Do you reload for an AR 15?

mtwood24

mtwood24

Member
How good is good enough for you guys with Ar's, with factory ammo? at what point do you decide "man, this group just isn't good enough..."?
 
Im new to reloading and have been doing a lot of work to get my ar-10 to about 1/2" at 100 (im close)...

HONESTLY, the first load I threw together for my 15 was a 1" at 100 and I stopped there. Im not shooting small things at long distances so I just decided to stay there! Its worked pretty well to this point.
 
personally dont have an ar but ive worked up loads for my buddy's ar and i had him shooting .4 in at 100 with 5 shots. i always try for the best accuracy and dont stop til i find the best load.
 
i reload everything for my AR i have never shot a factory round out of it i took a while but i worked up a great v-max load as well as a good FMJ load if you got the time and you want to keep everything tight reload everything just my 2 cents
 
.4 with a 5 shot group is great you may be able to tighten it up but would it be worth the hassle?

AR's will shoot just as good if not better then a bolt gun.
 
is it worth the time spent reloading them to you guys though? i sure like to shoot, and a semi auto would make short work of that ammo with me runnin the trigger.....
 
what ranges are you going to be shooting? if you are going to shoot 50 yards and shoot a bunch just buy some cheap ammo. if you want your ammo to last longer shoot longer ranges because it takes more to concentrate and you wont shoot as quickly. another thing to ask yourself is how much do you value your time? if you enjoy reloading then instead of buying some cheap ammo i would load some cheap fmj if you are just going to do a bunch of rapid fire and close range shooting.
 
It really does depend on what youre doing. When I had my AR I would BURN through ammo....I didnt hunt with it though. It was a range/camping toy. No way I wanted to press out that much brass. My friend just got an AR and he has a single stage press and he buys factory ammo for it. Now if I were to shoot comps with one....I would press every single one of them.
 
If I'm shooting for fun (read plinking) and burning up a bunch of ammo, without regard for precision accuracy and in a safe place for potential ricochets, then I have a pot full of cheap factory crimped rounds.. I'll also use them at action matches where it's a "lost brass" policy and I can't recover the empties...

If I were reloading for that type of shooting, I'd have a nice Dillon progressive press that I could turn out hundreds at one sitting..

Most of my shooting is of the more precise nature, so loading from a single stage press makes more sense to me... I don't get as many rounds loaded at one time, but I usually will prep a few hundred rounds of brass during my 'down' time (right now it's 34* and snow on the ground) and then it doesn't take much time to drop the powder charges and seat the bullets and I can have a few hundred rounds of more precision quality ready for the range the next day...

In fact, I just finished prepping 100 rounds of brass in the last hour and they are in the tumbler getting the lube off, and ready for storage, until I need them..

If I were buying factory premium ammo, that 100 rounds would have cost me a bundle that I really don't want to give up...as it is today, with the bulk supplies I have on hand, the 100 rounds will cost me $30...
 
Originally Posted By: duker33i reload everything for my AR i have never shot a factory round out of it

Yup. Neither have I. After I started reloading for my other AR (now sold) I started to get rid of all of my factory ammo. I also have a .308 that will never see a commercially loaded round. The only thing that I shoot that I do not load myself is shotgun shells.
 
Reloading saves alot of money also. I like my groups to be 1 inch or less at 100 so I enjoy working toward that goal. It is also nice when you have over 500 rounds always loaded and you don't have to run to the sporting goods store to pickup any before heading to the range when your buddy calls up.
 
Only if I'm going to use the ammo in a competition where the prizes are worth money...

Otherwise, I've never found a need for it..But I do monitor my neck tension on random reloads..
 
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