Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Feeding the AR

It's been a while since I started at zero reloading a cartridge. Just spitballing some prices - it looks like the cheapest way to get 500 new cases is to buy loaded ammo:

Winchester Lake City 5.56 NATO Ammunition 500 Rounds FMJ 55 Grains: $162.29

Starline brass (500): $115
Hornady .224" 55 gr FMJ-BT With Cannelure (500): $54
Small rifle primers (500): $15
Total (less powder): $184

That's not really news, but I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something obvious. Thanks for any input.

Midsouth varmint nightmare bullets are $43/500 and IMHO shoot more accurately than fmj's.
Once fired brass is ~$50/500 if you don't mind a little bit of sweat equity.

Other than maybe buying Lapua for match shooting, why would you buy new 5.56 brass? It's so plentiful to just pick up at the range or local shooting pits, or buy once fired in bulk for a small fraction of the price of new. If I did buy 5.56 brass, it'd be processed and sorted LC only, from one of the many online vendors offering that service.

+1 on the Midsouth bullets, no need to waste time and money loading FMJ.

Why ever buy new 556 or .223 rem brass? I just pick it up at the local range and gravel pits. I picked up so much fc and PMC brass on one outing, that i dont even look for it anymore. Theres all kinds of gi commando spray and pray shooters that leave their once fired brass laying around. Just go and pick it up.

I'm probably just jaded from semi-auto pistol brass. Range pickup and once-fired around here is typically so smiley and beat-up I generally buy new.

I've got at least a 1000 range pickup cases. A few cases have had neck splits, but generally it's perfectly good for plinking ammo. Small rifle primer, 25 gr of H-335 and a 55 gr varmint nightmare and I'm good to go.

The only PITA is dealing with the military crimp.

John,

I don't know what type of gun you ended up with or what your goals are for the gun other than just general banging.

But if you are going to load your own, I surely agree with making a step up to a better bullet than FMJ's.

Besides what's been mentioned, you can sometimes find a deal on various other 50-60 grain bullets from Nosler, Hornady or Sierra, or even some seconds, all of which are better than FMJ.

Buy some decent processed brass of whatever your choice; Rem or Win is fine; stay away from FC; LC is good except that you will need to remove the crimp.

For what you're looking at, there are lots for good powders..............see what you have on hand, & look up some data from a reputable loading source.

But some of the loaded ammo available right now is pretty cheap if you look hard.

If there's anything more specific that you need, let me know.

MM

I leave the military crap lay..

Thanks, Bill.

I went with the M&P15 MOE MID.

I had to find out what all the drama was about, but I'm a little disappointed that the rifle just sits there and hasn't run off by itself and shot something up. Seriously, I'm pleasantly surprised how much I like the rifle and AR platform - more than expected. My goals for the rifle at this point is mostly general banging and for me to learn about the AR. The components I mentioned were low cost but random stuff I used for comparison, not that I have anything against it either. That said the first 500 rounds will mostly be break in and fun. I last loaded rifle cartridges in 1998 (.270 Winchester) and I still have a bunch left - I am starting from scratch component-wise. A XL650 will do the heavy lifting. I plan to stick with the MBUS rear sight, but probably doing something tritium up front, so long range precision is not a goal for now.

I've been around long enough to know that all these plans can change halfway through the first magazine. The rifle has the mid length gas system we talked about earlier and I weighed the buffer in at 3 oz. I don't hate the trigger dry firing out the window, but we'll see over time.

Dillion Swager makes short work of the crimps.

When you get around to shooting it, you then see how happy you are with it.

If the ammo you are shooting ejects out at anywhere from 2-4 o'clock, then the gas port, buffer & spring are more of less OK.

Hotter ammo like true 5.56 will eject a little more forward than lighter commercial 223.

The 3.0 oz buffer is a standard carbine buffer; an H buffer is 3.7 oz.

After you shoot it for a while, just make note of where any particular type ejects.........you will likely not be undergassed so probably no issues with bolt lock back on the last round, but it's always a good thing to load one round & verify lock back.

If you have any issue or need anything, let me know & run it wetter than drier.

And buy decent mags. I like the ACS stainless or the Brownell mags with Magpul followers, but all my plastic Magpuls have run just fine too.

MM

you can get 1000 prepped and sized miltary brass for about $120. I bought swaged, deprimed and cleaned 1000 for $75, which I had paid extra for trimmed and sized. for that kind of money you can just let the gun puke the cases and not bother to pick them up.

I wasn't aware of the ACS magazines until now - $12.99 for stainless? In an earlier bout of paranoia I picked up ten Magpul 30 rounders. That's actually what planted the AR seed and I held out about two months. I ordered the AR in the morning and a bought a M&P Shield from a BIL at lunch - a twofer on Easter Sunday.

For us neophytes, is it ACS or ASC that you're talking about?

My bad - it's ASC. Here's the link to the $12.99 30 round.

Are you guys loading all this ammo on a single stage or progressive press?

If you value your time at all I think your WAY ahead buying bulk ammo for general banging assuming of course you figured in the price of your press and time into the equation.

I loaded up a coffee can of good 55grn V-max ammo for hunting and other precision stuff, took forever.

Im buyin loaded ammo from now on.

I'm on the fence of never reloading 223 again, I just loaded 175 rounds on a single stage, took awhile but I only load when I feel like it now, I don't make myself do it unless its crunch time before deer season. Just loaded up some hornady 55fmj with win 748 and once fired brass I had. I think I calculated I had about 25 cents in a round if I already had the brass. Just don't know if its worth it anymore when you can get decent plinking stuff for 33ish cent a round.

I'd skip the tritium front sight but if you want one I have one in the parts box I ain't gonna use I'd let go cheap.

Range brass is something I stay away from too, I load my cases till I'm scared of em and then leave em lay. Figure others do the same?

I enjoy loading more than watching tv or getting on the internet so my time is not wasted. I try to load all my ammo that I shoot up on the weekend throughout the week so it doesn't pile up too bad. Pistol ammo is done on the Dillon, hunting or long range rifle ammo is done on a single stage and I buy blasting ammo. There were some great deals on IMI M193 up until last month, about .26 cents a round shipped. For your stated use, I'd just buy bulk ammo. When it goes on sale again, buy a bunch...

In my case it will be progressive press - a +20 year old Dillon XL650 that had paid for itself over and over. I will need to buy a conversion kit for $80. I figure from the time I set down my coffee 500 rounds will take a couple hours.

I use to load everything, shotgun and rifle, sold all my shotshell loaders for the 5 bucks a box ammo and now factory ammo is so dam good I just buy that for hunting.

Reloading was always a way to cut cost but I just done see the advantage now. But I work a ton, if I didnt I might do it for fun.