What AR ammo do you "stockpile"?

For me my "stock pile" consists of mostly Federal 55 gn FMJ. I do keep an assortment of match ammo on hand for load development comparison purposes as I am just getting into reloading for my target rifle.

I "stockpile" reloads I make myself. In .223 of course I use H335 for all of them and I stockpile a load with a 55 Vmax, 55 SP, and a 62gr fusion.

The only factory loaded ammo I stockpile is cheap 7.62x39 ammo. Steel case and a 123ish HP or SP.

IMI 77 grain - sub-MOA in my rifle, and reasonable terminal performance (better than most mil loads).

M855 is not accurate at all. Lots of runout in the steel tip.

I usually buy and shoot AE or Federal xm193

Both M193 and M855, either Federal/LC or PMC. One of these days I'll do a accuracy comparo and see if one or the other is more accurate. Prices are down, right now, I need to fetch another 3K or so...

I like the Federal M193 5.56. I don't see any use for the M855, I'm not shooting through armor and with the dry land I shoot on, it would just be a fire hazard if anything.

For my 583 Mini-14?

M193
3:1 Wolf Gold and Federal/LC.

Got a few boxes of 55 gr. Barnes TSX for the field.




GR

I've become partial to Frontier 62 gr.

Milspec 55 grain. Wolf Gold or the IMI version are both good.

It depends on what gun and what I'm doing with it. For high round count drills, whatever I can get cheap (I have a Clunker AR for this that eats just about anything, including that nasty steel case stuff). For hunting, or longer range accuracy, I like black hills MK262 or Hornady 75 gr BTHPM. M855 really isn't a great round from any perspective. Personally, I wouldn't pay a penny more for it than for something like PMC 55 grain. Not consistent enough to get good groups, and hard on steel targets. My favorite "general purpose" round is M193 and its clones. Not too hot, plenty of power for training or defensive use, and doesn't tear up steel like M855.

I reload to M193 specs, except for my hunting loads. I do have some 62 gr. Silver Bear that came with the AR carbine when my son bought it. He gave it to me for putting the down payment on the AR for layaway. I pick up a box of M855 now and again at work, and some Tulammo 55 gr. FMJ for shooting in the winter when I don't want to dig in the snow for my brass.

193 and 855, ball . Usually cheap, bulk (in ammo cans or boxes stored in such cans). I have a small supply of hollow point .... no soft nose right now.

M855 is garbage compared to most other choices.

I’d rather run XM193 for most practice use, or a reload using the Hornady 55gr FMJ over 27.5gr of CFE223 which has given me nice results for what it is.

If I had to pick just one round to get done almost anything I could reasonably expect a 5.56mm carbine to do I’d probably stick up on Barnes 70gr TSX in the full bore 5.56mm NATO (labeled for 5.66mm NATO chambers only) since it groups around 1.25”-1.5” for 5 shots at 100 yards out of my 16” KAC SR-15 with only a 4X optic, and has given me first round hits out past 500 yards. I suspect more magnification would see groups shrink down a bit. If I had about 500-1000 rounds of that in a lot that shot well, I’d feel pretty well prepared to handle anything a 5.56mm can do inside 500 yards.

Mosin Bubba said:

I don't see any use for the M855, I'm not shooting through armor and with the dry land I shoot on, it would just be a fire hazard if anything.

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nipprdog said:

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I assume he's talking about the round throwing sparks as it is steel tipped.

55gr Federal works just fine for me.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

I "stockpile" reloads I make myself. In .223 of course I use H335 for all of them and I stockpile a load with a 55 Vmax, 55 SP, and a 62gr fusion.

The only factory loaded ammo I stockpile is cheap 7.62x39 ammo. Steel case and a 123ish HP or SP.

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I am with you on the first part, I love the 55gr VMAX with H335. That's what makes up the large part of my go-to ammo, mostly because I always load more than I am going to use. But, I also load for 7.62x39mm, and cast for it too, so most of mine are 129gr cast powder coated lead bullets, with 123gr Hornaday SSTs thrown in for baggies of hunting rounds.

American Eagle, PMC, Winchester, Fiocchi, or PRVI. 55gr or 62gr as long as its lead core. I'd like to get some of that Hornady Frontier to try. Hornady bullets and Lake City brass sounds like a good combo.

I would say my own reloads but I don't have much time for reloading these days. So factory ammo is good enough for plinking. I save my reloading time for chasing the best accuracy of my rifles and for loading hunting ammo.

I will generally have a couple of thousand cases and probably five or six thousand 55gr soft points laying around, with enough powder and primers to turn it into blammo.

I usually have at least 500 rounds of 55gr SP in the can and ready to take to the range. I also try to keep at least 200 rounds of 75gr Hornady OTMs loaded up; looking right now, I have about 600 rounds ready to go.

"Stockpile" to me means buying relatively cheap ammo I can use for general purpose paper shooting, training drills, plinking, teaching folks to shoot, etc. Maybe it means having some put back for an extended home defense situation like a major natural disaster...whatever. Key concepts are bulk and value.

For me, this means, like my .22, 9MM, .45, etc., I buy a case here and there when on sale and stick it in the closet. Most of the time, it's some brass case .223/5.56 55 grain FMJ. I like M193, but most of my stuff is .223, mostly Wolf Gold and Fiocchi, but I'm not picky...I have some MEN, IMI, Magtec, Federal. It all shoots well enough.

I also have a couple cases of M855. I am having a hard time understanding this distaste for M855, as it's decent enough ammo and actually groups well in my AR's. I can get around 2-2.5 MOA most days on a bench. It's popular here in TX for hog hunting. Lots of things been messed up with a round or two put through it...

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/03/foghorn/the-truth-about-m855-5-56-nato-ammunition/

What is really the "beef" with M855?

armoredman said:

I am with you on the first part, I love the 55gr VMAX with H335. That's what makes up the large part of my go-to ammo, mostly because I always load more than I am going to use. But, I also load for 7.62x39mm, and cast for it too, so most of mine are 129gr cast powder coated lead bullets, with 123gr Hornaday SSTs thrown in for baggies of hunting rounds.

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I load for my 7.62x39 AR and it prefers my handload with CFE BLK and a 135 Hornady FTX. It likes the 123 Federal Fusion almost as well (accuracy wise) and when I shoot all of the Fusion I'm gonna play with the .310 Speer Gold Dots.

I prefer the 55gr M193 or load-equivalent ammo (slightly better accuracy, maybe) for my ARs (and my single 184- Mini-14) but I will also buy/load/stockpile M855 or load-equivalent.

I probably have about 10k total (mostly 55gr) of milsurp + commercial + reloads currently.

In addition to that, I have several thousand cases, 10k+ bullets (~8k are 55gr) and more than enough propellant & primers to roll those.

I stockpile whatever is a good deal. I have lots of 193, some 855, even a couple hundred tracers. I've got some aguila, hornady, wolf, etc. Stockpiling to me is having enough on hand to last through a major disaster. And then some...

I also make sure keep some actual 223 on hand for my rem 700.

I also stockpile about 8 other calibers.