Sources of Good 5.56 ammo?

[Magnum Mike]

Just something to note for those who purchase ammo from the various suppliers that are out there. I'm not sure about the 5.56mm/.223 Rem ball ammo, but I know that a lot of old lots of foreign ammo, like the 7.62x39 (AK 47 ammo) have corrosive primers in them, and a lot of them come loaded with armor piercing bullets, which wear out the barrels much faster than the copper-jacketed type.

[rifleman]

I've found that my Galil "Sporter" bbl has a 1:7 twist. Fast! Supposed to shoot 60gr and higher weight bullets, and it probably won't like 50 - 55gr bullets. Not that I'm looking for 0.5" MoA. I think, from what I've read, that it wants M855/SS109 ammo, right?

I am a reloader (> 40 yrs), but had my Dillon Press stolen a few years back. I keep drooling over their nifty catalog (for a number of good and obvious reasons...) and though I have some RL550B accessories (die holder plates, etc), the faster auto-indexing 600 series (I forgetthe exact model number) is tempting. but, here's my problem:

costs per finished cartridge, assuming 5 reloads on good annealed military brass:

Brass: $0.05
Powder: 0.07
Primer: 0.03
Bullet: 0.09

total: 0.24 per each, equals $240.00 per thousand.

The problem? Well, for example, Wolf ammo: I've seen it for about $259 / 1000 and other brass case stuff for about $270 / 1000. Costs about the same as reloads. I do wonder about the wear factor in my rifle's chamber with steel cased stuff. I also read that Wolf ammo has a relatively high jam / misfire rate. Not good in a social situation, right?

And then: What's my time worth, and how much do we add to the cost per each round to amortize the new Dillon, and/or all the other stuff we reloaders like / want / need to have. I for one really really really want one of those nifty turntable annealing thingies out of southern Nevada. Apparently I also gotta anneal my brass in order to safely reload my 45-70, 45-90 and all my other cases else-wise I'm apparently just courting disaster!!! Plus I'll get a ga-zillion reloads per case if I soften them correctly! The heat and tip method is apparently next to worthless. So, to my point, reloading may not justify itself financially. Other than it's so much fun!

What we need is a good supply of 5.56 @ about $140-$150/1000. Maybe we could all get together and commision a run of say 20M rounds distributed amongst, say, 5,000 to 10,000 buyers? That's 2000 - 4000 rounds each. If the cost were about $120 - $140/1000, what a bar-goon! We'd get the cash up front, about $150k (includes the typical American Wall Street management fee of, ohhh, $20k...Remember, this is MY idea, damn it!) What say? "The People's Ammo Co-oP! Has a nice Marxian ring, no?

Well, we press on! Any more good ideas are welcomed! As we move towards the probable outcome of the Nov. election, not to mention the growling economic T-Rex, that wants into the room, I'm wanting, more than ever, to have a good source of 5.56 available.

Remember, "Don't Shoot! I'm on Your Side!"

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by rifleman

I've found that my Galil "Sporter" bbl has a 1:7 twist. Fast! Supposed to shoot 60gr and higher weight bullets, and it probably won't like 50 - 55gr bullets. Not that I'm looking for 0.5" MoA. I think, from what I've read, that it wants M855/SS109 ammo, right?

I am a reloader (> 40 yrs), but had my Dillon Press stolen a few years back. I keep drooling over their nifty catalog (for a number of good and obvious reasons...) and though I have some RL550B accessories (die holder plates, etc), the faster auto-indexing 600 series (I forgetthe exact model number) is tempting. but, here's my problem:

costs per finished cartridge, assuming 5 reloads on good annealed military brass:

Brass: $0.05
Powder: 0.07
Primer: 0.03
Bullet: 0.09

total: 0.24 per each, equals $240.00 per thousand.

The problem? Well, for example, Wolf ammo: I've seen it for about $259 / 1000 and other brass case stuff for about $270 / 1000. Costs about the same as reloads. I do wonder about the wear factor in my rifle's chamber with steel cased stuff. I also read that Wolf ammo has a relatively high jam / misfire rate. Not good in a social situation, right?

And then: What's my time worth, and how much do we add to the cost per each round to amortize the new Dillon, and/or all the other stuff we reloaders like / want / need to have. I for one really really really want one of those nifty turntable annealing thingies out of southern Nevada. Apparently I also gotta anneal my brass in order to safely reload my 45-70, 45-90 and all my other cases else-wise I'm apparently just courting disaster!!! Plus I'll get a ga-zillion reloads per case if I soften them correctly! The heat and tip method is apparently next to worthless. So, to my point, reloading may not justify itself financially. Other than it's so much fun!

Economically, reloading doesn't seem to make much sense, unless you're shooting thousands or ten-of-thousands of rounds each year. I would like to know where you've found brass cased 5.56/.223 ammo for about $270/1000 rds. I'd be buying some as we speak, if I found it that cheap. I haven't even found reloads for that low.

The advantages to reloading your own ammo are the pleasure factor (we like to do stuff like that, don't we?), as well as creating our own custom loads. With the pleasure factor, we're not supposed to factor in our time as an expense. This is a hobby, so this is what we are doing for enjoyment. About creating our own loads, I'm sure you're well aware that you can tailor the load to your firearm in order to create a combination that is more accurate than anything from the factory. That's not to say that you can't just reload for the fun of plinking. I tend to do that, rather than reloading for accuracy, at least for the time being.

I don't think you would have much trouble selling your RL550B accessories, especially with all the internet sites that are available today. Craig's List and Ebay come to mind instantly as places where you could offer this stuff for sale. Of course, if you wanted to pick up another RL550B, you would want to hold on to that stuff. The other model you were mentioning is the XL650, which is a model I considered before opting for the RL550B. I went with the RL550B because overall I thought it was going to save me a significant amount of money. For what I was intending to load, I would need a fair number of caliber conversion kits and toolheads, both of which are less expensive for the RL550B. That and the lower cost of the machine are the reasons I chose it. If I were reloading large batches of ammo on a regular basis, then I would probably have opted for the XL650. The extra features would be nice to have, but for the small amounts that I reload, I didn't need to spend the money.

[Pilot1]

Reloading is worth it for the superior accuracy I can get, plus I won't put Wolf ammo through anything but Combloc weapons, like the SKS, AK, and Makarov. Wolf ammo will not touch any other guns that I have as its steel cased and may be tough on extractors.

Also, for non-surplus ammo reloading is always less expensive.

[NVplumber]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

Reloading is worth it for the superior accuracy I can get, plus I won't put Wolf ammo through anything but Combloc weapons, like the SKS, AK, and Makarov. Wolf ammo will not touch any other guns that I have as its steel cased and may be tough on extractors.

Also, for non-surplus ammo reloading is always less expensive.

I've noticed with the Wolf .223 that not all the AR style rifles will digest it reliably. My Bushmaster just flat hates the stuff whereas my DPMS M4 will eat it just fine. Thus I don't use it anymore in my AR's. It works dandy in my AK and my M1A. But as you said I don't give my M1A a steady diet of the stuff. Paid to much for the latter rifle and my goals with it are performance oriented. But I do have a fair amount of it laying around for a rainy day due to it's affordability. In .308 and 7.62x39 anyway.