, The 7.62 x 39mm or the 5.45 x 39mm. Now the AK series has a reputation for being very durable which is true. You can fire those guns for years (probably) with out cleaning them once and they would probably still function. Durable as these guns may be, their accuracy is often fair to poor. I have shot the Ak-47 and the Chinese SKS which are both 7.62 x 39mm. You can hit a man size target with either one at 100 yards iron sight. Anything beyond that though is a stretch for the gun. 200 yards for an AK-47...... you are dreaming. I've seen some of the best shooters I know take a Chinese or Russian AK-47 to the 200 yard range, put sixty rounds down range and not hit a man sized target once. One guy I know scoped and zeroed his AK-47 and gave it to me to try at the 200 yard range. With scope I only managed to hit the paper 25 out of 30 times (horrible for me). Later I checked to see if the scope was really zeroed and it was. With my AR-15 I can put 30 shots inside of a small dinner plate no problem (iron sight). So trust me it wasn't my fault. Now there is a reason for the horrible accuracy past 100 yards. If you watch a slow motion video of an AK-47 firing you will see that the barrel actually flexes as it fires which throws the bullet off a bit. That won't effect the bullet much at 100 yards or less. It shows its ugly face at anything longer than that. Really there is no compensation for this. You can buy a stronger operating rod and a different barrel but it won't help much...

Ballistically the 7.62 x 39mm round is almost exactly identical to the 30-30 round and would work just fine for deer. So if you are going to hunt with an AK-47 you would need to keep your shots with in 100 yards otherwise you are better off throwing rocks at the deer.

I hope you can also see that there is no perfect miracle rifle in life. Every thing has its draw backs.

Any more questions feel free to ask.

You clearly are not reading what I said. A 5.56/ .223 will kill quickly and humanly. You can drop a deep no problem with a 70 grain .223 boat tail hollow point and it will be dead before it hits the ground. Its all about shot placement. Not the size of the bullet

When he can out shoot me, then I'll shut up.

That's news to me then. I'll remember you said that, thanks for the correction. My personal favorite of the M1A/ M14 family of weapons is the M1A scout squad. 18 inch barrel makes it a bit more manuverable if you have to get up close and you do not lose much accuracy when you drop the four inches off the barrel. For me to honestly tell you if I would pick the M4 over the M14 would really just depend on the situation. Urband or More open and the like. I've known a few Navy SEALS in my day and most of them say as I did that there is no miracle weapon you have to know what you are going into to make the right choice.

Also thank you for your service in Iraq.

You're exactly right Trooper. There's a big difference between copying and pasting drivel off the net and actually doing.
It's what separates the men from the boys.........