5.56 bulk or brand name?

[hoochie]

so through a painstaking search, I have found that reloading components are running close to factory prices for .223.
do you guys reload using bulk stuff or do you choose a more expensive bullet such as the Sierra 55gr etc....

Ive seen Speer bulk 40gr, Winchester 55gr etc....

but I am trying to bablance high volume with a quality bullet...
this is for non competition shooting.. just learning, and practicing with the rifle from various shooting positions.
Stag with a 16" barrel...

what do you guys use?

 

[PoFF]

Depends on what you plan to achieve, either economy or accuracy. Your choice of bullet will affect accuracy, so will the attention and precision you put in your reloading procedure. An expensive bullet put over a poorly prepared and loaded cartridge won't hit the wide side of a barn. A cheap bullet over a properly reloaded cartridge will provide more than decent performance.

I for myself like Hornady 55grs FMJ bulk, or pulled SS109 62grs bullets.

 

[Beater]

hornady/ rem/ win bulk bullets all shoot fine. for plinking at the range they cost less than sierras or the rest of them, and are just as good.

 

[t-star]

i buy the components in bulk, enough to make 500 at a time- 1- it's almost impossible to find ammo ( i've got a COLT 1/7 TWIST A2) and it doesn't like that 55 grain stuff, so i get winny 65 grain"hunting"- and i use the 70 grain speers for punching paper- actually, i haven't noticed much of a difference in the size of the groups - your gun may vary, but since we can't use the ARs for anything but punching paper, you might as go with the bulk if it shoots with or smaller than the brand name-

 

[RifleDude]

I use bulk bullets (55gr or 62gr SS109) for practice. For serious shooting, i.e. load development and competition shooting, I use either Hornady or Sierra match bullets. I probably shoot 10x as many bulk bullets though for fun and practice

 

[beltfed]

For practice, if you can get 1000 rounds of bulk for $300 you are ahead. I stick to Winchester white box 'USA' brand as the brass is very good for reuse.

My handloads for matches is the following:
69gr. Sierra Match King over Winchester brass, with Federal 205m primers, and 25.5 grains of Varget. Cost is as follows (roughly):

69 gr. SMK (bulk 500 count boxes) $110 (x2) = $220
Brass (reused Winchester) = $0
Powder (25.5/7000 -275 rds per 1 lb) (x3.6lbs) = $90
Primers = $35
Total for 1000 rounds of match ammo = $345

If you don't count your time, and you cut costs further, handloading is the way to go.

 

[hoochie]

thanks guys...