I cant find ammo anywhere and I have had enough of the panic buying. I need to start reloading. Would someone be willing to point me in the right direction of the needed to supplies (bullets, primers, etc.) for brass FMJ .40 and 5.56 ammo. I saw the sticky but don’t want to have shortages hit and prices escalate more in the time it takes me to read up. I’d like to get the hard material purchases for a years worth of rounds before it gets crazy.
:help:
Thanks in advance.
Good luck. You are coming a little late to the game. Try finding bulk bullets right now. Powder and primers are getting low. Reloaders are not exempted form what’s happing.
You may be late to the game because this is the exact same thing that happened in 2008. Magazines dried up, then ammo, then primers and powder.
I’m pissed because I just started to see 8 lbs jugs of powder in my area after waiting four damn years for them. At least I bought some before all this.
Im able to find some 500-1000 packs of bullets and primers (I’ll be it I have no idea if these are decent brands) but have no idea what size I need.
A basic list of components would be .224 dia. projectiles for 223 and .40 cal projectiles for your .40 in whatever grains you normally shoot your going to need small pistol and small rifle primers and then pick a powder that you can find.
ETA: Varget or Tac will work for the 223 unique or power pistol will work for the .40
After you do that get a reloading manual and sit down and read it front to back and completely understand what you are doing before you go any further but I get what your saying about grabbing the components while you can I usually order my practice pistol ammo from berrysmfg.com and pulled down bullets but good luck finding them in stock on the m193 pull downs.
.400-.401 155 grain to 180 grain
.224 usually 55 grain or 62 grain for plinking
Small Pistol and Small Rifle primers
Unique or Power Pistol are good all around powders for pistol reloading.
BL(C)-2, W-748, H-335 work well for 5.56
Sorry to side track but do you personally load h335 for 556 I just picked up 8lbs because I wasnt able to get any tac or varget locally.
I have in the past. It goes bang and a bullet comes out the end. As opposed to the alternative of a boom with the bolt coming out the back.
There are numerous powders that are good for 5.56/.223 and I highly recommend loaddata.com it’s a great resource and for the price of one reloading manual you get access to over 200,000 loads.
ETA: You will be set with 8lbs of 335. Its also good for 30-30 & 7-30 Waters
You need to get the abc’s of reloading. If you do not know the size of primer that are used in those two rounds you should not buy anything before the book. There is so many powders for 223/556. Just don’t blindly go out and buy components.
Everyone new this was coming. It happened last election. During the campaign our pres said he was going to have guns on the agenda. The shooting exacerbated things, but you knew it was coming you should have been buying in 09’. Now you want to be spoon fed what you need. If you can not even look up what you need for loading. What are you going to do when you have to learn how to actually load the ammo or figure out what load data your going to use?
Thanks for the help guys
Montana Gold 180 gr FMJs for the .40 S&W.
Hornady 55 gr FMJ-BT for the .223.
Small Rifle primers (US name brand - I don’t know about others) will work for both. But don’t use Small Pistol primers for rifle loading.
Powders are debatable - read the threads and see what’s available. I like VV N 320 (VihtaVuori) for .40 S&W and TAC for .223.
Any US name brand brass for either (along with some foreign) - WW generally being the preferred pistol brass and LC the preferred rifle brass.
Start with (and read) some of the basic reloading manuals including the ABC’s of reloading - or Lyman. You can waste a lot of money jumping in without knowing what you are doing. Reloading will not be outlawed, but things will be tight for some time.
Go buy a case of WW or Federal (standard) Small Rifle primers now (if you can find them).
If after you buy all your equipment you can not find any primers send me a pic of your gear with your screen name in the pic, and I will send you 2k small rifle primers that you will be able to use for both calibers.
If you are interested in getting a Dillon 550b, I have been thinking about selling off my .40S&W reloading equipment as I pretty much exclusively reload for 9mm now days. The equipment includes the complete Dillon .40/10mm carbide die set, and the .40/10mm conversion kit. The conversion kit includes the 550b shell plate, powder funnel, and locator buttons. I have probably only loaded a couple of thousand rounds of .40, and have used lanolin case lube which minimizes wear on the dies. I’ve got six 100rd MTM cartridge boxes, and about 1000 180gr copper plated bullets. PM if you are interested.
I appreciate all the help out. I wound up purchasing the Lyman T mag expert deluxe kit. According to the research and member feedback this was the best bang for buck. I have not been able to find powder or primers anywhere so I am planning on spending some time with the equipment and the reloading guides until the shortage is less extreme.
The 3 vendors i use most often are Grafs, Powder Valley inc, and Wideners. Your gonna have to take a hit on hazmat prices if you really need all the components because i rarely find powders and primers both in stock at the same distributor for both handgun and rifle. 223 I use varget, CFE223, benchmark, based on availability over the past year. Pistol is titegroup and universal clays. Buy in bulk, you never know when stuff comes back in stock.
you tube raymond milbrae it may help you out.
Do you have any bullets or brass? I offered to send you some primers. If you have bullets brass, and all the equipment you need i will modify my offer to some primers plus some powder. I will cover the hasmat fee as well. like i said post a pic after you have read some, and feel comfortable with getting started. Make sure to include in your post what brass and bullets you have the most of. The primers that i will send will work with sp or Sr plus a pound of powder for rifle plus a pound of pistol or two pounds of either let me know when your ready. I would offer some brass, but as of now i do not reload 40 as far as 556 it is the only thing Im running a little low on.
Hell of an offer, take it!
I received a call from Wideners Thursday cancelling my order that I placed 2 weeks ago due to “out of stock” on my primers. That screwed me royally. I keep looking, but can not find any.