I know that these new super-duper heavy bullets should fragment at lower velocities and have shown to have impressive terminal ballistics (as evidenced by Brou and Tat's gelatin tests).  These loads are THE ammo to have.  Hey, that's great, but too bad this stuff is so expensive and scarce that it makes it almost impossible for the average person (like me!) to get enough in order to have a decent SHTF stash.  M193, on the other hand, is easy to come by (at least at the moment it is) and cheap enough to buy in large quantities to still make this the more desirable choice, in my opinion.  BH, TAP, and whatever other brands that use 75gr, 77gr, and even 100gr bullets are either too expensive or so scarce that only "certain" people or organizations can get them. SOOOOOOOOO, while all this information about the performance of these heavier bullets is great, I don't think that we'll see too much of an effort by "regular joes" to make the necessary changes in order to accomodate (gotta get that 1:7 barrel now!) these new rounds, cuz they're just too plain scarce or too expensive.   Just my two cents!

Edited to add that I DO appreciate the hard work done by our very own in-house ammo scientists, Brou and TAT, in order to bring us the latest and greatest info on these wonder bullets.

You can get 500 rounds of the Black Hills 75 gr BTHP stuff from Georgia Precision for about what a 1000 round case of M193 goes for. So that isn't too bad all things considered. Over time you could build up a decent amount of this ammo.

But that really isn't my goal. I just want enough of this new ammo on hand for self defense situations. You don't have to have thousands upon thousands of rounds for this purpose anyway. Besides, I have only one AR with a 1/7 twist anyway. So I figure 500 rounds on hand at a given time is plenty for my needs. If one wants more ammo, such as a huge amount for longterm storage, then you can still buy M193 for that purpose. Just re-zero your weapon and you're good to go.

Think of the new heavy bullets as specialty ammo. Think of M193 as general purpose ammo.

[b]SOOOOOOOOO, while all this information about the performance of these heavier bullets is great, I don't think that we'll see too much of an effort by "regular joes" to make the necessary changes in order to accomodate (gotta get that 1:7 barrel now!) these new rounds, cuz they're just too plain scarce or too expensive.[/b]

Spoken like a "true", non-reloader.[;)]

Mike

OUCH!  I guess I can't do anything about that one until I move out of my apartment...

Hmmm...maybe I should have thought a little bit more before posting this thread...

Why not?  I reload in my apartment.

Really?  Space is at a premium here, so I couldn't imagine trying to have a dedicated space in which to reload...good for you, though.

I reloaded in a 600 sq ft apartment when I was first married.  It just takes a little compromise in your set-up.  I built a roughly 2 ft sq. table out of 2x4's and 1/4 inch plywood for stiffness with a drawer and an old countertop for work surface.  I reloaded both shotgun and metalic cartridges off this bench.  I just bolted the appropriate press in place.  I kept all my supplies in a wooden chest.  The only trouble I had was the bench was so light I could tip it when I resized rifle cases.  A few bulk boxes of bullets at the back edge and the problem was solved.  My entire setup including supplies chest took up 6 feet of wall space and intruded into the room 2 feet.  I still use the table as a press table, I've justed screwed it to a wall in my basement (no more tipping issues).  If there isn't another project going on, I now put my scale and powder measure on my big work bench, but I still use the original table for the presses.

Living in an appartment is no excuse.  If you are interested in reloading, try it.  You'll like it.

Kent