Ammo Recommendations !

General Firearms Reloading & Ammunition
1

Hey guys,

I was just wondering about ammo choices
Since i’ll be getting my first ar-15 soon
(colt 6920). And would your guys opinion
On what you think is a acceptable round
Count for thr break-in period im thinking
200-500 rounds is good ?.. Also what
brand/brands of ammo has a solid
Reputation for being reliable,clean shooting
And has decent accuracy ?.. I did some
Looking around and found these brands
For under $150 per 500 rounds : pmc
Bronze,remington umc,fed lake city,
Brown bear, silver bear, prvi partizan,
Tula and DRS. how do these brands
Stack up ? Thanks for your time !

Cervantes

2

What do you want the ammo for? Shooting ammo? Home Defense?

Judging from your list, you’re looking for just shooting ammo. Pick up a bunch of Wolf 55 or 62gr ammo and shoot all day. If you’re just shooting and don’t reload, don’t waste the extra money on more expensive ammo to plink with. It feeds, loads, and shoots the same way as the more expensive brass cased ammo and won’t damage your gun at all.

3

Yes at this time I would just like some good ammo
To shoot and break the gun in ! Im thinking 200-500
Rounds should be enough to do it but for later rounds
For home defense I leaning towards winchester ranger
As thats what I load in my hand guns and have good
Results with it !

Cervantes

4

A 6920 will eat M193 all day long, and come back for more. M855 is also becoming quite plentiful, and getting cheaper - be on the lookout for bargains & buy in bulk whenever possible for the best deals.

I NEVER shoot steel-cased ammo in an AR. In AK’s, YES - AR’s, NO. It’s tougher on extractors, for starters. If you’re building a stockpile though, it might be good for bottom-of-the-barrel/last stand ammo. Beats throwing the rifle at criminal sorts…

Stick with brass-cased surplus, and go learn how it works.

5

There is no break in on an AR that I’ve ever observed.

If I were buying factory practice ammo, I could only think of one flavor… Federal AE223. PMC bronze is almost acceptable… just a little on the weak side. UMC is barely acceptable…

None of those other brands would ever be shot in my guns.

6

With quality components though, you still won’t see any significant extractor wear until you’ve spent enough money on ammo to where it shouldn’t matter anyway. Especially with a Colt, DD, or BCM.

The rest of this advice is definitely solid though and I agree. If you’re stigmatic about steel cased ammo, XM193 ammo is extremely cheap, and XM855 is getting a lot cheaper these days. I generally stick to buying 500 or 1000 rounds at a time because you do save an amount of money that’s by no means insignificant, especially over time. Hell, I’d buy that barrel of 12.5K rounds of M855 if I had $3800 to spend on ammo at once. M855 for $.30/round. Yes please.

7

For practice ammo, I usually choose IMI M193. Wideners has had it available in 1200 round cases for about $335 shipped for a good while now. 28 cents a round is good enough for me.

Alternately, I’ll use Federal or PMC 55gr FMJ 223 loadings.

8

I consider IMI stash ammo. :wink: Definitely good stuff.

9

Yup, IMI definitely is one of the best M193 clones out there. Been buying a couple cases a month, to get a stockpile built up, in addition to its use as practice ammo.

10

IMI 55 grain as well as any 55 grain M193 will work just fine, but at 100 yards on the 55 grain and lighter will start to “spread” with the 1/7 barrel.
I have shot some phenominal groups at 50 yards (under an inch) with 55 grain FMJ and then at 100 you will see 3" groups.

BUT with 62 grain this gun shines. I have shot the IMI and love it as the current best buy in M855, but if you can find any of the British 62 grain it shoots lights out in my Colt, like MOA or better at 100 yards.

I have shot 69,75, and 77 grain from Privi, Hornady, and Black Hills and believe it or not the 62 gr FMJ is about on par with the heavier loads as far as accuracy (1.5 MOA is about normal).
The 69 grain Privi shoots POA/POI with the M855 zero at 100 yards, the 75-77 shoots a bit higher for me.
I avoid most steel cased as I guess I shot alot of the older Wolf with all the lacquer on it and I would get stuck cases when hot. I had to knock quite a few of them out the chamber back in the day and I have stuck with brass ever since.

11

You are aware that the “steel” cases are actually an alloy designed to mimic the plasticity of brass, right? It’s not tougher on extractors and I beg you to find actual evidence of this. It’s the hardened steel of an extractor versus the soft, brass-like alloy steel of Wolf and the like.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with shooting Wolf and other steel-cased ammunition through an AR-15. Especially when you’re practicing and essentially wasting ammo at a target less than 25 yards from you. All you’re doing by buying brass-cased ammo for plinking is wasting money.

12

That’s impossible. Steel cases simply do not perform like brass.

It’s not tougher on extractors and I beg you to find actual evidence of this.

I agree that there’s no evidence of any parts damage from steel… but the cases simply don’t have the same maleability of brass.

13

Buy-load-shoot-repeat.

Follow the ammo sticky for “real” ammo. For training/practice buy whatever you can get.

FWIW we shoot a ton of PMC bronze at work for training ammo.

14

I’m not a huge fan of the steel stuff myself for personal reasons. I use brass because I reload and I like to keep my leftovers. If the steel cases were as malleable as brass then we would be able to adequately full-length resize them without neck splitting and case head separation wouldn’t we? :wink:

First and foremost use something semi-reputable. Make sure it cycles. Buy more and repeat.

For HD/SD ammo, by all means make sure you find something that cycles reliably ALL the time in your weapon of choice.

Having said that, Colt seems to be one of the least picky weapons when it comes to ammo. All of mine cycle nearly everything you throw at them.

15

Some questions put in there for you.

16

You actually can do this… but it’s a pain. I’ve reloaded Wolf Boxer primed steel before… just to try it… I had heard about it and wanted to be able to discuss it if it came up.

It’s noticeably harder to resize the steel cases. I only did a few… but I could tell the difference.

17

I shoot PMC Bronze almost exclusively in my 11.5 SBR w/H2 buffer and my Light Recce 16" with A5. Thousands of rounds and I’ve never had a cycling issue. It’s acceptable as range ammo and reasonably consistent. On the chronograph, out of the 16", I get 2881 FPS average with a SD of 41 FPS. Out of the SBR, I get 2443 with an SD of 51 FPS.

18

+1 on the Federal 55g .223 for target shooting. Available at WalMart. Can also be found in bulk.

19

There should be no break in period, just buy some decent brass cased ammo, lube up the bolt carrier, and bolt, and start shooting.

20

Ok?

The point is that brass alloy ammunition casings and the steel alloy casings are not very different. Take this post for example and confirm the data for yourself at matweb:

This issue can be addressed after a quick check over at http://www.matweb.com/ The following data is from this source.

In order to make an “apples-to-apples” comparison, I’ve kept the respective material hardness ratings data to the Rockwell Hardness “B” (HRB) scale.

As a “frame of reference”:

“High” carbon (0.90-1.03%) steel (series 1095, annealed, used in knife blades, etc.) has an HRB of 99.

“Low” carbon (0.22-0.28%) steel (series 1025, annealed), typical of the “mild” steel that is used to manufacture steel cartridge cases, has a HRB of 71.

HO6 70/30 “cartridge” brass (70% Copper, 30% Zinc) has an HRB of 83 making it significantly harder than the low carbon (mild) steel most likely used to fabricate ammunition cases.

“Cold worked/drawn” gilding metal alloy (95Cu/05Zn) has a HRB of 70 making it every bit as hard as the low carbon steel and this alloy is what is in contact with the inside of your barrel (bore) as you send FMJs and JHPs down range through your gun’s barrel.

As for running steel cartridge cases (and/or bullets with jackets made of “mild” low carbon steel) through your guns, as long as you’ve got a quality gun, I doubt seriously that you’ll “hurt” your gun.

Some supplemental reading:
http://www.calce.umd.edu/TSFA/Hardness_ad_.htm

I am by no means well-versed on the physics behind it (working on it) but I don’t believe you need to be in this case. You’re not going to damage your extractors more by using Wolf ammo and I, once again, beg anyone to find actual evidence to support otherwise. Until that evidence magically appears, it’s just pure silly, irrational behavior to only use “brass-case” ammunition in your AR-15 out of fear for increased wear with “steel” ammo.

1k of Wolf:
$189.50

1k of XM193BK:
$264.96
and that’s the cheapest I’ve seen it in a long time

Now, assuming these irrational fears are true…if you’re paying $75.46 less just for this god-tier brass…I think you can afford <$20 for a new extractor after you’ve managed to break yours. Granted I’ve never seen this documented as a failure due to steel cased ammo and a lot of people are running ARs fine with 10k+ wolf through it as their only ammo source --I think you can afford it. Especially since Wolf (and equally imprecise ammo such as M193) are used for practice/plinking/berm blasting.

and as a cherry to top this post:
Bore break ins, gun break ins, etc are all made up to compensate for poor manufacturing (coughkimber break incough) or they’re an excuse to get you to wear the barrel more for more sales overall