Yep AE is great for run and gun stuff. I find it to be accurate for the price. It's good ammo so long as you plan to leave the brass where it falls.
What's wrong with AE brass? The AE I have used was in Lake City brass, which I like.
I guess if you don't want crimped primers you may not like it, but that's no big deal to me.
The stuff I've had was not Lake City brass. True Lake City is very good stuff, but all the AE I've seen the head stamp is Federal, not AE and it's much softer, no where close to LC standards.
Yup. Commercial American Eagle 223 (not 5.56 marked) ammo has always been FC headstamp that I've ever seen, which is sometimes OK for reloading and sometimes definitely not. I used it for a while, until one batch of them was soft enough to blow primers and look like belted magnum cases after firing warmer 5.56 loads. The same loads were, and continue to be, completely sustainable for many reloadings in a different batch of FC brass and in the LC brass I normally use. The factory AE 223 loads do seem a bit on the milder side IMO; enough to make a difference when tuning AR gas systems.
The Federal 5.56 loads on the other hand like XM193 and 855 use LC brass though and that is good stuff. I haven't paid attention but maybe they've slapped the AE label on some of that? If in doubt I'd want to buy the 5.56 loading rather than 223 for a better chance at getting the good LC brass.
