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Posted: 9/3/2007 8:09:43 AM EDT
| I have a olympic arms A1 upper with 20" heavy chromoly barrel, I believe it is 1-9" twist. I'm pretty new to the AR15 realm and have been overwhelmed with all the different information out there on this site and others. Some even conflicting others. I am looking for about 3 types of ammo to buy to suit at many purposes as possible. First, I want an ammo that is as inexpense as possible and will provide me with a reliable plinking ammo that is good out to at least 100 yards. Second I want an ammo that is as reasonably priced as possible that would serve as a EOTWAWKI ammo. Thirdly I'd like an ammo that I can use with a nice optic to get me downrange as far and as accurately as possible. If you all would be so kind as to give me your opinions for a suitable choice to fill these three categories, I would very much appreciate your opinions. |
| I have read the mentioned articles and found them very informative and provided me with alot of useful information. But while they answered many of the larger broader questions for me, they left me a bit overwhelmed. I'm not someone who feels compelled to use military ammo given their price compared to other commercial rounds on the market, though I see that have their pluses and minuses. Additionally in a plinking ammo I don't need more than 1 or 2 MOA at 100 yds capability, just something fun to shoot that gets me on the range. Many say wolf is fine, alot are saying barnaul is better.....what am I getting into with using these polymer coated options as opposed to more expense brass cased cartridges? Would I be better served to buy twice as much, of say Barnaul, and make it my plinking ammo AND my EOTWAWKI ammo so I'm completely familiar with it? Or would I be better served to have less of a more well thought of ammo such as M855? Some say that my 1 in 9" twist I shouldn't go as large as a 75gr round....what are others with a similar twist using in barrels such as mine with good results? Am I better off to stick with 68/69 gr? Then who makes the match ammo that gives me the best results for say....$15 bucks a box or less? |
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As far as steel cased ammunition goes, polymer or laquer, the only problem you should have is when you shoot a lot of steel cased ammo(500 rounds or more), and then try using brass cased ammo without cleaning the chamber between the steel and brass. steel is harder than brass and it does not form tightly to the chamber walls, allowing carbon to build up in the chamber. If you then try to run brass without cleaning, the brass sticks tightly to the carbon in the chamber and you could get a Failure to Extract or break your extractor. solution- run 300 to 500 rounds steel, then 10 or more brass, which will pull the carbon off the chamber walls, then more steel, etc. OR clean the chamber. |
| good advice, thank you both! How much damage would brass casings cause if stuck in the chamber? Is it simply a matter of risking a broken extractor? Or is there greater damage that can be caused? My thought is I can buy alot of parts for the $100-200 dollars difference a case of ammo. More than likely I cannot see myself sitting through more than about 200rds at a time through my rifle, and would give it a good cleaning after each time out. |
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Plinking ammo: Buy whatever is: 1) cheap, and 2) will run reliably in your rifle. The differences between Wolf and Barnaul is marginal; I would buy whatever's cheaper most of the time (assuming it works OK for you). SHTF ammo: 68-75gr OTM. Buy a small quantity, check to make sure your rifle can stabilize it and is reasonably accurate at the intended range, then buy as much as your wallet can afford, or until you have a few hundred rounds. Accurate ammo: Every rifle is different. The Winchester white box 45gr JHP is very accurate, but it's a lightweight bullet and won't have the legs to out to very long distances. Otherwise, try a few different loads and see what your rifle likes. I would guess that a 68-69gr OTM would be pretty accurate. |
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I can get you to your goal with only two types of ammo: 1. For SHTF and longer range accuracy, shoot either the 68 or 69 grain Black Hills match loads. Whether you buy the blue box (remanufactured and just as good as any ammo out there IMHO) or the red box (new manufacturer), you're getting 50 rounds and a better price than you'd pay for any other equal quality ammo by buying the same amount in 20 round boxes, such as Federal Gold Medal. The other benefit of the BTHP match bullets is their thin jacket, which allows them to really fragment nicely in flesh when the bullet yaws sideways. Thus, it's a superior wounding ammunition to many of the alternatives. 2. For plinking out to 100 yards, that's where the Barnaul and Wolf 55/62 gr FMJ or HP loads come in. I prefer the Barnaul, but either will work. Wideners has a pretty good deal going for Barnaul at the moment. Zero your weapon for the 68/69 gr match loads. While the point of impact between the two types of ammo will start to shift farther apart the farther you go beyond 100 yards, out to 100 yards, the 68/69 gr stuff will shoot close enough to the 55/62 gr stuff to allow you to practice without the need for re-zeroing. However, the Russian FMJ bullets have a different type of jacket on the bullet and may not reliably fragment. So it's best used as practice ammunition. Leave the personal defense and hunting stuff to better performing ammunition. There you go. |
| I currently have some of the 55gr fmjbt from wisconsin cartridge on back order. Who knows how long that will be so I'm not holding my breath as they don't even have an expected ship date. I don't, personally, have a problem with shooting steel case ammo as long as I can get it cheap. If all I risk is a dirty chamber and possibly broken ejector, I can do alot of cleaning and alot of ejectors for $100 to $200 ammo savings per case. I appreciate all the advice you all have offered and definetly can understand everyones logic. I think I'm going to get a case of wolf in the meantime and hope my brass from wisconsin comes through. Until then I'll work on adding some Black Hills in if I can find it reasonable. |
| I wasn't able to find any 68/69gr black hills locally, but I found some 52gr match blue and reds locally. I bought a box of the blues just to give 'em a spin for $24.50. It didn't seem too ridiculous to give a try. The only thing I noticed about them is they really seem like they had tumbled the crap out of the brass....you could barely read the headstamps on them anymore. Other than that, they looked real purty...lol. |
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