What is your favorite AR15 caliber?

[calicojack]

Wow - no 350 Legend.

 

[apodgrouparms]

7.62x39 is for AKs not ARs
Can’t see those worlds colliding in my safe

Yes, but if you customize your AR with a barrel that can handle the 7.62x39, it may make you have a happy face lol.

 

[trickg]

I think that the 5.56/223 is a pretty solid round in a lot of respects. Load it with a lightweight bullet and a slow twist barrel, pushed with the right propellant, and you're pushing beyond 3500 fps. Load it heavy with a faster twist, and you have a viable deer rifle. It's also a very forgiving round - it's accurate in all manner of bullet and charge weights, and can be loaded with a lot of different propellants.

It's also stupidly common - finding ammo is never a problem, and even cheap ammo tends to shoot pretty well. Reloads shoot even better.

If you wanted a good barrel that could handle a wide range of bullet weights, you'd be hard pressed to find something better than a 1:9 twist.

 

[jimbobborg]

It's also stupidly common - finding ammo is never a problem,

Did you miss the 8 years of Obama? Or 2020?

 

[trickg]

Did you miss the 8 years of Obama? Or 2020?

I reload - components were slightly harder to come by, but not impossible. Once I started reloading for that caliber there was never a time where I was short on 556/223.

 

[akalma]

When I got my first AR-15 it was BCM upper. All factory ammo I tried were given me about 2-4MOA accuracy and I was sad. Next upper I assembled myself and it was based on blackhole barrel. It produced me good 2MOA accuracy and I was kinda satisfied but wanted better.

The next caliber I choose was 6.8SPC II, first barrel from ARP produced <1MOA accuracy and I was bought by it! This caliber showed itself as an excelllent hunting cartridge, worked well on hogs and deer. At some point this ammo was sold in walmarts everywhere. Then the interest to 6.8SPC faded and hype was shifted to multiple 6.5 cartridges. But since I reload the 6.8 I stay with it.

Next it was MD DNR decision to allow SWC so I built another upper in .350 Legend. It works pretty good and is much cheaper than 20ga slugs I used before in shotgun only counties. And .350's accuracy is better than .223!

 

[Biggfoot44]

I reload - components were slightly harder to come by, but not impossible. Once I started reloading for that caliber there was never a time where I was short on 556/223.

Being prepared in advance is a Good Thing.

But during the recent ( and still lingering )ammo panic, primers were scarcer than loaded ammo .

Once the entire commercial supply chain was drained dry ,it was to old farts reaching their personal calculus of turning parts of their personal stash into scalper level cash .

At $30 &up per hundred it was doing what you had to do for a few Hunting Handloads , or for a few rounds for an obscure caliber . But if your not already sitting on a stack of primers Before a shortage .you're essentially SOL .

The good news is that in quasi normal times , primers are more affordable to stack by the case than ammo .

But right now we're in limbo . $79-89 hasn't reached the usual Stack Deep price point , but it's playing chicken with the start of the pedictable 2024 ( at least mini ) Election Cycle panic .

 

[trickg]

^^ I found myself in a shortage of primers, but lucked into some being sold by someone looking to cash out on some of their supply. I thought it was expensive at the time, but cheaper than what it ended up being.

As it is, I'm currently buying about 2 bricks monthly, whether I need them or not - I won't ever be caught in a components shortage again.

But anyway, I stand by my assessment that 556/223 is the best round for AR.