5.56

[Jjmwandell]

I had a buddy ask me about casting for his AR15 semi. I told him i wasnt actually sure if you could cast for a magazine fed rifle. So i put the question to you fine folks. Can you cast for an AR15?

[mattw]

Sure you can, if it is a fast twist 1:8 or 1:7 be ready to cast heavy bullets... maybe 69 to 77 grain. I have shot 60's in mine, they did not do bad, but the effort level is to high for the kids blasting ammo when the Wolf 1000 packs of 55's are so cheap. I also cast for my own 300 BO, have had decent success.

[mdi]

I don't have/shoot an AR, but cast bullets work OK in my Garand and SKS...

[Dapaki]

Yes! I shoot 55gr LEE boolits without a gas check that have been powder coated and sized out of my AR and Mini-14. The Mini-14 has a 1:12 twist and a larger gas port so the 55gr boolits do much better than the AR but as I wait upon a couple of heavier boolit molds, I find that the extra weight is needed with my 1:9 twist AR rifle.

[Winger Ed.]

I told him i wasnt actually sure if you could cast for a magazine fed rifle.

Sure.
They don't know- or care, if they are in a 20 round box magazine,
the 4-5 round mag. inside the stock of a bolt action, or even a lever gun's tube.

[MT Gianni]

Weight sort to within .4 grains, powder coat with gc and hardness is your friend. Even in today's component crisis, I still believe most of us are better finding deals on jacketed bullets in 5.56.

[sureYnot]

I shoot cast almost exclusively out of mine.

[dakotashooter2]

Yes. But find out what your buddies expectations are. You will not be able to load them anywhere near as fast as jacketed bullets. That means his point of impact will be different and likely accuracy will not be as good. He will also probably have to clean his gun more often

[GhostHawk]

Mag fed rifle you bet you can.

However, smaller is harder, bigger is easier.

.223 is a bit of a pain, but a lot depends on how bad you need it to cycle the action.

I've run a lot of low level red dot loads in my SKS with cast, but it does not cycle the action.
So I turn the gas off (Yugo rifle grenade model) and treat it like a straight pull bolt. Works perfectly fine, and the brass is inches away instead of yards.