Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

1
So, I'm still thinking that the way to go is to get supplies for the bolt gun I don't have yet, while the getting is good. I'm close to committing to the .270 Winchester round and buying a few boxes of factory ammo to get started with and harvest for brass. Don't necessarily need premium bullets, since these would presumably all be expended in scope adjustment and accuracy testing. Any brands to seek out (or avoid) in terms of brass quality?
IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds

I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.

Image
Image

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

3
I prefer to buy premium brass and start from scratch. 100 rounds of Norma brass (Lapua doesn't seem to make .270), carefully manicured to start and carefully tracked as to how many times it has been fired, should last most of your needs for many years to come with neck sizing and the occasional shoulder bump. I prefer to work my way through the whole lot and then start over for the second firing. Some people like to reload the same 20 rounds over and over, trashing them and moving on to the next 20 when they start to detect loose primer pockets or incipient case head separation. With careful sizing, you should see .270 wear out at the primer pocket after as many as a dozen firings. If you size full-length in most commercial dies, al the way back to a hard bump on the shell holder, you'll see case hear separation before primer pocket wear. Less-than-top loads help preserve your good brass for longer.

Norma makes loaded ammo too.

Otherwise, I have had good experience with the quality of Federal loaded ammunition and there's nothing wrong with Wincheser brass either. Hornady makes a quality product if a little softer than some other brands of brass.
Image

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

5
I've always been a fan of good old fashioned cheap Remington Core-Lokt. It's cheap, reliable, the brass is good for reloading and you can find it anywhere. The bullet is an old tech one but I've never had trouble with it - if I hit it, it drops.
Live like you will never die, love like you've never been hurt, dance
like no-one is watching.
Alex White

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

6
beaurrr wrote:I really like the Sellier & Bellot ammo, mostly for the durability of the brass.
Their pistol brass seems to have slightly tighter primer pockets than most (and their primers feel correspondingly easier to seat in other brands' brass). Is that also true of their rifle brass?
IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds

I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.

Image
Image

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

7
Marlene wrote:Some people like to reload the same 20 rounds over and over, trashing them and moving on to the next 20 when they start to detect loose primer pockets or incipient case head separation.
That seems like a good plan for my habits. I've not been organized enough to track the history of my revolver brass accurately. Maybe I could maintain if I had only one box to deal with. It's not like this is a plinking project!
IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds

I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.

Image
Image

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

8
I do 100 rounds with one of the 100 round plastic boxes. I prep all 100, then load how ever many I want for a particular range trip, putting the empties back in the box as I go. When I've used the whole box, I prep the whole 100 and start over. I add a mark on the box every time I prep all of them, so I know what firing I'm on.
Image

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

9
I will second the buying brass idea- if you're going to work up loads anyway, may as well start with the stuff you're planning on shooting- scope adjustment shouldn't take more than a couple of shots, and your reloads will hit in a different place than factory ammo anyway. Load up a ladder, with an extra few for the scope sight in and it gets you there faster.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

Image

Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

10
Personally, when it comes to plinking, I often buy what is cheapest. Since affordable surplus is no longer available for .30-06 or 7.62X51mm, I handload and reload those calibers. I do prefer Sellier & Bellot for pistol cartridges (it is cheap, and their 9mm seems to be of a "hotter" load than some other brands), but I also occasionally go with Blazer Brass and Fiocchi. In terms of 7.62X39mm and .223, I often go with Russian steel cased ammunition. Suprema 12 gauge target loads are affordable, and have a 3 1/4 dram equivalent.

I still have over 2000 rounds of 7.62X54R surplus, so I won't have to worry about Mosin-Nagant reloading for some time. I also haven't fired 5.45X39mm for some time, but I do have at least 3000-3500 rounds of 7N6 surplus.

ZQI is cheaper brass cased alternative, but I find it to be of poor quality. Their 5.56 is loaded too hot (blown primers in my AR-15), and for some reason, my FAL has trouble ejecting their 7.62X51mm.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
"I have been saying for some time now that America only has one party - the property party. It's the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right-wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican."
-Gore Vidal

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

11
What brass .223/5.56 ammo do most people here shoot? I typically use Fiocchi, Federal AE, or PMC. But recently I was told at a local gun shop to "Stay away from any ammo with an animal on it, including Federal AE". Now, when I asked the employee WHY I should stay away, a non-answer was provided, but I'm now curious, what could possibly be wrong with Federal AE, and are there better alternatives in the same price range?

Caveat: This gun shop is starting to be reeeaally questionable in my book. They've made a string of bizarre statements about ammo like, "Don't shoot Russian ammo" in response to my asking "Ever try Wolf Gold?" (Shows pretty blatant ignorance here- Wolf Gold is Taiwan manufactured) or "I highly recommend Armscor USA" (I can find virtually nothing on how good/bad Armscor USA ammo is).

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

12
I have found S&B and Federal to give me good results. Granted, I've not shot those rounds as much as I've shot my Starline .45 LC--I've gotten five or six reloads out of each so far, with three split cases over the years. I've gotten probably three reloads each from Lapua in my 7.62x54r rifles with two split necks over the years.

I like to keep a few rifle rounds in the closet for saber toothed wildebeests, and I reload for the fun at the range.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

13
I like Federal, Remington, and Hornady. I'm not a benchrest shooter so I get the best accuracy I'm going to get, the brass is not going to make a difference for me. That said I do separate my Hornady brass to load for hunting. My 338Lapua Mag brass is all Lapua only because that the only ammo available to me.

I know some guys go nuts separating brass I really just keep them separated by firing.
It's time to elect leadership not re elect it.
Drain the swamp!

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

14
DistrictCow wrote:What brass .223/5.56 ammo do most people here shoot? I typically use Fiocchi, Federal AE, or PMC. But recently I was told at a local gun shop to "Stay away from any ammo with an animal on it, including Federal AE". Now, when I asked the employee WHY I should stay away, a non-answer was provided, but I'm now curious, what could possibly be wrong with Federal AE, and are there better alternatives in the same price range?

Caveat: This gun shop is starting to be reeeaally questionable in my book. They've made a string of bizarre statements about ammo like, "Don't shoot Russian ammo" in response to my asking "Ever try Wolf Gold?" (Shows pretty blatant ignorance here- Wolf Gold is Taiwan manufactured) or "I highly recommend Armscor USA" (I can find virtually nothing on how good/bad Armscor USA ammo is).
Wolf Gold is hotter than most commercial ammo, it will mess up steel at shorter distances. Aside from that, it's quite accurate out 500-600 yards with a 55 grn bullet.

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

16
Your gunshop guy is an idiot if avoiding all ammo with an animal on it is his recommendation. Wolf WPA, Golden Bear, etc are all just fine. Dirty? Yep. Plan on extra cleaning time- but it's in no way unsafe. There are definitely better brands for accuracy and ease of cleaning, but to say "avoid it" is simply uneducated. Prior to getting into reloading 5 or so years ago, I shot thousands of rounds of various brands of Russian ammo. I still have some in fact- it now only gets used in rifles where retrieving the brass is problematic (like my VZ-58 that flings it forward of the firing line). But at the end of the day it's not corrosive so doesn't require any special care after shooting it other than creating more clean up.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

Image

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

17
I used to be a huge fan of Powerpoints, but quality became terrible. I often found bullets seated at different depths. I have been using Remington the past few years. I always thought it was inferior ammo to winchester, but it's been alright for me especially since they make the 308 in a 180gr round nose.

I may try Hornady American Whitetail in my 7mag this year

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

18
Buck13 wrote:So, I'm still thinking that the way to go is to get supplies for the bolt gun I don't have yet, while the getting is good. I'm close to committing to the .270 Winchester round and buying a few boxes of factory ammo to get started with and harvest for brass. Don't necessarily need premium bullets, since these would presumably all be expended in scope adjustment and accuracy testing. Any brands to seek out (or avoid) in terms of brass quality?
You can't really use one brand of ammo or one bullet weight to zero a scope and expect it to be zeroed for a different brand or bullet weight or bullet style.

Even the same weight bullets, if they have a different ballistic coefficient because they have a different design or shape will show increasingly larger change in POI the farther out you shoot.

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

20
Sarge wrote:
Buck13 wrote:So, I'm still thinking that the way to go is to get supplies for the bolt gun I don't have yet, while the getting is good. I'm close to committing to the .270 Winchester round and buying a few boxes of factory ammo to get started with and harvest for brass. Don't necessarily need premium bullets, since these would presumably all be expended in scope adjustment and accuracy testing. Any brands to seek out (or avoid) in terms of brass quality?
You can't really use one brand of ammo or one bullet weight to zero a scope and expect it to be zeroed for a different brand or bullet weight or bullet style.

Even the same weight bullets, if they have a different ballistic coefficient because they have a different design or shape will show increasingly larger change in POI the farther out you shoot.
Agreed- you should be able to get zeroed with one brand and still be on paper (without massive amounts of adjustment generally) at 100 for your reloads unless you are WAY outside regular loads.

It is interesting to see the light bulb go on however, when someone goes to the range and swears they were perfectly one the last time they were out and you ask them what brand they were using last time vs this time and they say, oh, whatever was cheapest at the other range....
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

Image

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

21
About any brass works for hunnting ammo. I usually buy Rem Core Lokt ammo, shoot it at the range and reload using Nosler BT's or Accubonds for hunting.
Bullet and proper powder choice is the key for acceptable hunting accuracy.
For out of the box accuracy I like the Win. moly coated Ballistic tips. They were my choice before I started reloading
For shooting paper, reloads are it for me. Sierra match bullets work the best for me without spending Xtra on custom bullets.
Jim

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

22
7N6Wolf wrote:Personally, when it comes to plinking, I often buy what is cheapest. Since affordable surplus is no longer available for .30-06 or 7.62X51mm, I handload and reload those calibers.
There is lots of great Malysian and South Korean 7.62 NATO out now.

SG Ammo has the Malaysian @ .37/rd, in a .50 can. :love:

I've gifted myself some for Yule, it does MOA+.5 out of our HK91's.

The Korean is Boxer primed, even.

I don't reload, so Berdan is not a dealbreaker for me. If someone wants my occasional Boxer brass, PM me.

Subs
"Oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way around the floor."

Re: Favorite brand of basic rifle ammo?

24
I use PPU ammunition almost exclusively for rifles now. It is a replication of a proper military loading with a little less cost than the federal stuff, it works in everything and is as accurate as a mass produced military loading will be and as clean as could be expected. It usually cost significantly less than the federal. I also like that it is proper bulk ammunition which makes acquisition and storage easier. I remember as a kid loading it into belts for my uncle before range days, and all these years later I can still order the same ammo,with the same loading (tested some 20yo stuff and had same POI as the new manufactured) it even comes in the same white boxes. I have too many rifles in the same caliber to be jumping around between loadings and manufacturers, I am not resighting in all that stuff because something was on sale and I could save $3 per k on one shipment.
Pompous, with a touch of elitism.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest