Is AR15 ammo worth reloading?

zykopat

zykopat

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Hi guy, I know nothing about reloading. I own 2 AR15s (5.56mm chambers)and only used factory ammo yet (.223). I do collect my brass though. I don't do competitions.

I read in Pat Sweeney's book that reloading for the AR15 is no for the faint hearted. So I'm wondering if reloading for the AR15 is worth "the trouble"?
 
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At todays prices for .223 Yes. It's worth it.
What's it up to now..? $500/K "if" you can find it...?
My reloads... which shoot better than the factory winchester I used to buy cost me about half... 'Could probably do it for even less if I used less expensive powder...
 
I don't see how reloading 5.56mm for an AR is much different then reloading any other cartridge for any other gun. I do it and the only difference I see is full length resizing compared to partially resizing, and crimping verse not crimping, neither of which is harder or takes that much extra time. I do shoot factory rounds in mine mostly for general blasting, but I like the fact that I can reload and select a wide range of bullets, and tailor loads for more precise long range shooting, and shooting for group. My AR piles the brass up in a nice neat pile when shooting from a bench so brass is easily saved.
 
ARmike said:
So if 500$ +/- for 1k.. How much does it cost you to reload 1k? (rough avg) 55 grain FMJ
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My costs:

Bullets-Hornady 55gr. FMJBT $110/1000
Primers-Wincherster Small Rifle $90/1000
Powder-3.6lbs of Varget (25.5grain load) $85/8lbs
Brass-Once-fired (free), I use it five times and chuck it.

My prices are from my stockpile, bought when prices where slightly lower than today, I have powder, primers, brass and bullets to last several lifetimes of heavy shooting.

Total for 1000 loaded rounds-approx $220.

For the cost of cheap FMJ factory I can load up 77gr. Sierra BTHP's for an extra $250.

Last 1000 rounds I bought at the gunstore-$520 for WWB 55gr. FMJ that shot 1.50MOA.

I enjoy reloading so I don't factor in my time, my stock FMJ reloads will do .50MOA all day if I do my part in a short barrel AR.
 
I have never shot factory thru my ar since its been new I used a reduced load of 3031 about 18-20 grains to get the most out of the powder but I have a shorty 10.5" so any more powder and its not getting burnt and just makeing huge flash...

Thats how my business enterprise got started soruceing cheap 55fmj for my ar and others...

Thanks for mentioning me guys !
 
gushulak: Have primers doubled in the last 5 months? Last box I bought was 40.00 per 1000.

Really the only hard part about reloading .223 is powder filling, you have to be carefully because the case is nearly full and easy to spill and the fact that my fat fingers are huge compared to a small .22 caliber bullet. Way cheaper to reload. I pick up range brass that I put thru my RCBS primer swager to remove the military primer crimp, resize them to all the same length and away you go. After I have reloaded them once I keep them separate from other range pickup so I don't have to remove the primer crimp and away I go. With 55 grn bullets I can get .75" at 100 yards and that is plenty good enough for me.
 
gushulak said:
My costs:

Bullets-Hornady 55gr. FMJBT $110/1000
Primers-Wincherster Small Rifle $90/1000
Powder-3.6lbs of Varget (25.5grain load) $85/8lbs
Brass-Once-fired (free), I use it five times and chuck it.

My prices are from my stockpile, bought when prices where slightly lower than today, I have powder, primers, brass and bullets to last several lifetimes of heavy shooting.

Total for 1000 loaded rounds-approx $220.

For the cost of cheap FMJ factory I can load up 77gr. Sierra BTHP's for an extra $250.

Last 1000 rounds I bought at the gunstore-$520 for WWB 55gr. FMJ that shot 1.50MOA.

I enjoy reloading so I don't factor in my time, my stock FMJ reloads will do .50MOA all day if I do my part in a short barrel AR.
Click to expand...

Even if you factored buying new brass (Winchester) and using it 5 times before chucking, you'd be adding about $50 per 1000 rounds

The hard pill to swallow will be the outlay of cash for loading tools such as a press and dies, etc.
One thing that does suck when loading for a semi auto is the constant trimming and chamfering - a process that can be easily and professionally done with a dedicated trimmer/chamferer like the Giraud. I wouldn't load for an auto without one.
You could probably get going with a rockchucker or similar kit with a trimmer for about a $1000 - A fair sum for kit that will pay for itself in the first year.
 
"...increased 10-20%..." That still isn't $90 per 1,000.
Somebody is robbing you, gushulak. Shooter's Choice in Waterloo wants $33.50 per 1,000 for Winchester SR primers.
 
zykopat said:
... So I'm wondering if reloading for the AR15 is worth "the trouble"?
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Depends... Is CUSTOM TUNED ammo worth it?

Even if not custom tuned, reloading lets you shoot a lot more for the same $. .223 and .45 will pay for your press in no time.
 
Another way to look at is that most factory stuff is 55 grain. There seems to be very little 62 gr. out there.
If you happen to have an AR with a slower rifling twist...(correct me if i am wrong here I am going by memory of the Colt HBAR match gun I had years ago) the best performance comes out of 69 gr. and heavier bullets. I was running 69 Gr, Sierra match Moly coated and Hornady 75 Gr, match (A-max if I remember). They both would consistently print 5 shot strings under 1 1/4" groups at 100 yards with match grade peep sights...sometimes I got groups hovering around 3/4" to 7/8". This was with IMR 4064, and experiments with overall length.
Reloading for the AR is not really that hard...I actually got bored with the gun due to how easy it was to reload for and shoot well. I figured it would be a marathon to get the gun settled in...it took about three months...I was expecting more like three years of active work on it.
Trust me...you will be surprised at the results.
Cheers
 
reloading 223

per thousand

86 for powder
34 for primers
110 for bullets

230 per thousand


Winchester white box if you could get it about 500$ shipped.

Difference of about 270.00

The quickest you could manage to crank out 1000 rounds is about 10 Hours of work. So is your spare time worth 27$ an hour.

Perhaps for this gun writer his spare time is worth more than that who knows?. Alot of people must think the same as not everyone reloads anyway. For me it is worth it and I actually enjoy it. I even enjoy casting bullets for my own use.
 
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