55gr (or 50) bullets for reloading

[blsonne]

Hello,

At some point in the coming year I'm going to be a doing a buttload of reloading for 5.56, so I'm shopping for bullets now. I didn't find too much that was affordable for your regular 55gr FMJ people pleasers, but I did see some affordable boxes of 250x 50gr Varmint Grenades. However, I'd much prefer a solid tip FMJ since I'm new at this and wonder if the hole in the meplat might pose and issue with autoloaders? Then there's the 1:9 twist rate.

Already got the small rifle primers.

I'm not hunting with this stuff, not doing precision shooting; this is for CQB stuff so 35m and under.

 

[Barry F]

Budget shooter supplies. They have 55 gr fmj lake city bullets. I believe 160 bucks per thousand.

 

[blsonne]

Thank you sir! I like dealing with Henry.

 

[harley1]

Try Higginsons powder or the ammo source. Higginsons has Hornady bulk FMJs for about 129.00 per thousand and the ammo source for 119.95 per thousand. both are 55gr.

 

[blsonne]

Newb question: a lot of the .224 stuff has cannelures. If present, do you HAVE to use/crimp on them?

Thanks to all for the replies and advice.

 

[Trinimon]

Ammosource has been sold out of Hornady 55gr FMJ for some time now...

 

[MetalMike]

Newb question: a lot of the .224 stuff has cannelures. If present, do you HAVE to use/crimp on them?

Thanks to all for the replies and advice.

No you definitely don't HAVE to use the cannelures, however I recommend having cannelured bullets and crimping them if you're using it in a semi auto 5.56.

 

[blsonne]

Well, I opted for a thousand of the Hornady 55gr SPFB from budgetshootersupply, along with some CamPro 9mm... didn't know the CamPros were Canadian made, happy to support that. Wish more stuff was made in Canada; I don't like being dependant on the USA so much. Thanks all so much.

 

[yomomma]

I just picked up a hundred at all Simmons $12 fmj. Still had about 500-600 left.

 

[sunray]

HP's feed out of semi's with no fuss. Just watch the OAL. You must FL resize every time and watch the case lengths too.

 

[johnnyreb65]

Your best bet is the Hornady bulk 55gr FMJ BT.. Product SKU is 2267. These are the best I found and the boat tail makes it easy to load. I just picked up 200 at Al Simmons a few bags left.
As previously noted Higginson powder is a good choice..If you're going to shoot a lot order as much as you can afford as inventory shortages are frequent. My last order was 2000 and lasted a few years.