General purpose 5.56 and 7.62 loads [Archive]

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Suwannee Tim

11-14-12, 09:48

I have been shooting 5.56 and 7.62 ARs for over four years now but have not been reloading. I have a supply of brass on hand now and want to begin loading for these calibers. I have Winchester bulk 147 grain FMJ bullets and Winchester bulk 55 grain FMJ on hand. If you have a favorite load with these or similar bullets please share it with me. Please also describe it whether you consider the load "hot", "mild" or whatever in between. I'm specifically looking for a load hot enough to cycle all ARs, but no hotter than necessary for that. While we are at it, if you have a pet load for a more premium bullet please tell me about it. If you have any advice or remarks on case trimming, how often, how etc. please comment.

markm

11-14-12, 10:50

For a load just hot enough to run all my gas systems reliably, I've found that 24.5 gr of TAC does the trick.

Case trimming is a "no free lunch" proposition. Either pay up for a Gracey or Giraud, or pay with your own blood and sweat.

You don't have to trim every case, every time... but I do now that I have the Giraud.

wahoo95

11-14-12, 12:04

My go to plinking load for 5.56 is 55gr Hornady FMJ over 25gr of WC844 and Wolf SRM Primers. Functions great and shoots straight in all my rifles. I consider it a mid range load. The added bonus is that its cheap to load.....cost me around $135/k

I trim in batches of 5k using my buddies Giraud. I plan to pick up a Dillon trimmer for Christmas.

S. Galbraith

11-14-12, 18:02

Powder Valley and Graf & Sons are two great sources of reloading components.

If you already reload for handgun cartridges, then you already understand the importance of experiementing on your own. What works well with one shooter using a different rifle, at a different geographical location, at a different altitude may not be as ideal as what you would come up with on your own. Get a few reloading manuals, a chronograph, and enjoy the fun of load development.

Suwannee Tim

11-14-12, 20:06

.....Either pay up for a Gracey or Giraud.....

Thanks, I'll check it out.

.....I plan to pick up a Dillon trimmer for Christmas.

I've got a Dillon trimmer motor but no trim dies. I'll have to investigate that versus the Gracey and Giraud.

Powder Valley and Graf & Sons are two great sources of reloading components.

If you already reload for handgun cartridges, then you already understand the importance of experimenting on your own......

I've done a lot of reloading over the years so yeah, I know what you are talking about. I want to quickly get to a load I'm confident enough to load by the thousands. I don't want to assemble 1K or 2K of ammo to find out my load has some hidden flaw. I loaded 400 454 Casull a few years ago that were not hot enough and was producing hangfires and even one fizzle but that is too long a story for here. Suffice to say it made my head hurt to contemplate pulling 380 rounds of heavily, heavily crimped ammo. I figured out that if I shook the ammo with the primers down the powder flowed into the primer pocket empty space and made a kind of booster charge which made the loads work properly but they had to be loaded into the revolver one at a time.

wahoo95

11-14-12, 20:21

I really like the Giraud, but I'm looking at the Dillon to eliminate an entire step since it trims while sizing and is supposed to trim so cleanly that it doesn't require chamfer/deburr.

jstone

11-14-12, 22:39

Wahoo95 if you have been using a giraud i think you will be very disappointed with the dillon. It does not leave as clean of a cut as they claim. I have seen cuts that range from what they claim to nasty large burr that if you do not chamfer it could possibly damage the jacket. You also have to hook a vacuum up one have that run the whole time which is loud, and annoying. If you have a long vacuum hose you can have the vacuum in another room to make it quieter.

If you can try to see if you can try a dillon before you buy.

wahoo95

11-14-12, 22:41

Wahoo95 if you have been using a giraud i think you will be very disappointed with the dillon. It does not leave as clean of a cut as they claim. I have seen cuts that range from what they claim to nasty large burr that if you do not chamfer it could possibly damage the jacket. You also have to hook a vacuum up one have that run the whole time which is loud, and annoying. If you have q long vacuum hose you can have the vacuum in another room to make it quieter.

If you can try to see if you can try a dillon before you buy.

Thanks for the heads up!

shootist~

11-14-12, 23:32

For 7.62/.308 I found out a long time ago that you cannot swap a load developed for commercial brass to (usually heavier) 7.62 brass. My surplus 7.62x51 brass is heavier (thicker) with less internal volume - and therefore takes less powder for my load.

Pet load for the SCAR 17:

Hornady 150 gr FMJBT
Enough Benchmark to push it to 2,500 fps in the 16" barrel
CCI #34 NATO primer
COL 2.780"

To quote Andrew McCort "the Hornady 150 FMJ is a very god bullet". In the SCAR it matches up to any 150/155 that I've tried. Generally just over MOA for 5 shots at 200 & 300 Meters. I ran five on our 500 meter steel last time out that measured 8 1/8" or ~1.42 MOA.

TAC worked well also for 7.62x51, as did Varget (except I cannot stand how Varget meters).

BTW, I tried the 55gr WWs in a previous century - don't expect too much. The .223 TAC load mentioned above with 55 gr Hornady FMJBTs is my load as well (along with a 77 grain load for more precision and long distance).

markm

11-15-12, 06:45

I really like the Giraud, but I'm looking at the Dillon to eliminate an entire step since it trims while sizing and is supposed to trim so cleanly that it doesn't require chamfer/deburr.

You don't eliminate anystep in the long run... because you then have to chamfer and debur the brass.... now you have a manual step added to the process.

shootist~

11-15-12, 08:48

In the long run it's better to just apply the cost of the Dillon to the Giraud. The Giraud is that much superior - to me anyway, and I have both.

The Dillon is OK if you are only trimming .223/5.56. My actual 5.56 cases (IMI) are long - and due to the amount of initial trimming needed, absolutely require both chamfering and deburr with the Dillon. This is just on the first trim. I did not chamfer/deburr after that first time. However, if you are loading somewhat for accuracy, it's nice to have that clean inside neck chamfer every time.

The Dillon trim die for .308 excessively sizes the neck (about .0040" OD over my Redding die, IIRC). It's only about .0005" difference for .223 - compared to an RCBS die - which is not a problem (and possibly even a good thing for gas guns).

TRshootem

11-18-12, 20:15

MarkM will be on me, but running his same TAC load, I have found in AR's that case length doesn't grow significantly after as many as 3-4 reloads. The real problem is the primer pocket and case head, length appears to remain close enough to not warrant a trim after each firing. This is using mostly LC brass or other .mil stuff. Softer brass such as PMC may need trimming after a couple uses. In the last 6-8 years, in 6-10 different gas guns, any issue that surfaced with reloads was always a FL sizing issue. Full auto run brass is just such an example. By all means trim your cases, but if they are not yet over max and you are NOT crimping, I have found it isn't necessary after each firing. I DO try to keep cases store/sorted by the number of firings. Cheers :) Note: The W.F.T. by Little Crow Gunworks does the job well. Run in a drill, trimming is fast and it costs less than 75.00.

markm

11-19-12, 08:56