I know the difference regarding pressures, but considering 5.56x45mm 55 gr. is getting scarce and .223 FMJ 55 gr. I can still find, any concerns about .223 that I should know about? I’m shooting Colt 6920s and an SBR LMT Defender 2000 (14.5 Barrel).
For .223 FMJ I have been shooting only Black Hills Blue or Red box.
There is no problem with 223. If your going to buy 223 stay away from black hills. The price is ridiculous, and the quality/consistency is no bueno. For 223 fmj stick with cheap winchester, federal, pmc, and anything cheap. One exception is armscor. 223 fmj is just plinking/training ammo do not pay the outrageous prices for dollarsblack hills.
If you want a precision round federal gold medal match is by far better than black hills. Cor-bon’s 69 match king load is great as well, and all of it i have shot uses lapua match brass. So if you reload you end up with once fired brass that sells for 60-70$ per 100 new. Even if you do not reload you should be able to sell a hundred pieces of one fired lapua match for 30-40 dollars.
So PMC is good? My local fun shop got a shipment in of PMC .223 and PMC 5.56 in 55 gr FMJ.
PMC 55 gr is quite weak (in case you compete and need to make factor) whereas Remington UMC 55 gr is a little hotter but still on the weak side (but then you have to deal with their shoddy QC instead.)
Chris Costa has been promoting some new manufacturer, but their name escapes me right now.
Oh, OH58D, I did get your e-mail - it’s a small world!
I personally think pmc bronze is one of the best training rounds you can get in 223. Everyone says it is under powered, but i have never had a problem with it. It seems to be standard power for 223. It definitely is not 556, but it runs fine in my 14.5 mid lengths. I have even had no problems while running an h2 buffer in my 14.5 middy shooting pmc bronze.
Op if you can get the xtac 55, and the bronze 55 i would buy all you can afford. I would probably charge a good chunk if the price was right. Do not pay to much for it unless you absolutely need the ammo.
I didn’t know if xtac 5.56 was crap or not so I only bought five 20 round boxes. It was $9.95 per box + tax. I may drive back to town and get some more.
Yes, skullworks, it certainly is a small world. Glad you got the message!
Just bought a case of PMC 223 just before all the stupid happened- glad I did!! Good ammo not top quality but GTG. Brass is excellant for reloading!
What’s wrong with Black Hills ammunition?
In fact, one of Doc’s top rated defensive/duty 5.56 loads is Black Hills 50gr TSX
He’s moreso recommending the actual bullet at the velocity its loaded to. The problem with Black Hills is that they do not produce high quality ammo, they just use high quality bullets. The goal with high quality ammunition is the removal of variables. IE you want everything about one round to be the same as the next.
Combined with the prices BH charges, it’s mediocre ammo at best. However, mediocre ammo is “very good” to people who don’t know any better nor care.
Which Doc recommended 5.56 duty load is less expensive than the Black Hills loaded 50gr TSX?
Can you tell me more about why black hills does not make high quality ammo? I thought otherwise.
PMC Bronze is pretty slow (2850 fps), but has always functioned my AR’s. It’s a nice mellow load. XTAC is some nice stuff and smokin’ fast (3300 fps). That’s out of a 20 for both. Both look like they use the same components, but are obviously loaded to different pressures. Both were about 3.5 MOA for me. These days I wish I could fine some XTAC for $10/20.
TomMcC
I’ll have to through some over the chrony cause I thought I did before and it wasn’t that slow! Mine will be out of a 16" carbine. I’ll get back with you on this one.
It’s been at least a couple a years since the last time I chrono’d some Bronze. So some updated chrono data would be useful, they may have changed the specs.
I shoot whatever ammunition I can get my hands on and I like to keep records on everything I shoot. Here are some average muzzle velocities out of my duty carbine with 16" barrel for reference:
PMC 55g FMJ (red & white box) - 2673 fps
Black Hills 55g FMJ - 2726 fps
Win. Q3131A 55g FMJ - 2964 fps
S&B 55g FMJ - 3041 fps
Win. USA223R1 55g FMJ - 2888 fps
S&B 55g FMJ - 3041 fps
Malaysian M193 - 3065 fps
Rem. 55g FMJ (green & white box) - 2904 fps
Federal M193 - 3059 fps
Federal 55g SP - 2953 fps
Win. 55g SP - 2949 fps
All velocities were measured at 15 feet from the muzzle at a temperature of 55 degrees farenheit. The S&B 55g FMJ, Malaysian M193 and Federal M193 all measured between 3240 fps and 3260 fps out of my match rifle with 20" stainless barrel.
OH58D - Since your rifle has a 5.56 chamber, you are good to go with either 5.56 or 223. 223 is just not as hot.
7ring - Thank you for sharing. Your velocities match what I have seen very closely in the brands I have chronoed. PMC definitely is the slowest of the brands I have checked, but not the most inconsistent (that prize goes to Remington green box) 
I would say almost every round on docs list is cheaper than the black hills 50 tsx. The only ones that might be more is trophy bonded bear claw loads. Most of the time when i see the 50 tsx load it is around 70 a box. You can uusually find loads like gold dots for 18 per 20. So you can get 60 for less than a box of 50.
Snake is absolutely correct on black hills. They load nice bullets, and that’s as far as it goes. The mk262 load that everyone wants is not accurate because it is black hills. I can slap the 77matchking in almost any case with any suitable primer/powder combo, and it will be accurate. It does not take a lot of proficiency to load matchkings to be accurate.
I was referring to the three he said are best, with bold emphasis his.
“The best LE 5.56 mm/.223 loads for intermediate barrier penetration using 1/9 and faster twist barrels are the 5.56 mm Federal 62 gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (TBBC) bonded JSP (XM556FBIT3) and 5.56 mm Winchester 64 gr solid base bonded JSP (Q3313/RA556B) developed for the FBI, along with the outstanding new Black Hills 5.56 mm 50 gr TSX loading.”
I would ver much love for you to show me where 5.56x45 Speer Gold Dots are available for sale. (PS: Grant hasn’t had it for awhile and talks as though he might not ever get it again)
Or where it was available before Connecticut, even.
The Trophy Bonded Bear Claw was not available anywhere at any price. The RA556B was only available from SGAmmo and it was $30/20 rounds, or $1.50 per round.
I’ve been shooting PMC Bronze .223 as training ammo for years. I chronographed 100 rounds last year and got 2886 FPS muzzle velocity +/- 46 FPS out of my 16 inch Light Recce. It has never short stroked in my Noveske with H buffer nor in either of my 11.5 inch SBRs with H2 buffers.
I guess I’m not sure what constitutes “quite weak” ammo, but I’ve found the stuff to be reliable, consistent, and clean. And it’s very pretty too.
Shreicher spelling might be messed up, but they were in stock about a week ago at 18 dollars a box. Did not realize you were specifically speaking about those three rounds. The gold dots did sell out quick. I think they were the ICE load which has a brass case that is not nickel plated. I would have bought some, but i reload all my rounds, and i still have 500 64 nosler bonded solid bases(same bullet as the win fbi round) i need to load plus another 1000 60 grain partitions. So i was not in need of any.
In the terminal performance section someone posted they were in stock then they disappeared.
Edit: tried to edit was deleated by phone
Those are the three Doc specified as being the best. The Black Hills was actually available, and priced better than the other two. And is specifically recommended by name by Doc, who calls it “outstanding”. Seemed like a good selection to me, based on that.