5.56/.223 prices

$.40-.50 per round seems pretty normal around here. Sales and online seem to be getting down into the $.32-35/round range.

I recently paid 40 cents/rnd online for XM193. I'm hoping prices continue to drop.

That's about what it is most places. A little less at the shows in bulk, around 0.36 a round.

I saw some WOLF brass cased 223 the other night for 339.99 per thousand... Thats about as cheap as I've seen on brass cased lately....

Now if only bullet, powder and primer prices would come down so I don't feel like such a fool for starting to reload 223 ><

A local LGS had (possibly still has) cases of xm193 for $180/500.

Is it better quality than steel wolf?

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Yes, steel cased ammo tends to be rougher on the extractor and is dirtier so you need to clean your gun more often if you shoot steel stuff, plus you can't reload it. I only shoot steel case in my milsurp and Russian guns, because I know they can handle it the don't need as much cleaning as the other guns.

heavydluxe said:

$.40-.50 per round seems pretty normal around here. Sales and online seem to be getting down into the $.32-35/round range.

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Nailed it. Its not outrageous but its not cheap.

The recent Wolf Gold is made in Taiwan. For awhile supposedly it had a PRVI headstamp. At least for the Wolf Gold line, I think Wolf acts more as an importer/distributor. The velocities I have seen thrown around make it sound like 5.56 spec, but it says .223 on the box.

I did not check prices but Gander Mtn. had thousands of rounds of .223 on hand today. Hopefully when supply comes back prices will go down

I'm a brass cased snob, but I recently nabbed a half case of Wolf Military Classic. It is completely different ammo than what we were buying 10 years ago. No more green lacquer, no more cat urine smell (ammonia), much better looking in terms of bullet & primer seating, and much more consistent/accurate that the old Wolf that so horribly stained my memories.

I'll have no qualms about feeding this stuff to my more expensive ARs. Even my Steyr AUG A3 ate the stuff on the normal gas setting, which is impressive to say the least.

I'll still always try to buy brass cased ammo when I can, but I think the folks at Tula & Ulyanovsk are starting to crank out some ammo that is friendly to everything else outside the AK envelope. The $0.40-$0.50 per round is getting old.

It's good to see the prices of 5.56 / .223 starting to moderate from what they were 6 months ago. I was able to get some Federal AE .223 at Midway, with my Birthday discount, for .38 a round. Hopefully reloading powder will soon recover too.

I paid under $360.00 for 1000 rounds (PPU, 5.56, brass) at a show and wal-mart is about .46 a round for the Federal packs, some other was a little higher of course the steel case is cheaper at about .30 a round.

I was at a large outdoor store today. They had a pallet of Federal .223 for $275 per 500 rounds. It was at least good to see a pile of it. I didn't leave with any.

My last / cheapest buy was the TulAmmo BrassMAXX @ $16.97 / 50 rounds @ Wallyworld.

They must have gotten in a boatload of it, as numerous stores had lots of boxes.

Made in Italy, I hear by Fiocchi (it is brass cased).

The current 'good deal' mark for brass case factory new ammo is about $0.40 per round. Reasonable deal is about $0.45 per round, depending on quantity purchased, location/method of purchase, specific round, etc. $0.50 per round is over priced if it's any of the typical 55/62 grain FMJ rounds...but a lot of the big box outdoor stores are still trying to sell it for that much.

If I was looking to buy 5.56 today I would seriously consider the Wolf Gold. I haven't personally shot it, but the review's are good. M193 spec from what I have seen. Still miss the day's of Guat for 150.00/1000.

If you're getting it for 0.47 CENTS per round, buy all you can and I'll pay you twice that amount for it.


I agree with the others, 40-50 cents per round is about the going rate around here.

Wally world lowered the price on 20 AE 55gr fmj to $7.37. Came out to 39c a round after tax. Now if they will only knock the price of the 30 boxes of the same stuff down from $14.47 to $11.05 to reflect the other price change so I can get 90 at a time instead of 60.

The local PSA store had m855 for $419.00 a 1000 today. There were a few cases left on the pallet. Lots of 7.62x51/39....

OTD tags it at $0.45 per round.

The new Wolf Gold loading is tempting.

Cheapest I've seen for brass cased is $0.32/rd for some East European brand I'd never heard of before and couldn't find any reviews for. $0.37/rd-$0.42/rd for brass cased ammo I'm familiar with. Probably $0.45-0.49/rd at the local stores.

Rushthezeppelin said:

Wally world lowered the price on 20 AE 55gr fmj to $7.37. Came out to 39c a round after tax. Now if they will only knock the price of the 30 boxes of the same stuff down from $14.47 to $11.05 to reflect the other price change so I can get 90 at a time instead of 60.

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They haven't done that here...

Maybe you can talk to your store manager and get them to price match it. For reference it is the Round Rock, TX store on HWY 79....crap spilled the beans

After thinking about it I realized the 30 packs were just regular 223 FMJBT on 3 stripper clips and the 20 packs were AR223 with milspec primers. Slightly different products but still doesn't warrant the price discrepancy. The way its priced right now you are paying $1.23 per stripper clip basically and loosing milspec primers.