American Eagle Bulk 55 gr. .223 American Eagle Ammo...

M

Meroh

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Hi everyone,

What are your thoughts on this ammo?

I have tried it in a Remington Sportsman 78, and found it to give me only 3" groups at 100 yards. Likewise, I have recently built an AR15 using a 20" Dominion 5.56 barrel with a 1:12 twist, and the AE ammo gave me at best 3 13/16". I was not super happy with either, and was blaming my not shooting enough on the 78's groups, and the rifle and low cost barrel on the AR's less than accurate groups.

I had a container with me of old varmint loads I made up about 25 years ago using someone's HPBT 55 Gr. bullets and figured I would give them a try; 5/8" in the Remington; 15/16" in the AR; Sub MOA in both rifles!!

What are the experiences of others?

I now have to start reloading .223 ammo again; near as I can figure. LOL


 
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I consider this to be near the bottom of the barrel in terms of bulk 223. I had a 100 rds kicking around that i tried in my bolt gun, shoots about 6 moa and feels overcharged on top of that. The blast out the barrel is more akin to a magnum rifle than a 223. Surprised the primers didn't pop.

Plenty of decent bulk 223 out there, but even the good stuff shoots 2-3 moa.
 
Don't be cheap. Use 62gr and try the ammo made according to milspec. Price wise it's not a big difference.
 
I only use bulk ammo from AE, PMC, WInchester and UMC. They are all reliable in my experience. Some are dirtier than others but overall, all about the same. They are not precision rounds but great for cheap(er) run and gun and CQB type fun.

If you want accuracy, then look elsewhere for varmint or match ammo or custom load your own.
 
I agree that they're not impressive. They're consistently loaded for charge though (I run adjustable gas so I'd be more likely to notice if it started causing malfunctions) and out of a match barrel on an AR 223 Wylde 1:8 I'm getting 1.5moa easy
 
Valsa said:
Don't be cheap. Use 62gr and try the ammo made according to milspec. Price wise it's not a big difference.
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I would still expect it to shoot like bulk ammo. If anything, SS109/M855 type bullets are likely to shoot worse than 55 grain FMJ, as the two-piece core introduces another possibility for inconsistency. Milspec accuracy standards are pretty low for either type of 5.56mm ball.

In my experience, you can use the Hornady bulk bullets to load moderately-priced ammo for high-volume shooting out of ARs that shoots better than equivalent factory ammo. For precision use, FMJ bullets don't do well.
 
Djb1 said:
I agree that they're not impressive. They're consistently loaded for charge though (I run adjustable gas so I'd be more likely to notice if it started causing malfunctions) and out of a match barrel on an AR 223 Wylde 1:8 I'm getting 1.5moa easy
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I was getting 2-3" out of my CC IUR upper, that same upper using MATCH grade components (77 gr smk, federal match primers, 8028xbr) the smallest group I got was around 1.125"
 
55gr bulk is not ammo you shoot for accuracy. I expect minute of bad guy when it comes to any 55gr bulk ammo, nothing more.
 
I recently tested Winchester White Box, Remington and PMC 55 gr FMJ out of some Savage bolt action rifles at 100 yards.

Winchester was 3" to 6". PMC was the best 2" to 3".

Handloads with 68 Hornady match and 77 gr Nosler match were just around 1 "

If you want accuracy, handload good bullets. A SP or HP is better than a FMJ.
 
FoxAlpha said:
55gr bulk is not ammo you shoot for accuracy. I expect minute of bad guy when it comes to any 55gr bulk ammo, nothing more.
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Well, I was trying to sight my newly completed AR15 rifle in, and when it groups like buck-shot at 30 yards, you spend a lot of time chasing the group around the paper; I took the red dot off because I thought it was the sight, and put a scope on; which was about the same; noting wrong with either one.
 
I've always had good luck with it. I've competed with it in the past using my 14.5 inch barrel parts rifle, 1 in 9 twist (complete Armalite upper) and its been clean and consistant giving me a constant 1.5 inch groups at 100 yds. I found I could handload slightly better (1 1/4 inch) but many times when I didn't have time to handload or was too lazy, I would use this.

It's been good for me - I would gladly take a free case and run away.
 
PSE said:
I've always had good luck with it. I've competed with it in the past using my 14.5 inch barrel parts rifle, 1 in 9 twist (complete Armalite upper) and its been clean and consistant giving me a constant 1.5 inch groups at 100 yds. I found I could handload slightly better (1 1/4 inch) but many times when I didn't have time to handload or was too lazy, I would use this.

It's been good for me - I would gladly take a free case and run away.
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May be that they use what ever powder they have left over; mine is not very clean, and it blows about a 2' fire ball out the end of a 20" barrel; my home loads have almost no fireball, and leave a lot less residue.
 
For what it's worth my mini-14 likes the AE 55gr FMJ ammo. Consistently shooting it at under 2" at 100 yards using a fixed 2.5 Leopold scope. Same rifle hates freedom bucket ammo. Every gun will be different in it's preferences, keep trying and you should find a bulk ammo your rifle likes more than others. Definitely shoots a foot of flame out the muzzle though (looks cool :) ). Just have to clean a bit more often is all.
 
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