Bulk ammo question

M193 or M855

Those use Lake City Nato brass.

Federal used to make commercial ammo with Lake City brass also. The stuff that is Non Nato is not as good.

I heard something about Winchester taking over the Lake City plant now. Either way. Lake City Nato brass is good.

Companies have been selling ammo for low prices with factory rebates and stuff for years.

I feel sorry for those folks who did not load up then. Now most all of that type of ammo is out of stock. And if you can find it... It is overpriced IMO.
 
ya my cousin called me about some m193 the other day that was like $0.485 a round or some nonsense. i was like... are you freaking nuts? lol
 
American Eagle, as noted above, uses LC brass. Super good quality and great to reload. May need to swage the primer pockets. Also because it's 5.56 vs .223 your load data MAY vary from what is generally posted, so work up a load vs using "this load works for me!" stuff
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I have a Dillon 650 but the new 750 has a better priming system in my opinion. Once you get your machine set up and comfortable with it, 500rds an hour is do-able. If you choose the dillon route.

Good luck!
 
I use ammoseek to see who has the best deal. You can choose brass case in your search parameters. For reloading I would avoid military brass. Military brass has crimped primers. To reload you will need to remove that crimp by either reaming out or a swaging tool.
 
Midway USA Dog town ammo shoots excellent in all of my 223 rifles , bolt or Ar15. 1 inch or better. Best kept secret their. Is. Some times you can catch it for $89.00 for 200 with ammo can. MD
 
Buddy of mine put me onto ammoseek and a few others. When I first saw someone me of the prices, I was like Wow. To good to be true? Not all but several of them have ridiculously high shipping.

I subscribed to several different vendors. When I am looking for something I keep an eye on the holiday sales, seems some holidays are not to small for this either.

I picked up some of the Dogtown that seemed to be a killer deal, 204 and 223. It all shoots fine so far. The brass has to be blems. Some is clean like new looks, other is a matte etch color. Actually thought some may have been steel cased. The flaws were mostly in the neck, wrinkles and almost like the case was stretched the mouth was so thin I couuld smash it with light pressure. This was the bulk stuff.
I had some Dogtown I picked up before that was on sale in 50 round boxes, it was cheaper per piece than bulk. It was all fine and of a average quality.
 
For buying bulk 223 ammo, I generally wait until I find it for about $0.25 per round. Anything over $0.30 per round isn't a great buy. I've shot and used the brass of 223 ammo to reload from at least a dozen different brands of 223 ammo. Any of it will work but some of the brass requires more work to prepare to reload.

Norma TAC 223 provides great practice ammo and quality brass. I've bought it for as low as $0.25 per round in the past. Watch Black Friday and other sales. Last year Nosler was selling 400 rounds of 223 Rem with 40gr Nosler ballistic tip for $99. I wish I had bought more than 1200 rounds. It shoots 1/2 MOA and provides quality brass to reload. Nosler had a warning that the ammo wouldn't reliably cycle an AR and the ammo was only good for bolt guns. It shoots great in my bolt 223 and over 100 rounds have feed flawlessly in 2 of my AR's.

At about $0.25 per round, I can't even load them that cheap and the quality of the bulk Nosler ammo was just as good as my loads. I'm lucky to get quality varmint 223 bullets for $0.16, primers for $0.03 and powder is going to be at least $0.10 per round, possibly $0.15 per round. So at a minimum it costs me $0.29 per varmint 223 round I load. That is assuming that my time, equipment and brass are free.

I doubt there will be any great buys between now and the election. If Biden wins the election, it will likely be more difficult to find reloading equipment and ammo.
 
Wolf Gold 55gr is perhaps the best bulk ammo and Wolf brass seems good to go, I prefer LC and Wolf pickup brass for reloading my ARs. You will need to remove the primer crimp on most 556 NATO bulk ammo. Currently, your bulk options are limited due to panic buying, so you might need to just buy something and go with it.

It's difficult for normal folks to reload bulk 223 ammo for under $0.23 each. Typical bulk fmj/SP (expect plinking accuracy) or some other brand name bullet during a big sale (like Speer 52gr HP $100/1000).
$0.00 brass
$0.03 primer
$0.10 powder
$0.10 bullet

Quality 223 hunting reloads (SP or ballistic tip) are going to run closer to $0.30 each or more.
$0.00 brass
$0.03 primer
$0.10 powder
$0.17 bullet

Both assume free brass and calculated bulk/sale pricing. The price of powder/primers doesn't change much but of course it's cheaper to buy in bulk. The biggest variable is bullet price/availability. You might find a good hunting bullet at super great sale prices every once in a while, but usually sales are only a couple bucks savings.
 
One old time answer to lousy mil spec accuracy was to pull the fmj bullets and replace with an equal weight or slightly lighter quality hunting bullet. I would be a little leery to do it with 5.56 NATO due to its high intensity loading but it was a very popular practice with WWII & Korea surplus .30-06 ammo.
 
Found some Herters 55gr FMJ in .223 at Cabela's over the weekend. Was selling for $55.99 for 150 rds. Still high for bulk, but at least they had some.
 
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