Thread: Best Price on .223

Originally Posted by dogmatix

None on the shelves though.
They only have Remington, Winchester, Fed Match, Barnaul and that Ozzie made stuff in store.

That's odd, Dan usually keeps the website quite up to date. Did they mention the Hornady stuff at all ? Found that Outback ammo ok, nothing extravagant or uber fantastic though.

Reloads are the cheapest.
Brass. $0.10 cents each off trade me 6 months back. Bought sack of 3000.
Powder. CFE 223 off trade me bought last week, 3 pounds at $45 per pound or 10 pounds of H335 bought off acquaintance through trade me a year ago at $44 per pound. 25 grains per load so $0.16 cents each. CFE 223 is good stuff!!
Projectiles. Hornady 55 grain, bought 8 months back from trade me, 2000 @ $0.20 each.
Primers. CCI small rifle, bought 25K 12 months ago when on special off Richard at serious Shooters. $0.060 each

Total for first shot is $0.52 each.
Following shots reusing brass is $0.42 each.
About to run out of Hornady projectiles so going to try some Barnaul at about $0.17 cents each.

Buy in bulk when prices are OK and use when the prices or availability is crap.

That's a good price for everything. Hard to find stuff at that price. Cheapest I can get down to is about 61 cents, with pretty good prices on things. Which isn't cheap enough under steel cased to bother with the time and hassle, and don't have to pick up brass.

Often its who you know that will give you the good deals but often its being in the right place at the right time.
The CFE 223 powder was dumb luck. Was just browsing trade me and up they popped. Buy now x 3 out of the 4 on offer. I was too slow on the last bottle.
Powder only comes into NZ 2 times a year so it pays to buy enough to last a year at least.
I am on the hunt for more rifle powder at normal prices at the moment to get my stocks back up which is when I can relax again and just shoot.

I normally buy powder by the 4kg tub and it comes to just over $50/500gms. Cases I have never been able to find cheaper than $80/500 once fired surplus cases.

223 55grn SP Custom Ammunition | Trade Me

Hornady 55gr SP for $1/round.

Just got another 24k primers to top up the supplies so will be doing another big run soon

Originally Posted by gimp

That's a good price for everything. Hard to find stuff at that price. Cheapest I can get down to is about 61 cents, with pretty good prices on things. Which isn't cheap enough under steel cased to bother with the time and hassle, and don't have to pick up brass.

Depends how accurate the steel case is though doesn't it? Sure Barnaul might be cheaper, but it shoot exceptionally bad in my rifle.
The Hornady training ammo on the other hand was brilliant, but that still wasn't as cheap (for me) as 61 cents each, and I haven't been able to buy it for over a year now.
I think the biggest factor is how much is your time worth, and because I enjoy reloading and don't shoot a stupid amount (of centre fire anyway), it doesn't bother me to reload.

i agree with gravelben. the american eagle stuff is good value, and shoots well in my T3. Shot half a dozen goats on saturday to great effect. I also use the hornady training in both steel and brass but demand usually exceeds supply at the shop.

The American Eagle is the sweet spot ATM for off the shelf. And it works well.

Originally Posted by Beetroot

Depends how accurate the steel case is though doesn't it? Sure Barnaul might be cheaper, but it shoot exceptionally bad in my rifle.
The Hornady training ammo on the other hand was brilliant, but that still wasn't as cheap (for me) as 61 cents each, and I haven't been able to buy it for over a year now.
I think the biggest factor is how much is your time worth, and because I enjoy reloading and don't shoot a stupid amount (of centre fire anyway), it doesn't bother me to reload.

Absolutely, but when the Hornady stuff shot great out of my rifle, I bought 1500 rounds of it.... working through my last box of 500 now.

Trying the Belmont stuff and Barnaul to see if either of them will shoot well enough. I am not going to handload bulk .223.

Originally Posted by Wirehunt

The American Eagle is the sweet spot ATM for off the shelf. And it works well.

the ones that fire have been great through my rifle but have had a huge percentage fail to fire. 5/30 didnt fire and thats through a brand new rifle that has shot 6 other brands with no problems.

Originally Posted by Tarrbaby

the ones that fire have been great through my rifle but have had a huge percentage fail to fire. 5/30 didnt fire and thats through a brand new rifle that has shot 6 other brands with no problems.

Its functioned perfectly threw my howa with good accuracy(only 60 rounds tho)

Well the Belmont steel/nickel plated stuff was no good. Not great accuracy from the AR and got a stuck case after 1 mag, failed to extract. And my stuck-case-hammering-cleaning rod was in the back of my truck. Which was at home.

That sucks. Quite a few guys in our club were running it with no issues.