Reloading 5.56

[Kaiser]

Considering reloading 5.56 any advise? is it really worth it? best palce for supplies?

 

[brian_a_mcmillen]

5.56 or .223 is still pretty inexpensive at this point but if you do a ton of shooting or are looking for better accuracy, you may want to start loading yourself. I do it because I really enjoy reloading...maybe even more than I like shooting (especially this time of year when it's cold). Anyway, you can get brass on Gunbroker fairly inexpensive. Depending on your experience, try to get the brass that has already been trimmed and if military, make sure that the crimp has been removed from the primer pocket. You can sometimes find "pull down" powder on line that was taken from military demilled ammunition. It's usually around 75% of what you'd pay for new powder and I have found that it works fine. Primers are very reasonable as are the projectiles.

You can save some money reloading but your upfront costs will be high depending on how much of a press you want to purchase. Single stage presses can cost as little as $100 for a decent one and the die set will run you about $65. A progressive pries (like the Dillon 1050) will run you around $1000 but it can crank out between 500 and 1000 rounds per hour.

The toughest part of reloading is case prep. Here's how I do all of my rifle brass. I first size my cases in a RCBS full length die, then I trim them with the Dillon power trimmer. I then use a wire brush type of thing to knock the carbon out of the primer pocket...dosen't take much actually, just once around. I don't have to worry about swaging the primer pocket since I have a Dillon 1050 that does that for me but I used to use Dillon's super swager to remove the primer crimp and to true up the primer hole on all my 5.56 brass. Then I wash all of the case lube off using automatic dishwasher soap and hot water. From there, I put the brass on a cookie sheet and toss them in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes (just to get them dry). From there, it's into the tumbler for about 2 hours. This process makes the brass look brand new! I usually do 5 to 10,000 over a week or so and bag them for future loading. I suppose if I actually took the amount of time I spend doing this into consideration, it might be cheaper to just buy brass. It turns out that I really love doing it so it doesn't matter.

So, I guess the short answer is "it depends!" If you spend less than $300 per year on ammo, I would spend my time shooting. My 2 cents anyway.....

Brian

 

[sloughfoot]

And be sure to get reloading manuals. You will be reloading them as .223.

 

[brian_a_mcmillen]

Geeeze, can't believe I forgot the loading manual! That is the most important thing to buy! I like the Lyman book myself because it gives more information than just projectile and powder charge.

 

[Kaiser]

Thanks for the info When my father was alive he reloaded everything Just want to check it out the AR is new and I have already ran close to 500 rounds thru it. 5.56 is cheap LC for 160.00 is not bad just thought I might be able to reload dirt cheap saw a lee press and the dies for 5.56 and 45 for a couple of hunred.