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Bullets for AR 556
montanajoe
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 59,161 ******
Our AR556 has 16" barrel 1:8 twist.
Been told to use 62 gr or heavier 556 rounds. Agree?
What about in .223, what round you suggest? Stay heavy?
Comments
Which cartridge you use is moot. Length of the bullet determines twist, so yea, you want to stay with the longer bullet.
Try different ammo and see what your gun likes. That is always the best way with pretty much any firearm.
55 grain pills will shoot just fine. They are a bit over stabilized but will do the job, cheaper. I like 62 grain pills in the faster twists like you have but they are not necessary unless you need sub MOA groups for what you are doing.
In the .223 if you are shooting it in a .223 chambered rifle I have found 52-53 grain match bullets to be the cats meow.
If you are reloading do not leave IMR 4895 out of your testing. I have found it to shoot very well in many .223 rifles and also excellent in the 5.56 loads for the AR based rifles. Sticking to or near max loads seemed to produce the best results for me. YMMV.
I don't reload and don't shoot competitively. Back when ammo was cheap...........I bought loads of it, irrespective of bullet weight. Never tried to match bullet weight with rifle twist...........55 or 62...............if it shoots straight then it serves my purpose.
Yea, not much diff out to 200 yards. If your shooting further then you will have to try each load and see how they perform.
I shoot everything from 55g 223 to 62g 5.56 and have NO issues. Accurate from 25 to 200 yards, well self defense accurate.
If you wanna punch tiny holes at 300 yards, then you will just jave to experiment like any other rifle to find the "magic" bullet.
My favorite bullet for my older bolt action varmint guns, Sako and Tikka, is the Sierra 52gr HPBT match. I was pleasantly surprised how accurate they are in my Rock River AR varmint gun. The RR will shoot the heavier bullets better than the bolts do because of the faster twist, but there is no need to load them because it shoots the 52's so well. So I am going with the K.I.S.S. principle and using the 52's in all three. Bob
Back when components were cheap I bought thousands of 55 grain soft point bullets.I kept a Stevens 223 bolt gun in the truck and shot everything from crows to whitetails with those 55 grain bullets with no problems.
Thanks guys
Why do folks get so wound up around the twist vs bullet weight subject????????
Shoot the darned thing with several bullet weights and see what works!!!!!!!
I have several 1/8 twist barrels that are quite accurate with 50-60 grain bullets. They might be OK with 40 and 62 also but I haven't the need for those weights so why bother.
With the cost and non availability of ammo, if I can minimize the amount of trial and error through knowledge and experience of others,,,,,,,,
But that would cut down on your range time..
nahh, just leave more time for some of the other neglected guns
I don't where you're looking, but there's .223/5.56 EVERYWHERE and the prices are 'affordable'.
Walk into a gunshop and buy one box each of 2 or 3 brands/types. Twenty rounds will tell you whether there's much/any potential. If that doesn't meet expectations, clean the rifle and try different choice(s). I'll bet you find a winner while spending less than $100 for ammo.
$100 ???? ah, no way