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Range Report M855 ammo.
- Thread starter Jscb1b
- Start date
If it is borderline over gassed and you have an adjustable gas system try dialing it back a bit.
That might help but if the velocity spreads are all over the place there may not be much improvement.
That might help but if the velocity spreads are all over the place there may not be much improvement.
During the "OMG the ATF is gonna ban all the 855 ammos" scare a few years back, I sat back and watched the fun. That ammo has never been what I'd call precise in my rifle. 4MOA for a 5 shot group was typical. About the only things it has going for it are; it IS ammunition, it goes bang, and it freaks out the grabbers. Other than that, you're money ahead shooting more expensive ammo.
Then again, if a range day consists of bump firing into a berm, 855 maybe your ticket.
Then again, if a range day consists of bump firing into a berm, 855 maybe your ticket.
If youre looking for accurate ammo buy cases of IMI 77gr RazorCore. What AR are you shooting it out of? The ammo is only going to be as accurate as the barrel its being shot out of but you can generally find a factory loading that your rifle likes.
www.sgammo.com
www.sgammo.com
My AR's love this M855.
www.sgammo.com
Here's some 5 shot groups out of my 16" WOA 1:7 AR @ 50yd. .5" and .75"
20 Round Box - 5.56mm 77 Grain SMK OTM LR MOD-1 Razorcore IMI Ammo Made by Israel Military Industries | SGAmmo.com
SGAmmo.com, bulk ammo sold by the case at the best lowest prices for sale anywhere online
500 Round Case - 5.56mm 77 Grain SMK OTM LR MOD-1 Razorcore IMI Ammo | SGAmmo.com
SGAmmo.com, bulk ammo sold by the case at the best lowest prices for sale anywhere online
My AR's love this M855.
1000 Round Case - 5.56 PMC X-TAC M855 62 grain Green Tip FMJ 556K LAP Ammo - Limit 1 | SGAmmo.com
SGAmmo, bulk ammo fulfillment family owned and operated, Stillwater OK
Here's some 5 shot groups out of my 16" WOA 1:7 AR @ 50yd. .5" and .75"
Bro, that's 10 MOA............
I've never seen any ammo perform that badly out of any AR-15. EVER.
You either have a shit rifle, don't know how to shoot, or both.
Well the armscor ammo shot 1 moa. So it's not the rifle or me so go fuck your self.
New Rifle | Product categories | Black Hills Ammunition
www.black-hills.com
Rifle Ammunition - Hornady Manufacturing, Inc
Hand inspected ammunition to ensure consistency and quality throughout the process.
And,
My 855 is no where near 10 moa but it is like 2-3moa out of my gas guns at 100yards
if you have an 8 twist or faster try Hornady’s 75g Superformance 5.56. Shoots 1 MOA in both my 14.5 and 16” ARs.
You know me.......no filterThank you! I didn’t wanna day it ????
Be careful with Superformance in a gasser. It's hot and I've blown many primers with it. It's for bolt guns
Hmmm...been shooting it for a few years out of the two ARs referred to in the above post and never had an issue with pressure signs, blown primers, stove piping, etc. Runs great and consistently gives me ~1 MOA out to three hundred. Both my ARs have 1/7 5.56 NATO chambers and are suppressed.
The 5.56 stuff does come with a warning about it being hot and not to use it in .223 Remington chambers on the box. Just never heard it being safe for only bolt guns before.
I never said it was only "safe" in bolt guns. I said it was for bolt guns and to be careful. It works for you, great. It's hot, that's a fact and many have had issues with it. It was a heads up..
There are also lots of info out there, google is your friend. Hornady has recommended nothing shorter than a rifle length gas system with 5.56 75 Superformance and an AGB. Thats from Hornady directly and I'll see if I can dig up the email from them years ago.
Just did a quick search and came up with a post by “Hornady in a 2016 thread on m4carbine.net
Perhaps the email you’re referring to indicates something along these lines.
Dangerous/risky? Hornady Superformance Match 5.56 in 12.5" AR, carbine length gas
I don't usually shoot anything other than cheap 55gr stuff. Went to my LGS today and told them I was looking for some match ammunition to test out the inherent accuracy of my new 12.5" build and they suggested to me the Hornady Superformance Match 5.56, which is loaded extremely hot (75 gr...
www.m4carbine.net
Perhaps the email you’re referring to indicates something along these lines.
M855 will never be match quality... and frankly, he Winc. version has always shot terrible for me.
Try the PMC XTac as mentioned.
And try some Wolf Gold 55gr, and GECO 55gr .223 ( the 5.56 Geco wasn't even close as accurate as the .223 )
Try the PMC XTac as mentioned.
And try some Wolf Gold 55gr, and GECO 55gr .223 ( the 5.56 Geco wasn't even close as accurate as the .223 )
M855 is not "precision" ammo, but 10MOA is a little extreme. I'm gonna guess some of that was due to your setup not being the best, bad ammo out of an AR should still shoot better than that offhand after having the jitters from a two day meth binge.
Best M855 type ammo I've shot for accuracy has been the PMC XTAC. It will hover around 1moa from a good barrel +/- .25moa.
That steel core crap is dumb though, the same plates stop it as stop all the rest of the 5.56 ammo, and the other 5.56 ammo will zip through the soft armor and glass and such the same as M855. Some of the barrier type rounds are even better.
Just buy some good ammo and forget that whole AP nonsense. They're not .30cal or .50cal incendiary rounds.
Best M855 type ammo I've shot for accuracy has been the PMC XTAC. It will hover around 1moa from a good barrel +/- .25moa.
That steel core crap is dumb though, the same plates stop it as stop all the rest of the 5.56 ammo, and the other 5.56 ammo will zip through the soft armor and glass and such the same as M855. Some of the barrier type rounds are even better.
Just buy some good ammo and forget that whole AP nonsense. They're not .30cal or .50cal incendiary rounds.
I examined some Fed XM855 a few years back. The accuracy wasn't stellar. I pulled 20 bullets and weighed individual charges. They were precisely the same to the tenth grain, so that wasn't it.
My take on it was that the Bullet's not accurate. Maybe incorporating the 'penetrator' is somewhat of a problem, but I'm not equipped to check on that.
My next step is to pull and replace the M855 projectile with the Speer 62gr Gold Dot and try it for accuracy.
It may end up being a cheap alternative to the Fed Fusion MSR load. I'm pretty sure that's the bullet used in the MSR load, and with it being Federal, it may just already be the M855 package with that bullet substituted.
Test, and time, will tell.
Greg
My take on it was that the Bullet's not accurate. Maybe incorporating the 'penetrator' is somewhat of a problem, but I'm not equipped to check on that.
My next step is to pull and replace the M855 projectile with the Speer 62gr Gold Dot and try it for accuracy.
It may end up being a cheap alternative to the Fed Fusion MSR load. I'm pretty sure that's the bullet used in the MSR load, and with it being Federal, it may just already be the M855 package with that bullet substituted.
Test, and time, will tell.
Greg
The M855/SS109 projectile has a lot of things going against it for making a precise bullet. 1) It's an FMJ. It's harder to hold consistent wall thickness when the ogive is the bottom of the cup vs. when it's a flat base (even at the back of a boat tail it's still a flat base for a punch to hit in the draw process). 2) It has a boat tail. Flat-base bullets are easier to get to shoot accurately because you have 1 less feature who's centerline and CoM have to be in line with the rest of the bullet. And 3) it has a 2-piece core. 2a) One piece of the core is not malleable at all. If the steel penetrator lands in the jacket in a fuzzed up orientation, it's going to remain as such.
Harder to get a concentric jacket, harder to get all inside and outside features of the bullet on the same centerline, and usually nobody's looking for the utmost in precision from that bullet, so I'd imagine a lot of manufacturers just slap them together and roll with it. Whatever doesn't make the mil spec gets dumped as cheap blasting ammo on the civilian market. If they shoot worse than 2 MOA someone was asleep at the wheel (or didn't care/need to care) on the bullet press.
ETA: shooting so close (25m) you really gotta watch out for parallax error, too. Very small changes in distance to target have much greater impacts on parallax error the closer you are.
Whether or not the dispersion is always vertical will probably be played out with a larger sample size. Shoot 10-20 in the same group and see if it's still a vertical line. If it is, I'd honestly look at optics or the rifle before the ammo/bullets. I haven't seen a bullet yet that will sling consistently in a line (within 300yd), vertical, horizontal, or otherwise. If they're bad it's a big round group once you get enough shots into it.
Harder to get a concentric jacket, harder to get all inside and outside features of the bullet on the same centerline, and usually nobody's looking for the utmost in precision from that bullet, so I'd imagine a lot of manufacturers just slap them together and roll with it. Whatever doesn't make the mil spec gets dumped as cheap blasting ammo on the civilian market. If they shoot worse than 2 MOA someone was asleep at the wheel (or didn't care/need to care) on the bullet press.
ETA: shooting so close (25m) you really gotta watch out for parallax error, too. Very small changes in distance to target have much greater impacts on parallax error the closer you are.
Whether or not the dispersion is always vertical will probably be played out with a larger sample size. Shoot 10-20 in the same group and see if it's still a vertical line. If it is, I'd honestly look at optics or the rifle before the ammo/bullets. I haven't seen a bullet yet that will sling consistently in a line (within 300yd), vertical, horizontal, or otherwise. If they're bad it's a big round group once you get enough shots into it.
I'm loading a mess of those bullets right now as a matter of fact. They all weigh between 55.1 and 55.6 grains. I don't care as it is just plinking fodder/grape shot out of AR's anyway. 26.1 if WC844 which is 1 grain less than M193 spec.
I just chronographed some factory loads and checked accuracy last week along with some hand loads
PMC 55gr
Federal M193
Lake City M855
Shooting a 16” 1:9 barrel.
The PMC was 1 moa. Surprised it was that accurate for range fodder.
PMC 55gr
Federal M193
Lake City M855
Shooting a 16” 1:9 barrel.
The PMC was 1 moa. Surprised it was that accurate for range fodder.
M193 is good practice and reliable ammo for what it is. I never expect much in accuracy, it is good 1.5 MOA depending on rifle or carbine.
Pull those 55 FMJ off, replace with a 55 match bullet, and you have great tight shooting ammo. The powder charges are pretty much the same, maybe + or - a tenth, good enough for me.
M855 I never expect anything more than what it was designed for.
Pull those 55 FMJ off, replace with a 55 match bullet, and you have great tight shooting ammo. The powder charges are pretty much the same, maybe + or - a tenth, good enough for me.
M855 I never expect anything more than what it was designed for.
The short answer? No, not at all. You can expect 1-1.5 inches groups or better @50 yds with a quality rifle based on my experience with issued weapons and my own DDM4V1. The DDM4V1 will shoot M855/SS109 into <2 inches @ 100 yds with an Aimpoint PRO. I've had decent luck with PMC and ZQI for cheap fodder provided the range doesn't mind me shooting M855/SS109.
FWIW, the last time I looked at the specs for M855 (before the M855A1 transition, so a minute), it was 3 MOA w/ issued rifles. I cannot recall a serviceable, properly maintained M16 or M4 that wouldn't do that or better. Match grade? No, not by a long shot, but certainly good enough to shoot our 300m qual table.
