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My 15 year old asked to go target shooting to try the ar15 for the first time; WOOHOO! So, took him and the wife for a weekend outing. A 1000 rounds of .223 PMC Bronze later, and I am out. Although the ammo was fairly decent, it seems to be fairly dirty making cleaning a bugger (I have had similar dirty results with the 9mm PMC ammo compared to others). I am wondering what others use for target practice and how "clean" it is as well as anything else you would recommend. He is anxious to go again.
 
My 15 year old asked to go target shooting to try the ar15 for the first time; WOOHOO! So, took him and the wife for a weekend outing. A 1000 rounds of .223 PMC Bronze later, and I am out. Although the ammo was fairly decent, it seems to be fairly dirty making cleaning a bugger (I have had similar dirty results with the 9mm PMC ammo compared to others). I am wondering what others use for target practice and how "clean" it is as well as anything else you would recommend. He is anxious to go again.

I use whatever brass cased ammo that I can find at the lowest price per round. Shooting 1000 rounds of any brand ammo will result in pretty dirty internals on an AR. Then I take the brass and reload it with H335 and CCI primers and it doesn't seem too dirty.

Cleaning is easy when the expectations are that it doesn't have to be perfect. AR's can run for a long time without issue as long as they are properly lubricated, regardless of being cleaned.

I use a combination of Q-tips, boresnake, hoppes 9, synthetic motor oil and/or frog lube. I've noticed that a light film of oil coating the entire chamber makes it easy to get all the grime out of the chamber wth Q-tips, same thing goes for the BCG, if it started out covered in oil, a stout paper towel can even get off most of the grime, barrel gets a few passes of the Boresnake with Hoppes and it's good to go and depending on what you have, a liberal use of your lube on the BCG and rails and it's good to go.

Don't know if you already do, I would 100% include the 15 year old in the cleaning process with the caveat of with glovesand good ventilation, because we don't need those metals and solvents seeping into their skin and interacting with their still developing brain.
 
Who cleans?

Lol. Seriously. I run em until they quit then I clean. Always fun to see how long they will go and how dirty they will get.

I kid. I don't obsess over cleaning so I use a bore snake and some paper towels on my AR's and then a little lube before put away. Every so often when I pull a rifle from the safe I may add a dab or lube.... typically my spit is sufficient.
 
I second what was said earlier....ammo for plinking? Least expensive brass cased you can find.

Lot's of great online sources for competitively priced ammo. Bi-Mart has had some good sales recently as well.
Prices are really good right now with solid availability.
I'd recommend getting as much as your wallet can handle (well north of 1k). Get while the getting is good; enough to enjoy now and some for the future when prices and availability change (not if, but when).

If you guys burned through 1k in a weekend, it sounds like your family might be infected by the the black rifle disease; if that's the case your only course of action is buying more ammo; a lot more ammo :)!
 
The last boxes of ammo I bought for an AR were these from Midway. I used them to sight in my service rifle AR before I went and starting using my own loads.

If you are going to shoot that much, I would really suggest handloading. I get the Berry's Bullets from Cabellas and they are great for plinking. I pretty much just use range brass to load it with and a mid-range load of powder and they are good for up to about 100 yards. I think total cost per round comes out to just under about $0.12 a shot.
 
The last boxes of ammo I bought for an AR were these from Midway. I used them to sight in my service rifle AR before I went and starting using my own loads.

If you are going to shoot that much, I would really suggest handloading. I get the Berry's Bullets from Cabellas and they are great for plinking. I pretty much just use range brass to load it with and a mid-range load of powder and they are good for up to about 100 yards. I think total cost per round comes out to just under about $0.12 a shot.

I second the motion of handloading. Although that wasn't the intent of the question from the OP. Especially if you have a 15 year old who loves to shoot and would surely enjoy learning to assemble the ammo at a significant discount. I have similar results in cost with .223 using Hornady 55gr SP bullets coming out to about 14 cents a piece just using range brass that most people discard. 8 cents for the bullets, a few cents for the powder and about 3-4 cents for the primers. I tend to round up so I am constantly overestimating the cost and end up with more savings than I actually calculate. I didn't get into reloading until I was about 21, self taught using my long deceased grandfathers single stage RCBS. It's an activity that a responsible 15 year old can easily find success in, especially with YouTube these days with tutorials how to do everything.

I load on a Dillon 550, bought it used from a member on Waguns named Mark down in Olympia who acts as a dealer of them frequently, he might even have a profile on here. Consider that you save about $140 per thousand rounds compared to buying at .28 a piece (which it in the past has been higher). At that rate, after 3000 rounds of .223 have been loaded the equipment has paid for itself and you have the ability to produce your own ammunition from components. For me, loading .308 and .223 the break even figure was even less because .308 can easily reach $1 a round with hollow point expanding ammunition. With that kind of progressive set up it can take 20 minutes or less to produce 100 rounds of .223, or other calibers.

When you can make 100 rounds in 20 minutes of effort pulling a handle only 108 times (4 stage progressive) it is really easy to build your reserves at a reduced cost which equates to more enjoyment shooting.

Now for individuals who make significantly more money than I do, or simply like shooting but don't enjoy reloading I can understand why they would just buy ammo and not invest their time or energy into reloading.
 
The last boxes of ammo I bought for an AR were these from Midway. I used them to sight in my service rifle AR before I went and starting using my own loads.

If you are going to shoot that much, I would really suggest handloading. I get the Berry's Bullets from Cabellas and they are great for plinking. I pretty much just use range brass to load it with and a mid-range load of powder and they are good for up to about 100 yards. I think total cost per round comes out to just under about $0.12 a shot.
That's a pretty outstanding price even for using range brass. Even with your bullets at 8 cents apiece, that doesn't leave much left for powder and primers.
 
I use whatever brass cased ammo that I can find at the lowest price per round. Shooting 1000 rounds of any brand ammo will result in pretty dirty internals on an AR. Then I take the brass and reload it with H335 and CCI primers and it doesn't seem too dirty.

Cleaning is easy when the expectations are that it doesn't have to be perfect. AR's can run for a long time without issue as long as they are properly lubricated, regardless of being cleaned.

I use a combination of Q-tips, boresnake, hoppes 9, synthetic motor oil and/or frog lube. I've noticed that a light film of oil coating the entire chamber makes it easy to get all the grime out of the chamber wth Q-tips, same thing goes for the BCG, if it started out covered in oil, a stout paper towel can even get off most of the grime, barrel gets a few passes of the Boresnake with Hoppes and it's good to go and depending on what you have, a liberal use of your lube on the BCG and rails and it's good to go.

Don't know if you already do, I would 100% include the 15 year old in the cleaning process with the caveat of with glovesand good ventilation, because we don't need those metals and solvents seeping into their skin and interacting with their still developing brain.
Lots of good advice right there.
 
That's a pretty outstanding price even for using range brass. Even with your bullets at 8 cents apiece, that doesn't leave much left for powder and primers.
Less than a penny per primer, 0.0046 per grain of powder 11 cents. I was off by a bit. 0.19 per round. That's just going off what I spent on the last 8lb of powder.
 
Less than a penny per primer, 0.0046 per grain of powder 11 cents. I was off by a bit. 0.19 per round. That's just going off what I spent on the last 8lb of powder.

Out of curiousity, what brand, where from, what volume of purchase and what combined discounts are you achieving the cost of less than a penny per primer.

Because #1 I want to know your secrets so I can enjoy those savings and #2, that means that primers are being bought for less than $10 per brick and Id love to know where that is happening. :)
 
Out of curiousity, what brand, where from, what volume of purchase and what combined discounts are you achieving the cost of less than a penny per primer.

Because #1 I want to know your secrets so I can enjoy those savings and #2, that means that primers are being bought for less than $10 per brick and Id love to know where that is happening. :)
Me too! Most of the time the primers I can find are $28-$30 per thousand! Every once in a GREAT while, on sale for $20 per brick, but those are usually off brand primers.

I'd love to know some tricks in this area!
 
Out of curiousity, what brand, where from, what volume of purchase and what combined discounts are you achieving the cost of less than a penny per primer.

Because #1 I want to know your secrets so I can enjoy those savings and #2, that means that primers are being bought for less than $10 per brick and Id love to know where that is happening. :)

1) sorry I was basing the cost off my faulty memory.

2) The primers are $0.03. I buy boxes of 5K primers from Midway.

Ends up, with the prices now, the cost is just about $0.19 per shot.
 

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