I am not selling anything, but I am pretty sure you can not use .223 to hunt deer with in KY. Its a small round, so your standard AR is out of the question. They do make AR platforms in other calibers with .308 being your best bet for deer. Expect to drop some serious cash ($1,500+ for gun only).
I just purchased a Romanian PSL. While not "tactical" it would make an excellent hunting firearm, great plinker, and if you had to "reach out and touch some one" or "vote from the roof tops" you could. The PSL is baisically an AK on steroids. It has a much longer barrel, heavier receiver, and shoots the 7.62x54R round which is powerful (about like a 30-06) and cheap and plentiful. They can easily engage human size targets out to 500m. 800+ meters isnt a stretch in the right hands.
The best part, they are probably the best buy in firearms today. For about $800 you can get a brand new rifle, two mags, scope, and original military accessories (these were originally built for military use with some minor changes such as ground bayonet lugs for US sales)!
Another option would be Russian Saiga in .308. They are built in the famous Ischvesk (I know I spelt it wrong) factory in Russia along side their military AKs. The Saiga's are a "sporterized" AK with a standard monte carlo stock vs the pistol grip configuration of a standard AK. Due to legislation that prevents the importation of "military style" fire arms from Russia these AKs are butchered up like that. However, once purchased, one can legally convert the rifle back to its intended configuration. The Saiga .308s are getting harder and harder to find but its possible to buy one new or slightly used and convert it yourself the way you want for around $700+/- depending on what all you want on it. They also have a score rail so mounting an optic is easier.
Another options is an SKS. They use to be called the poor mans hunting rifle when they could be had for $100 practically new. Those days are gone now but you can still purchase a decent SKS for about $250. They are not tactical either but offer semi auto matic fire, 10rd magazine, and an intermediate power cartridge. The 7.62x39mm is about as small of a round Id like to use for deer. Compare it with the 30-30 round so you are limited to about 200yards. The down side is that they are hard to mount optics too, but since they have a limited range, the iron sights should be just fine.