Bullets for .223/5.56

[bigarm]

I am getting ready to load for .223. I have everything but bullets and maybe powder. I do have one pound of CFE 223. We use on AR's for 3 gun and plinking/fun. Of the 3 gun matches we have attended this year only one has had longer shots of up to 400 yards. Most of the shots are easily 100 yards or less. I am just beginning to learn casting and will be casting and powder coating our 40 and 45 bullets. I would also like to cast for the 223, but have heard many saying that the accuracy with cast bullets won't be good enough. Since most of our shots are under 100 yards, is that a concern? If you use cast bullets for 223, what powder do you use? I was going to use fmj, but since I am going to cast I was considering this route. I haven't ordered a mold yet, but was planning on around 60 gas check and powder coating them. What do you say?

[Tom Freeman]

Cast bullets might do nasty things to your gas system and will also gum up your comp in short order. Powder coated and/or gas checks will help.

Just get some Hornady 55s and save yourself lots of grief.

[ToddKS]

No, just no. You cast bullets for a 30-30, not .223. Velocity is too high.

55gr .223 bullets are cheap and readily available. Either Hornady or Xtreme will do fine. The Xtremes are less than $.09ea in boxes of 500.

[bigedp51]

bigarm

Let me put it another way, if you use cast bullets in your AR the best you can hope for is being selected for giving suppressive covering fire in a Zombie attack.

While the rest of us are making head shots and scoring all the points.

Sorry, I watched too many episodes of "The Walking Dead" while cleaning my AR15s. And only head shots count.

Edited September 21, 2014 by bigedp51

[bigarm]

bigarm

Let me put it another way, if you use cast bullets in your AR the best you can hope for is being selected for giving suppressive covering fire in a Zombie attack.

While the rest of us are making head shots and scoring all the points.

Sorry, I watched too many episodes of "The Walking Dead" while cleaning my AR15s. And only head shots count.

Now that is funny! I am a big Walking Dead fan.

[Steve RA]

Mid South has some that work well and have a good price.

https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/Vendor/00004/Midsouth/Dept/Reloading/Jacketed_Rifle

[ToddKS]

1000 55gr FMJ for $82 @ MidSouth. That is a great price. Were I not fully stocked I would be ordering some of that.

It's still tempting even with my current inventory. I keep thinking that as soon as the powder shortage resolves the bullet prices are going to go up.

Edited September 21, 2014 by ToddKS

[dauntedfuture]

Please don't try to shoot cast bullets in a match in a .223. Its simply not a good idea for any number of reasons. Consider two loads; a heavy for 200+ and a light load for closer stuff. You will find that POIs are quite close. A 55 FMJ and a 69 or 77 will work well and save you some money as the 55 FMJs are .095 vs .20 for a 77 SMK. You can usually use the same powder charge and set up if you have a Dillon.

[bigarm]

I ordered 500 xtreme 55 grain bullets to try and will use CFE 223 powder to start. We will see how that goes. If it goes okay, I will order more bullets and get more powder (hopefully!).

[dauntedfuture]

There is a huge disparity between 55 FMJ bullets. Some are way better than others. I have no experience with xtreme 55 FMJs but if for some reason they don't shoot well try Hornady before you write off 55 FMJ for ever. In my experience, the hornady's are worth a little more as they shoot better.