Cheap range ammo alternative to Black Hills TMK 77

Marshfly

WKR
Joined
Sep 18, 2022
Messages
752
Location
Missoula, Montana
You guys that are hunting with the Black Hills 223 TMK, what are you using for cheap training ammo the rear of the year?

Looking for something with similar ballistics so it’s not a huge pain to go back and forth.

Or should I just not be a witch and just rezero for Winchester white box.


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ztc92

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
May 8, 2022
Messages
231
I really like Hornady Frontier 68 and 75 BTHP for cheap factory practice ammo. I also bought some factory second 77SMK and loaded those to practice with the goal at longer ranges. However, in hindsight it really wasn’t worth all the effort as my Tikka shoots 10 shot groups of both frontier loads to shoot 2MOA vs about 1.5MOA with the 77SMK handloads and to be honest either one is plenty good for practicing field positions and long range shooting.
 
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
Messages
8,382
What’s cheap? ADI 55 sbk and 69 SMK have historically been real good for 60-75 cents a round. 73 ELDm Match ammo has been available online quite a bit for under $1 ea. AAC from palmetto is cheap but most is 556 and is a little hot in my tikka and wasn’t terribly accurate. Never seen that frontier stuff in the store but seen lots of folks with decent reviews in it.
 
Joined
Jun 19, 2023
Messages
39
PSA puts their home rolled 5.56 77 OTM loads on sale pretty often for 0.62 a round. I have yet to run any 5.56 through my Tikka, but I have read here about it being done a good bit. Might be worth a look, it shoots pretty well.
 

Eleven

FNG
Joined
Nov 22, 2022
Messages
81
Location
Vermont
Depends on what you are training. If I'm out just trying to work on form and positions at close range I use whatever I have on hand as long as it groups decent, including 55gr and 62gr FMJ. If I'm working on longer range practice I'll use 77gr SMK that I reload with the same load as TMK. The TMK and SMK are really close in terms of ballistics group the same and I only need to move my scope dope U.1 and L.1 to be on with the SMK. If I didn't reload I'd buy some cheap stuff and some SMK to practice with.
 
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