Is .223 ammo really getting scarce/expensive??

[WTA]

I go through a lot of 308 and 30-06 in testing the rifles I build. That stuff isn't too hard to find through the wholesalers I use but surplus sure is. Good surplus I mean. I'm very opinionated after an indian 308 round blew up in my face last year. It didn't do the gun or my head any good.

223 on the other hand lately has been out of stock with nearly all the wholesalers. I'm only referring to military type 223 ammo though or rounds suitable for use in an AR. Regular and specialty ammo is easy to get. Mostly only the companies with import permits are stocking any quantity of ammo for AR's.
I deal mostly with Black hills ammo and their reman 223 has been about all I have been getting my hands on for the last year or so. I don't work on any squirrel guns though so I only stock enough to keep my customers around here happy. That black hills 308 match ammo I can't hardly keep on the shelf. We buy a few cases at a time and it's usually gone in a few days. Between me burning through 100-500 rounds a week and customers buying whole cases it just doesn't last long.

 

[mboulais]

I don't know about 223 getting scarce, I bought quite a bit a few years back and don't shoot it much. I probably still have 200 rnds of PMC silver 55 gr sp.

As far as the AR, Unless you are going to for accuracy and buying an HBAR I recommend you look hard at a ruger mini 14 ranch rifle. It isn't real accurate (3" group at 100 yds), but it is fast, rugged, and cheaper. The scope mounting system is better on the ranch model than the standard model.

 

[WTA]

It's a super reliable rifle too. Just like the rifle they were trying to clone the M14. The M14 is what I build for a living here. It's my all time favorite rifle.

The more recent mini 14's have gone through a lot of improvements to get the accuracy up a bit.

 

[cp1969]

I have never been a fan of assault rifles so don't own any but friends have owned AR-15's and Mini-14's so I've gotten to shoot both a fair amount.

The guy with the Mini-14 bought a 20 round (maybe it was a 30) clip with it and emptied it as fast as he could pull the trigger on what may have been the gun's maiden voyage. Tongue in cheek, I said, "You think you might have warmed that barrel up a bit, Butch?" whereupon he reached up and grabbed the smoking hot barrel with his left hand. He turned loose of it in a hurry and cussed me up one side and down the other while fanning his painful hand, trying in vain to rectify that mistake. All I was trying to do was call attention to the fact that it isn't particularly good on barrels to do that to them. Didn't mean for him to prove with flesh that the barrel was indeed hot.

I don't know which I'd choose if I were in the market. Probably the Mini-14 on the basis of cost alone. I don't see what the Colt does so much better that justifies the extra cost. My own .223 is a bolt action Mini Mauser. It has been the most accurate out-of-the-box rifle I've had. I mounted the only scope I had lying around on it, a Leupold 1.5-5x variable. This will never happen again, but I didn't have to adjust either elevation or windage on that scope after mounting it and I could hit fairly small targets (crows, etc) at ranges out to 250 yards.

When I finally did shoot it at paper, I found out there was no such thing as a bad load in it. It will shoot reject Sierra 50 gr. Blitz sub MOA. These bullets were bent, had wire cores hanging out, all kinds of defects, etc. We used to buy them by the 5 lb sack at the factory for little or nothing.

If you can't buy .223 ammo, it is easy enough to make. Midway used to sell Lake City 5.56 brass fairly cheap and about any bullet on top of roughly a case full of H4895 lit by a Remington Small Rifle primer will do the job nicely.

 

[MDM]

I bought my first AR a couple months ago. I put it together from a kit. Its a 22" bull barrel version. I bought it for yote hunting. I don't know about ammo because I roll my own, but good luck trying to find primers. This gun is scary accurate. Here is what it does with 60 grain Vmax over 24 grains of Varget. 5 shot, 100yds. about .28". Most accurate gun I own.

 

[WTA]

They can be accurate if you get the right one but I grew up with and carried 30 cals like the ones below.
If you want a good AR though get a Colt or rock river arms gun. When I was selling them and working on them they were the best out of the box guns.
Somebody already mentioned natches shooters supply for ammo on them and I'd have to second that. They get some great deals on 223 all the time. There is another guy up in Maryland too but I forget his name right now. He's an importer. I'll post it when I can remember.


This is all I am into anymore.
This is one of mine.

Hopefully it's obvious why I am a 30 cal fan and don't own any more 223's. I didn't have a great experience with them in the service either. I did with the M14 though.

If you want to watch a little flash program I put together showing off a few of the micer ones I've built or rebuilt then take a look here:
Photogallery

Some of you older vets will like this.

 

[mboulais]

This is 100 yds with my savage bolt 22-250 and versa-pod bipod.
Nothing fancy, plain hardwood stock, factory trigger (adjusted), 24 sporter barrel.
6-18 leupoold Vari-x I scope.