Hunting & Fishing Impressed with m855 as a pig round.

[glockdan78]

I was out at the family land this week doing a little hog hunting. When I was heading out of the cabin to the blind, I accidentally grabbed a mag with federal m855 instead of my usual nosler 64gn bonded loads. Shot this hog just in front of the shoulder at the base of her neck. She was only around 90 lbs so not a whole bunch of tissue to shoot through. I could almost fit my fist through the exit. I was impressed that this fmj load expanded so rapidly. Granted, this is out of an 18" barrel at 70yds. I think most of the knocks against the round are guys shooting m4s. I won't hesitate to use m855 going forward.

 

[Twitch2120]

isnt the point of all 556 ball ammo to tumble? i doubt that steel core did any mushrooming but yaw and split it probably did really well.

 

[RTH1800]

Nice result. I think you will find preformance highly variable. Some will amaze and some will fail.

 

[Tx_Flyboy]

I would get a bigger sample size before being impressed bro...one result does not a pattern set...

I was out at the family land this week doing a little hog hunting. When I was heading out of the cabin to the blind, I accidentally grabbed a mag with federal m855 instead of my usual nosler 64gn bonded loads. Shot this hog just in front of the shoulder at the base of her neck. She was only around 90 lbs so not a whole bunch of tissue to shoot through. I could almost fit my fist through the exit. I was impressed that this fmj load expanded so rapidly. Granted, this is out of an 18" barrel at 70yds. I think most of the knocks against the round are guys shooting m4s. I won't hesitate to use m855 going forward.

 

[stinkyDrunk]

IIRC from Blackhawk Down (the book) the guys were very unimpressed with m855 (though this may apply only to those with SBRs). Just to clarify, you're talking about m855 with green tip and steel penetrator, not m193 which is just 55 gr fmj, correct?

 

[glockdan78]

isnt the point of all 556 ball ammo to tumble? i doubt that steel core did any mushrooming but yaw and split it probably did really well.

I should have used the word fragmented instead of expanded. I will shoot a few more and see how it does, but this one result was impressive. Yes it is 855. Also have shot some with my mk262 clone @ 2720fps and it does a great job too. The 556 is a very adequate hog round through my experience if shot placement is good and the shot is under 200 yds.

 

[schmi015]

m855 is yaw dependent for good terminal performance. If it hits straight on it will just ice pick through. Had a gentleman from australia talking to me about this overseas, since he was raving about the terminal performance of our new m855a1. Here is what the army will publicly say about the m855a1 enhanced performance round http://www.aschq.army.mil/ac/aais/ioc/LCAAP/Industry_Day/634272332137343750.pdf

The aussie had told me he shot a guy multiple time with greentip using an m4 and the guy ran a good 1/4 mile, when he finally went down he had 10 holes in him. Said since they switched to brown tip (epr) he had had a number of 1 shot kills to the torso that were devastating to the recipients.

 

[rpk762]

Close range they do come apart. A friend has a 22-250 and shoots ss109 bullets for coyotes and at higher speeds they blow up. Slower speeds ice pick every time.

 

[FourNineThree]

Nice hog and a nice shot. Be interested to read your impressions after a few more hogs.

Be safe,
FourNineThree

 

[deadly_punk]

Nice work. Shot placement every time. I don't believe the m855 has a steel core. I know that the M855A1 (so called "Enhanced Performance Round") utilizes a 19 grain steel penetration tip and seems to be very accurate out of my issue shootin' stick of the m4 type.