Best value for accurate .223/5.56?

[Nephrology]

So I recently put together an AR15 with a 20" national match barrel. It is a shooter. I am using it to stick my nose into the world of precision rifle shooting, as .223 seems like the most cost-friendly and low-recoil way to build basic rifle marksmanship. Unfortunately, I do not reload yet and will unlikely be able to start until I move to a bigger place. With that said, what factory .223/5.56mm ammunition offers the "best accuracy per dollar"? I'd like it to be something I can afford to by in bulk, but not deeply disappointing on paper.

The rifle produced an excellent group with 77gr Federal GMM, but it's a little pricey to buy in bulk, so I am looking for alternatives. I have a few different kinds of ammunition i still have yet to try at the range, but I was curious if there was a consensus for an inexpensive but accurate factory .223 offering for my purposes.

Any thoughts?

[HCM]

So I recently put together an AR15 with a 20" national match barrel. It is a shooter. I am using it to stick my nose into the world of precision rifle shooting, as .223 seems like the most cost-friendly and low-recoil way to build basic rifle marksmanship. Unfortunately, I do not reload yet and will unlikely be able to start until I move to a bigger place. With that said, what factory .223/5.56mm ammunition offers the "best accuracy per dollar"? I'd like it to be something I can afford to by in bulk, but not deeply disappointing on paper.

The rifle produced an excellent group with 77gr Federal GMM, but it's a little pricey to buy in bulk, so I am looking for alternatives. I have a few different kinds of ammunition i still have yet to try at the range, but I was curious if there was a consensus for an inexpensive but accurate factory .223 offering for my purposes.

Any thoughts?

I’ve had good results with the IMI Razor core 69 and 77 grain. Midway USA puts it on sale periodically.

[whomever]

What price are you trying to hit? Ammoseek has 77 gr Federal GMM for seventy some cents a round. I don't know that you can beat that by too much for accurate ammo. Even with reloading, you're looking at 25 cents or more for a 77 Matchking, a few cents for a primer, and maybe a dime for powder, plus the cost of brass divided by how many reloadings you get. If you reuse the brass from GMM at .75 ten times, the cost of a reload is maybe:

.30 bullet
.03 primer
.08 powder
.075 case

That's 48.5 cents a round, ignoring labor.

[EMC]

The secret to inexpensive accurate reloaded 77gr is Nosler 77 cc blems from shooters pro shop. You can snag them for around 13-14 cents at times. Combined with free LC or federal brass and ramshot TAC powder you can get your per round cost down to about 20ish cents per round.

[scw2]

Prvi PPU match 75 gr worked decent for me but I have very little experience with precision stuff so hopefully others can chime in. I was able to get cold bore hit on a target similar to the size ( a bit taller than) of uspsa headbox with a 16” AR15.

[nalesq]

You should just buy samples of different factory match ammo at whatever price point you deem acceptable and see what works best. SG Ammo has a pretty good selection.

This is what I did, and discovered that out of my DMR-ish AR, the best accuracy for the buck factory match round was the IMI 5.56mm 69gr Sierra HPBT Match.


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[Nephrology]

The secret to inexpensive accurate reloaded 77gr is Nosler 77 cc blems from shooters pro shop. You can snag them for around 13-14 cents at times. Combined with free LC or federal brass and ramshot TAC powder you can get your per round cost down to about 20ish cents per round.

Reloading is in the plans eventually.. just logistically not really possible in my current living situation.

What price are you trying to hit? Ammoseek has 77 gr Federal GMM for seventy some cents a round. I don't know that you can beat that by too much for accurate ammo. Even with reloading, you're looking at 25 cents or more for a 77 Matchking, a few cents for a primer, and maybe a dime for powder, plus the cost of brass divided by how many reloadings you get. If you reuse the brass from GMM at .75 ten times, the cost of a reload is maybe:

.30 bullet
.03 primer
.08 powder
.075 case

That's 48.5 cents a round, ignoring labor.

I can be flexible. Looking for value doesn't mean it has to be cheap. If I could get decent factory match ammo at ~$0.50 a round I would be quite happy, but willing to spend more if need be.

I’ve had good results with the IMI Razor core 69 and 77 grain. Midway USA puts it on sale periodically.

thanks! I'll check it out.

[ranger]

The secret to inexpensive accurate reloaded 77gr is Nosler 77 cc blems from shooters pro shop. You can snag them for around 13-14 cents at times. Combined with free LC or federal brass and ramshot TAC powder you can get your per round cost down to about 20ish cents per round.

This is exactly what I do also

[SecondsCount]

Reloading is the way to go and all you need is a desk to do it. Mounting the press can be interesting but for a something semi portable, you can get away with boards and C-clamps.

[ST911]

So I recently put together an AR15 with a 20" national match barrel. It is a shooter. I am using it to stick my nose into the world of precision rifle shooting, as .223 seems like the most cost-friendly and low-recoil way to build basic rifle marksmanship. Unfortunately, I do not reload yet and will unlikely be able to start until I move to a bigger place. With that said, what factory .223/5.56mm ammunition offers the "best accuracy per dollar"? I'd like it to be something I can afford to by in bulk, but not deeply disappointing on paper.

The rifle produced an excellent group with 77gr Federal GMM, but it's a little pricey to buy in bulk, so I am looking for alternatives. I have a few different kinds of ammunition i still have yet to try at the range, but I was curious if there was a consensus for an inexpensive but accurate factory .223 offering for my purposes.

Any thoughts?

What does "accurate" mean to you? At what distance? What is an "excellent group" as above?
What distances are you shooting at? Wind norms?
Does consistency across production lots and shipments matter to you?

Trying to learn precision riflecraft with mediocre ammo will frustrate you quickly. There's a lot you can do with an entry level load, but an awful lot more you can't.