.223/5.56 Ammo for Bushmaster

[ZigZagZeke]

My Bushmaster Varminter 24" barrel has a 1:9 twist. It'll handle .223 and 5.56 ammo. I'm looking at buying some ammo in bulk for it. I plan on doing some general plinking and some coyote hunting with this rifle. I'm also a former competition target shooter, so I don't have much patience with rifles or loads that are less accurate than I am.

What's a good brand/type/bullet weight combination for this rifle?

Read More

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Black Hills 69gr loaded with Sierra MatchKings seem to give consistently good results in ARs. I recently ordered a couple boxes of the loaded ammo and a bunch of 69gr Nosler OTM bullets to see if I can duplicate the performance (or improve on it) since noslers were cheaper than sierra.
The heavier 75gr and 77gr work very well also but they are probably too heavy/long to stabilize in a 1 in 9 barrel and prefer 1 in 7.

 

[evltwn]

You might want to consider reloading to get a round as accurate as you are...

 

[Shooter98]

One thing I've learned about handloading is, no matter what works for the other guy with the same exact rifle as me, it never works for me, at all. I usually find in my reloading manual a load that has primers, powder and bullets that are readily available and affordable to me then start working loads from there. I was insanely frustrated when I was trying to build these loads that others were with powder and bullets that I couldn't get easily.

 

[evltwn]

Well, I go with a selection of components dictated by barrel twist and my defined goal, experiment at the bench and test the results at the range. If nothing else, I have saved a TON of money, and have control of the variables that effect accuracy...