EricW Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Has anybody messed with finding less expensive alternatives to Sierra's to use as practice ammo? Anybody messed with Midway's Dogtown bullets? Yeah, I know they're not 69 gr., but holy crap, $12/100 is pretty damn breathtaking considering I used to buy Sierra 223's for $8/100 just a few years ago. I tend to shoot 150-200 rounds every trip to the range, so yes, the cost difference matters to me. I tried the Winchester bulk 55 gr. FMJ's, but they're wanting beyond 100 yards. I might have just got a bad lot as others seem to have nice things to say. Anyone else tried the Wins? Suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew_Mink Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Eric, I've shot a LOT of the 55gr. FMJBT Wins with pretty good results. I won't say I've gotten fantastic results, but I haven't went for total accuracy results with them yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Winchester or Remington 55 FMJ, $35-40 per thousand. Accuracy stinks. (Yeah, yeah, some people claim they shoot 1 MOA from their Mini-14, sure, whatever.) I remember getting a decent price on 2,000 Rems from Midway or Wideners, I forget. If you want more accuracy, Hornady 55 FMJ, $50 per thousand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 I got some 55gr FMJBTs from Scharch Mfg (not sure who made them...box has an orange and black camo pattern on it). They aren't great but they do okay. I have only run them out to 100 and haven't really spent any time on load development. I was getting 1.5MOA out of them at 100 (out of my JP upper which usually runs <1 MOA with Matchkings). I think they were $37/thousand, shipped. Remind me and I'll get you a handfull if you want to play with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intel6 Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Kimel, I was wondering where Scharch got their .223 FMJ's from. I now know they got them from a place called Golden West Bullets in CA, just outside of LA. I saw their adds back at the begining of last year and by the looks of the prices for their pistol bullets I figured they had to be plated. I e-mailed them and found that they were real jacketed bullets and they were the manufacturer. When you mentioned the funny looking boxes I knew it was them. I was going back to visit my parents with the kids last April and realized I would be driving right by this place and would have plenty of room in the Suburban for some bullets so I arrainged to by some directly from them. I was mainly interested in .40 cal 180 fmj's at $40 a thousand but I also wanted to try some of their .223 62 gr FMJ's for my AR's. I stopped by their facility and was impressed by their set up. They were making the bullets from the raw materials from drawing jackets to swaging the cores they did it all using virgin materials (pallets of copper and lead wire spools). The other thing I saw while getting the tour of the facility quite a bit of attention to detail and hands on quality control. The 40's have been great in my limited gun and the .223 bullets have shot great out of my Colt M4 but I admit to not really ever testing them off a bench for accuracy. I was mainly using them for general shooting at the steel targets out at our local range. I wasn't sure if I could ever get any more if I liked them too much so I stuck with the more expensive brands for those loads. A local dealer here just bought 300,000 bullets from him including .223's so now I will have to play with them some more. He is selling the .55's for $39 and the 62's for $42 a thousand. That is more than I paid for them but they had raised their prices due to the cost of materials going up like everyone else. Neal in AZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Thanks for the info Neal. The shipping labels on my box obscured the manufacturer. I have been impressed enough with the 55s that I was going to order some 62s and play with those as well someday. Now that I know who it is I will have to investigate their 40s as well. So many bullets, so little time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted July 11, 2004 Author Share Posted July 11, 2004 Anyone have contact info for Golden West? Google turns up zip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 I got mine through Top Brass which is a division of Scharch Mfg.. They don't list the .40 stuff but say they can get other calibers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted July 11, 2004 Author Share Posted July 11, 2004 Scharch would seem to be the way to go for low volume buys: $38/K - delivered - which is slightly less than Midway's price for 1K of the Wins. I might take Erik's advice and try the Hornadys too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBF Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Eric, The Hornady 60 gr. TAP bullets from Midsouth Shooter Supply are good bullets. $ 150.00 / 5000 ( plus shipping ) If they still have them, they were discontinued by Hornady due to lack of sales. WWW.MidwayUSA.com has Hornady 55gr. SP / WC ( with cannelure ), they are better than the generic ( Win. and Rem. ) FMJ. IMHO anyway. They shoot better for me. Dogtown bullets are also good, I have used the 50 gr. with good results. I had only fair to average results with FMJ stuff. Travis F. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpspeed Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Eric, The Golden West Bullet guys are around the corner from me, well, more like 10 miles but in LA, it seems like around the corner. I've tried their bullets and they are very well made and accurate but teh pistol bullets are FMJ with exposed lead bases so I don't us them much. If you like, I'll send you 100 of the 62's or 55's to try. Let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Cascadeammo.com sells Dallas Reloading remanufactured ammo for $69/1000. I've shot about 5 cases of it so far and havent had any issues with it. It hits at 300 from my 20" JP and even shoots well at 200 out of my 16". YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted July 13, 2004 Author Share Posted July 13, 2004 Cascadeammo.com sells Dallas Reloading remanufactured ammo for $69/1000. $69? or $169? Because if it's $69, I'll take 10 cases right now. I can't buy components for that hardly. ================================================ Ward, Thanks for the kind offer, but I really would be happy to pay you for them. I'll PM you. E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 (edited) Hi Eric, Here is the Hornady bulk 55gr boat tail FMJ from Midway that I have had great success with. http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/165907 Before I started shooting heavy Sierra MatchKings in a JP CTR-02, I ran this bulk Hornady over 27.5 grains of WW748 at 2.225” OAL for .75 MOA in my 1:9 20” heavy barrel EA-15. The same load gets 1 MOA in my 1:8 20” JP stainless supermatch. It just starts to flatten primers at 28.0 grains 748 in the Eagle. 27.5 grains gives me 3100 fps out of the EA-15 and 3025 in the JP. I tried a few different bulk 55gr FMJ’s and this is the only one that grouped very well for me over 748, which is what I wanted to use. OAL was set by the cannelure (I centered on it and used the Dillon taper crimp die to just tuck it in. I am comfortable knowing that accidental setback is less of an issue with this so I settled here for all the 55gr ball I load. -- Regards, Edited July 13, 2004 by George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 I have bought a ton of 55 grain stuff from Jeff Bartlett at www.gibrass.com As he shoots with a good friend of mine, can usually save the shipping, which is very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glockster96 Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 Looks like $169 on the dallas reman stuff: Cascade Ammo Reman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigS. Posted July 20, 2004 Share Posted July 20, 2004 Try the ARMSCOR 55grfmj and the 62 grfmj $42/K no steel content ,easy on steel targets.. Good results with hodgdon 335/ 25.0gr/55gr fmj. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMC Posted July 20, 2004 Share Posted July 20, 2004 "Cheap, Decent 223 bullets, Ideas" Hornady 75 GR BTHP MATCH, that came in a prize box, they were free! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tewlman Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 i found a guy thats selling a 75gr hornady match bullet on varget powder in a nickel plated berdan primered case for $260/1000. he is very popular in the dcm match circle. that's a smoking price on match rounds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 TMC, I got a certificate from Berger for 2 free boxes of bullets ( any caliber ) from a Friends of the NRA banquet. This sounds like a great deal, but now I'm hooked on them and they are almost twice what I had been using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ap3 Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 For inexpensive practice supplies go to www.gibrass.com. You can get 62gr military pulled bullets there for $60/1000. The best bargain is the military pulled powder which is equivelant to Hogdon H335. $72 for 8lbs. The product number is WC844. You won't be able to notice the difference. You can get primers for $35/5,000, but you have to pick them up in person as he doesn't have the license to ship them yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle_walty Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 Anyone have contact info for Golden West? Google turns up zip. Golden West usually has a small ad in Shotgun News. Daniel is their only distributor that I know of and he's very helpful. Here's his email: Dnaenterprizs@aol.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdragon Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 If you are looking for good quality 55g FMJ 223 bullets check out ARMSCOR. They are $39.00 per 1k plus shipping. Ivan SCS Vegas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 18, 2004 Author Share Posted August 18, 2004 Erik Warren had it right on the money. Hornady 55 gr. FMJ's are THE SH*T. Astounding accuracy. I had the same cloverleaf groups with the Horndys as my Sierra HP's and....virtually no zero changes. Thanks Erik! You da man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrett Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 I haven't tried them yet, but I just picked up some 62 gr. bullets from Graf & Son's for $39/1000. Check it out Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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