223 SS109 Surplus Ammo

[MarkA]

Been reading all the inexpensive ammo posts.  While doing my load developement I began looking closely at the time and costs that were going into this.  Also, looked at the accuracy of the White Box Winny.  Started doing some searching for accurate but inexpensive 223 ammo for the Handi.

Cabelas has a couple of sales on surplus military ammo, 223 caliber, 62 gr, 3070 fps, green tip cartridges.  The pricing is as litter as 20 cents per round, about one half my reload cost!

Will these work in a Handi?  Are they accurate in the 1 in 12 twist barrels?  Has anybody used them?

[Deadeye47]

Well...it's me again...I have shot some Spanish , Swiss and a couple other odd ball SS109 ammo in my AR but not in the NEF...You just might try a box and see how it does....it's not worth buying a case of the stuff unless you have several guns to shoot it in. The Spanish is some hot stuff.....don't forget there is a slight difference in .223 Remington and .223 NATO ammunition. I also guess you know the SS-109 is Armor piercing ammo... :roll:  A song dog is not going to notice the difference though....

[Leftoverdj]

Nope, 62 grain bullets are way too long for the Handi's twist.

Something sounds bad wrong with your reload cost. Primer costs 1.5 cents. Charge of milsurp powder about 3 cents. Bulk Remington bullets 6 or 7 cents from MidSouth. Even if you gotta buy cases, www.gibrass.com has processed never fired surplus brass for $60 a thousand. They also have 55 grain .224 milsurp bullets for $40 a thousand. Not sure how those bullets would work in an Handi, though.

[Wlscott]

My .223 reloads cost me about .16 cents per round.  You've got to remember that each time you use a brass case, you're cost associated with that particular item goes down.  I only allow about .02 cents per brass case because I've shot enough .223 over the years that I have an enormous surplus of .223 brass cases.  

You are probably not going to find anything that is less expensive than reloads unless you factor in your equipment.  But eventually the equipment cost goes away :lol: , plus you get the satisfaction of knowing that you roll your own.  

Oh yeah, your question.......62 grainers probably aren't going to shoot very well in your 1 in 12" barrelled Handi.  They MIGHT shoot minute of coyote out to a hundred yards or so.  Your carefully crafted and sweated over handloads will shoot a lot better than minute of coyote a lot further out than that.

[handirifle]

Marka
A couple points here.  NEF does NOT recommend using military surplus ammo in the NEF.  The 5.56 NATO is loaded to different pressure specs than the 223 and my understanding for the chamber is there is a difference there as well.

I've read of posts on other forums where guys with AR copies that are chambered for 223 Win should not use 5.56 ANTO ammo, for same reason.

In addition to that, the 1 in 12 twist will not stabilize a bullet heavier than 55gr in the NEF.  I think I read of ONE poster that claimed to get good groups with 60 gr bullets but that was all.

[De41mag]

MarkA;

You might try the Wolf.... 55gr.HP only. It's my understanding that the HP bullet is copper, not copper washed like other bullets they make. I've found the point of impact is almost the same as the Win. 45HP's Value Pack, at least in my rifle. I know a lot of folks say Wolf ammo is crap and with that polymer coating sometimes cases get stuck. The two boxes I've shot, I only had one stuck case out of 40 rnds. But that was with a barrel that had over 100 rnds. shot prior to using the Wolf ammo. I will buy more, probably in bulk.

Good shooting.

Dennis.