556 green tips
- Thread starter pc9
- Start date
why do people like these over M193? They're as a rule less accurate, can't shoot them at a lot of ranges due to the steel, don't drop any less until you get out to 400 yards and their actual penetration is still meh while giving up fragmentation entirely. The actual hotness is 77 SMK/TMK loads for those with a fast enough twist, or 69gr OTM as an alternative. Lets get those in bulk for a decent price. Actually, i'll just load my own.
At least the M855A1 looks super cool even if it eats feedramps, i'd get some of that for cool factor if anything if available.
At least the M855A1 looks super cool even if it eats feedramps, i'd get some of that for cool factor if anything if available.
I just want cheap 5.56/223 idrc about anything else except price
The SS109 was designed to penetrate steel helmets at distance. That idea is WAY out of date. Inside 300 yds or so, 55gr ball will be just fine for any use we might have for it.
As a general rule, M193 actually does better against some types of body armour because it's going faster within ~400 yards, and once M855 catches up with it's slightly higher BC you're well beyond the point both have fallen off enough to be equally ineffective against body armor.
Close up M193 will go through level III steel while M855 won't, level "III+" and level IV will stop both.
M855 was designed for better penetration of light barriers/cover and thin, mild steel helmets at 300-400 yards because otherwise 5.56 would have lost too much velocity to do that without the steel core. That latter point is totally irrelevant now.
Really my major dislike is the fact that M855's non homogenous core leads to significantly greater dispersion at the ranges that it's high BC actually starts to be an advantage at in terms of wind drift and drop. It is optimized for better burn shorter barrels but that doesn't so most of us here good.
So yeah, I'm definitely taking the speed and better accuracy of m193 up close and loading 69/77gr OTM if I'm going further out.
The greentips do look really cool though, that is a real plus.
Fair enough !
hannibal.black98
CGN frequent flyer
Yes 77gr loads are awesome...at 3-5x the cost of bulk M855/M193...which both of those loads at all, let alone in BULK have been rare for monthsss. M855A1 (if even available) kills your rifle within a few 1000 rounds...pass
You know that any 223/556 round will penetrate soft body armour and no 223/556 round will penetrate hard plates? Thus the steel core 62gr stuff is completely moot these days. It was designed for a specific purpose, that is no longer relevant today.
There is no way a green tip will penetrate an AR500 armour plate. In fact I shot some commercial green tip at a Cabelas (maybe AR500?) steel plate last week and there was no penetration. Good quality AR500 will easily shrug off 556 green tip.
Never understood this either. I've found it's generally a bit more expensive and less available than standard FMJ, a no-go at many ranges and at most/all competitions, and is more of a ricochet hazard when shooting steel. If it's actually less accurate, there is literally no reason for a plinker to buy green tip ammo, yet people insist on doing it anyways. It's weird. If you're set on having some for defense reasons (however effective it may or may not be), buy a couple boxes just to have, and then plink with lead core FMJ?
Does look neato though, I'll give it that.
