View Full Version : Cheapest Accurate MidWeight Bullet for 5.56 AR
Looking for a bullet to load 1000 of as a 100 - 300. . .maybe 600 once. . 5.56 round. I see the choice as:
55 gr FMJBT - Not much of a "longer range" choice, but should be fine 100 - 300.
62gr SS109 - Fine, but steel core leaves me worried it will not be accurate.
Hornady 68 gr BTHP Match - There are minimal reviews of this bullet online. Anybody use it? I have some loaded to try.
Sierra 69 SMK - Good, but price is getting up there.
Hdy 75gr BTHP - Fine, but my gun is a 1:9. Will it stabalize?
Sierra 77gr SMK - Well, same concern with 1:9. . .Also, "big" money for this project.
Other?
BTW, main rifle is a homebuild 5.56 rifle gas 17" barreled AR with 1-4x scope. Gun has shot 1 - 1.5" before without issue.
Goals:
1000 rounds of general purpose ammo
Accuracy - 1" at 100 yards. 1.75 would be min acceptable.
mag length ammo
BTW, I've started this endeaver, but I question my direction some. I'm sort of looking for some combination of affirmation or what direction I should be going with something like this!
Purpose of the round? Practice, varmint, defense?
I've had very good accuracy results with hand loaded SS109 projectiles using Ramshot's 5.56 data.
Also had good results with pulled 64gr Gold Dots and 5.56 data, wish I would have bought more when they were available.
Barrel is 1:7 though.
Not sure how well the 1:9 will do with anything above 62gr, you'll have to test to know for sure. Some people have luck with 1:9 , some don't.
I would look into the nosler custom competition. 1000 count boxes range from 150-180. You would go with the 52 or 69 either Will work fine with your 1 in 9 twist barrel.
You could step up to matchkings in the same weights. I have only been able to get matchkings in 500 round boxes. They are 109 and that is what i pay locally in a small city. When i buy them i get two boxes and the shop drops it to a hundred a box.
The matchkings are slightly more accurate, but the custom comps have better terminal ballistics. Both of them are very accurate when making the jump to the lands.
Purpose of the round? Practice, varmint, defense?
Yea!!! In reality...practice. If necessary, I would use for SD or varmints, but my AR isn't primary for those duties.
...nosler custom competition. ...69...
Thanks. I forgot those are in this class.
Yes, SMK's are said to be the best, but I just don't like the price.
I spoke with a guy who told me tha camp perry 200-300 load to beat are 77 SMK's loaded mag length, but is that 0.060" off the lands! Of course their barrels and chambers are better. Accuracy of load may not be super critical at short range either.
There chambers may be tighter but not necessarily better. The matchkings really handle the jump well. Bullets like vlds need to be loaded either very close or kissing the lands.
You won't notice much of a difference in the cc's compared to matchkings. If i can get them locally for 200 per thousand you should be able to find a better price online. They are worth the price they get for them, and are roughly only 40 to 50 dollars more per thousand.
Well, interesting posts. Thanks. I had bought Hdy 68's. I just guessed! We'll see how they work out this week!
Boxerglocker
10-28-12, 09:37
Nolser competition 60g Ballistics tip is IMO your answer...
Paired with H-335 and a Wolf SRM primers it does .5 to 1 inch in my both my bolt gun and ARs.
Nosler competition comes on sale every now and again. I got 1000 80 grain Nosler (I know they are kind of big for the 1/9, but I have 1/7 twist) for like $130 shipped.
The 64 gr WW is mid-weight, fairly inexpensive and shot decently to 300 back when I ran a 1x9 Colt.
There's just no sub for SMKs in 69 for an all purpose round.
They're close to the M855 trajectory and thus mate well with ACOG reticles.
I prefer the matchkings over any other bullet for an all around bullet, but the custom comps are not that far behind in the accuracy department. The custom comps have a slight edge in terminal performance. The matchkings are great for platforms with a magazine length restriction that causes the bullet to have a long jump to the lands.
When black hills was working on the mk262 round they used nosler cc's, and matchkings. They stated that you could not tell the difference in the accuracy between the two until they were shot from fixtures. Once shot from fixtures the matchkings were more accurate.
So if someone does not want to pay for the matchkings the cc's should work well as a replacement. For the slight amount more the matchkings cost ill continue to buy them. I did recently pick up a 250 pack of the 69 cc's just to see how they shoot. I normally use 52 & 77 matchkings, but they were cheap, and i figured i would give them a shot. I will probably use them for a varmit hunting tournament that happens in January, because i do not use vmax bullets at all.
The Matchkings are so good, even Black Hills can't screw the accuracy up. :D...
Basically anyone can put some powder behind a matchking load it to 2.250-2.260, and it Will be moa accurate.
I do not understand why people pay 50+ dollars a box for black hills anything.
Basically anyone can put some powder behind a matchking load it to 2.250-2.260, and it Will be moa accurate.
I do not understand why people pay 50+ dollars a box for black hills anything.
AMEN! And that's all Black Hills does. Everything they do, aside from bullet selection, is very sloppy.
AMEN! And that's all Black Hills does. Everything they do, aside from bullet selection, is very sloppy.
I also believe the article said it took them a couple years to get to the mk262 mod1 we have now.
i can take a week and develop a more accurate 77mk load. I may not get the speed they have, but i do not have powder manufacturers that i can call and spec the powder how i want it. From the rounds me and my buddy measured mine Will have less run out and be more consistent.
I can't stand black hills i bought some one time and was so disappointed. I do not see how they can get 50+ for mk262, and close to 70 for there 50 grain tsx. Even if they get a special tsx that holds together better.
Yeah... in their defense, it's probably not as easy to do volume and achieve the quality that you or I demand.
On the other hand, Federal Gold Medal Match ammo is an example of good factory stuff.
When we come across a box of Black Hills ammo, we don't shoot it. We pull it appart and salvage the components.
Has anyone else shot the Hdy 68 at mag length, or am I really the first?:D:confused:
Has anyone else shot the Hdy 68 at mag length, or am I really the first?:D:confused:
Like, everyone has.
ETA: Or to rephrase - Everyone that has loaded it has most likely loaded it to mag length.
Pre Y2K the Black Hills 68 gr loading was about the best money could buy. When I could not get their factory 68 Blue Box loads (Y2K shortage thingy), I loaded a bunch of the Hornady 68s and they did great out of a 1x9 Colt. Tried some recently and they were nothing special, (as are the Hornady 75s in my ARs). Nosler CCs (in 77 grain) are vastly superior for me and are on par with the more expensive Sierra's.
Yeah... in their defense, it's probably not as easy to do volume and achieve the quality that you or I demand.
On the other hand, Federal Gold Medal Match ammo is an example of good factory stuff.
When we come across a box of Black Hills ammo, we don't shoot it. We pull it appart and salvage the components.
I could never achieve their volume, but quality is another thing. For federal to produce some of the most accurate ammo with basically any firearm in that caliber with there gold medal match line is amazing. Blows black hills out of the water with quality and quantity.
I could never achieve their volume, but quality is another thing. For federal to produce some of the most accurate ammo with basically any firearm in that caliber with there gold medal match line is amazing. Blows black hills out of the water with quality and quantity.
It's good to see that someone else is paying attention. Pappabear and I are always scratching our heads wondering WHY Black Hills has a good reputation. :blink:
One of my buddies has the rcbs tool that checks for run out. We wanted to test a couple factory loads against our own. We only had mk262, and fgmm loaded with 77mk. We tested some other loads, but they did not have bullets black hills loads.
That day we checked run out on the mk262, federal gold medal match 77, and some of our loads using the 77mk. We seated the bullets using the rcbs competition seating die. The black hills ammo ranged from 7-9 thousandths of run out. The federal had 4-7 thousandths of run out. Our loads were all under 5 thousandths.
That experience made me wonder about there reputation, and loading abilities. Bottom line is a smaller company like black hills should be able to maintain a higher standard of quality. If federal can do it at a much higher volume wtf is wrong with black hills. Black hills is overpriced junk.
I like Hornady 75gr HPBT over 23gr of H335 and my barrel is 1:7
Wow, how did this turn into a bash Black Hills thread. That was never my intention...
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