No Brass, No Ammo!

[panzerr]

I'm new to shooting carbines on my own dime and am looking for a (relatively) inexpensive way to put rounds down range. My dad has a nice Dillon press that we have used to reload thousands of 45 ACP and recently set up for 5.56.

My original idea was to purchase 1000 rounds of decent quality ammunition with good brass which I could use to reload. My thinking here is I would know how many times the brass has been used so I would have a better idea of when the brass will be too stretched out to reload. I would also like to jump start this season without having to reload a bunch of rounds since I'm out of town for work and thus about 1000 miles away from the press.

So, any suggestions which type of ammo I should get that will have good brass for reloading yet still be relatively cheap?

Any suggestions on a bullet source or weight (I've got a 1:7 14.7 inch LMT)?

Being that I've never reloaded 5.56, does anyone have any other pointers? Powder? Primers?

School me up.

[Ridgerunner665]

I can tell you this...its not easy to replicate the performance of mil-spec ammo. I keep falling short on fps (about 100 fps)....I have tried every powder there is, and the best combo in my gun (a S&W) is 26 grains of Reloder 15 under a 62 grain bullet, CCI primers, OAL is 2.26...that same load with CCI 41 primers is 25.5 grains of powder.

55 grain bullets are not so complicated....Varget and IMR4895 work pretty good.

Good luck....there doesn't seem to be much help in reloading on this forum..or at least I have found it hard to come by.

[gyp_c2]

...so far, Prvi Partizan has been a friend to me...
Consistently goes bang and brass cased...available through multiple sources including :
G+R Tactical...

There's a sticky above with sources for everything needed...There are multiple threads with starter load info...Not sure what else you're asking for, but that's where I'd start...

[panzerr]

I have tried every powder there is, and the best combo in my gun (a S&W) is 26 grains of Reloder 15 under a 62 grain bullet, CCI primers, OAL is 2.26...

What length barrel are you shooting that through and what velocity are you getting?

...so far, Prvi Partizan has been a friend to me...

There's a sticky above with sources for everything needed...There are multiple threads with starter load info...Not sure what else you're asking for, but that's where I'd start...

I was looking at Prvi Partizan...I may have to give it a shot.


I haven't found any real starter threads but I did find a link with some technical data.

What I really need for now is some good brass and a good bullet weight to use. I'm thinking 55 or 62 because I understand it is best to keep the pressure on the casings lower so you get more life out of each casing. I also need to find a good bullet supplier.

thanks for the input

[Ridgerunner665]

Its a 16 inch chrome lined barrel...2,900 fps.

Here is a thread with some of my jabbering on it...its in no particular order...but theres some useful info there...Its on 1911auto forum.
http://1911auto.org/forum/showthread...9250#post19250

[BarryP]

Scharch(TopBrass) has once fired completely processed and primed Lake City brass for $120/1000. I got a few thousand and it is really nice brass and processed very uniformly.
You can load that up with TAC and 55gr pills for about $240/1000 total and the left over brass has no crimp to mess with.

[markm]

Scharch(TopBrass) has once fired completely processed and primed Lake City brass for $120/1000.

Good Lord! That's expensive! I should quit reloading my brass and start selling it that way.

The hotter your load, the shorter your brass life. Loading hot ammo for practice is a waste in my opinion.

My favorite brass to reload is Remington UMC. (no crimp, mild factory load)

Priv is a good brass too, but you have to remove the crimp. I can get 3 solid loads out of a PRIV case without having to trim it.

WCC (Winchester) is the stretchiest brass there is in my experience. I'm happy to get one load out of it before it's too long.

LC (XM193 or M855) is pretty stretchy too. Maybe 2 loads out of it before it's too long.

RORG (radway) is great brass... has a primer crimp though.

Federal AE (with the LC brass) is good. Tough primer crimp to remove, but seems to last longer than the LC brass from a military load.

IMI is just like WCC (WIN) brass. Good quality, but stretchy as hell. It measures long most of the time after the factory load is fired.

PMC (bronze) is good reloading brass. Mild factory load, 3 loadings easily without having to trim.

Black hills (blue box reman) is out of spec (too long) before you fire it. I won't buy it because I buy factory practice ammo based on the ability to use the brass for a load or two myself.

[WRMorrison]

Unless you want the "jump start" you get with loaded ammo, I would just buy the components and load 'em up from the start. Here's what I use:

DCM 20" rifle:

LC cases (gibrass.com). They're probably good for much more, but I only load them 5 times, then they get relegated to the "shoot and forget" pile. (basically, I load it for the 6th time and shoot them out of the carbine, or whatever else).
23.6-23.7gr Varget (I don't chrono, but this shoots the best in my rifle for this load)
Hornady 75gr BTHP match seated to 2.255 +/- .005 C.O.L.
Federal Gold Medal Match 205M primers

14.5" carbine:
Any brass I can get my hands on. I've heard all the warnings about using unknown brass, but if it looks OK, I'll run it. I'm talking everything...LC, FC, Rem, Fed, Win, Radway Green, Prvi, and anything else I can find.....I've never had a problem with any of it (except for the occasional primer not seating due to not removing enough of the crimp beforehand).
Projos: lately, I've been using 55gr FMJ-BT from https://secure3.mooseweb.com/montana.../pricelist.tpl
Powder: I've been using 23gr TAC, and I really like it. It meters great through the Dillon 550 also (can't say the same about Varget or IMR4895 though..)
Primers: whatever I can get my hands on; mainly using whatever I have on hand, but I've been thinking of trying some of the Russian Wolf primers.

I also size every piece of brass with a small base die and trim to 1.75 +/- .003.

-WRM

BTW, I just recently heard of folks doing one-time reloads using the steel Wolf cases with good results, but I don't know if I feel like trying that....

[markm]

Powder: I've been using 23gr TAC, and I really like it.

Really? I started out with 24 grains of TAC, and was getting slow cycling.... you know? where you can feel it struggling to cycle and feed?

I had to kick it up to 24.5 grains, and I get great performance from it.

[WRMorrison]

Yep, 23 grains and it cycles just fine. Like I mentioned though, I don't have a chrony, so I can't give any of that info, but with the Montana Gold 55gr pills, I can hold an average of 1.25-1.5MOA with irons. Not match quality by any means, but it's more than enough for what I load it for. When I was doing load development with the powder, I actually got the best results with around 22.5-22.6gr, but it felt a bit underpowered, so I bumped it up to 23gr and didn't really lose much. I did however stop testing at 24gr; it just didn't feel right... a bit too "peaky" for me.

-WRM