Well, I bought my first AR...now I have to decide what kind of ammo to feed it.  

I know for sure that I wil hand load rounds for varmint shooting at 100+ yds, but I want to know what my options are for cheap, dependable ammo just for target shooting/plinking.

I'm a little scared of running any of that old military surplus ammo through it. I know to many people who have had all kinds of problems with that stuff.

What are some good manufactures of some of the cheaper ammo that can be bought in 1000rd cases?  Wolf seems to be a popular brand from what I've seen, but I don't really know anyone who uses it.  

I don't want to feed crappy ammo though my gun.....but I also don't want to pay $12 a box at Wal-Mart for 40 rds....that can get expensive after burning up hundreds of rounds a day at the range.

What do you guys use for "plinking" ammo?

WOLF

i got 1000 rnds of 62gr FMJs at sportsmansguide.com--$99 w/ club membership and $10 off coupon to counteract shipping costs

Black Hills reman 55 gr FMJ. You can get it in 50 rd boxes for $12.

This may still be too expensive for your purposes, but to be honest, to get anything much cheaper, you're probably gonna be looking at surplus or Wolf.  

Gotta love the Black Hills blue box ammo, it shoots great and is reasonably priced. Use the "sticky" post at the top of the ammo section here to find the best current prices. Also, when pricing, take into account shipping and rounds per box, some are 20 rounds, Black Hills is 50 as Charging_Handle mentions in his post.

Quoted: Black Hills reman 55 gr FMJ. You can get it in 50 rd boxes for $12. This may still be too expensive for your purposes, but to be honest, to get anything much cheaper, you're probably gonna be looking at surplus or Wolf.