My father-in-law is an avid deer/boar hunter.  He's thinking about getting an AR pattern autoloader primarily for hunting, secondarily for home defense/shtf.  He doesn't have a ton of cash; what's the hive's opinion on this rifle?

It's a basic bare-bones AR. If you want to run Iron sights you'll be adding about $150. If he only wants to run optics it should be fine. One upside is that it's lightweight so it won't weigh him down while hunting.
I wouldn't want it for HD, but I'd take it over a bolt rifle.

I'd look at something more like the first two on this page.

For what you describe, I'd also look at 6.8 SPC and 6.5 Grendel.

i agree with the 6.8/6.5 statement.  he originally wanted to go with the new remington .30AR, which seems pretty superfluous.  i managed to talk him out of that at least.  

The sportical can be used for hunting and over time built up as a HD gun (irons, light, extra mags, etc)

Indeed, the .30 AR is a bucket of fail.  

Regardless of caliber, if he uses LaRue mounts, he can set up a 3-9x or 4-12x scope for one type of ammo and slap an Aimpoint on when he gets home that's zeroed for another type of ammo.

It won't be cheap, but it'll be cheaper than two separate guns.

good idea regarding the optics strat81, hadn't thought about that.  he's the type of guys that'll probably go with irons for defense duty but the larue mounts i can see being used often.  Thanks for the input guys.  Also, what mags does it use? proprietary?

I've got an Oracle LR-308 (which is essentially the Sportical but with forward assist and ejection port door), and its a great gun. I have multiple AR's, but just wanted to step up the power scale a bit, plus have the option to use it as a hunting rifle (and it will have it's chance this deer season).

As far as magazines for 308 Win based AR's, the LR-308 platform seems to be the dominant one when it comes to mags. You can get them from DPMS directly, or get aftermarket ones from C-Products, Magpul, POF, ect. With LR-308 mags, this is one of those rare cases where I'd recommend getting aftermarket mags, as the factory ones are the worst ones I've encountered thus far.