Hey Everyone,
I have used the search function over the last few weeks to try and avoid starting a repeat thread but every combination of search terms I use isn’t giving me results.
My wife got me a reloading kit for christmas and I am really enjoying learning as much as I can about this new hobby. So far I have had great success with my first loads, and I am hoping to expand my knowledge.
I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for which bullets they prefer when loading 5.56 for defensive purposes? My rifle has a 1/9 twist rate.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.
Glad to hear you are getting into reloading, it is great!
And no I don’t have a recommended round, but…
I asked the question awhile back for handgun loads and basically was a split reaction as to… Why, when there are so many proven rounds out there, to I know all off my reloads will go bang because of my QC, to hope you have extra $$$ to spend on a lawyer once the defense finds out you purposely selected components to make a more “percieved” lethal round than avaliable on the shelf.
It seemed to boil down to, find what your local law enforcement uses and get them. Save you the headache of dealing with lawyers and reloads.
But I do have several mags loaded with factory defense ammo and my reloads. If I need to use them, I will not even think twice about which one I grab.
I will search and find the thread and post the link here
Edit: http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=63745
Read the ballistics threads and try and find the same or similar bullet to the ones being loaded commercially.
I know it is not the same TSX as the commercially loaded 50gr TSX but I bought some 50gr and some 70gr TSX but I have not loaded them yet.
The 70gr may not work well in a 1/9.
While there may be something to the argument of using commercial ammo for such things, I want to be able to do it, even if I have a few boxes of commercial. Just in case.
My thought on this was to listen to the guys who reload .223 for deer/hog hunting. I came up with some of the TSX bullets and sierra partition and maybe even game king.
As chadbag said, i don’t plan on loading them unless I need them after I’ve exhausted the rest of my HD factory loads.
Mac5.56
Good bullets for SD/HD basically any SP 55gr on up. If your a worry wort about barriers- any Bonded SP. Want to spend alot of money go TSX. Were are talking about rifle rounds so just about any load will put BG’s in dirt nap mode. My personal load is the 69gr SEI. 
And I only use reloads for SD/HD in both pistol and rifle. PS I don’t give two shits about doing it either.
Good pulled or surplus bonded 62-64 gr bullets come up for sale on the pulled bullet retailers every other month. I bought 500 64 gr Gold Dot pulls and have used those. Find out what bullet it is and just match the load to the factory loads Molon publishes and you should yield very similar performance.
I am fully in the factory load camp on this. Although it is less from a lawyer, reliability, looks bad issue and more just economics.
I have loaded for many many years and I am 100% positive I can load reliable rounds. However by the time I buy the components and take the time to triple check everything it isn’t worth my time. Your mileage, of course may vary.
One other reason is that I really like the 62 grain trophy bonded bear claw round and that bullet isn’t available in a component. Since I get a decent amount of them for work I want to stay with a comparable round.
The 55 grain TBBC bullet is about 50 cents a piece if I recall and when I can get loaded ammo for just over $1 it isn’t worth the time.
Now I do try to come close with another round using FMJ projectiles and load the hell out of those for training purposes.
After all that long winded BS, if I was still going to load some for real purposes in a home it would probably be something like the one of the heavy SMK bullets. Decent bang (performance) for the buck.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I am not to interested in the hypothetical liability of reloading, or the loss of time it takes to do something myself. I do appreciate the names of bullets I should be looking at, and I think I will seriously consider taking the time over a weekend to load up several variant rounds to see how they do.
I shot my first 55gr reload last week and managed 3moa with 10 rounds at 75 yards with no magnification on the rifle, no rest, while shooting prone. I was pretty happy to be honest, and it resulted in me getting bit by the reloading bug…
I would not use reloads for SD in a rule of law situation but in a SHTF scenario, that is a different story .
As far as reloading for myself I only reload the match stuff (68/69 grn bthp’s) , and buy everything else, because you really don’t save that much money when reloading the 55 grn stuff because of the time it takes . Now if you have a dillion 650 with all the crap that goes on it then you are set but myself it’s just not worth it . If I could find the right deal on some ball 55 grn boolits I might try it … Just for back up