One other reason for M855 ammo inaccuracy

H

HoustonBob

New member
The usual reason that people give for the not very accurate performance of 62 grain armor piercing 5.56 ammo is the difficulty of placing the armor piercing steel pin in the center of the bullet. However I suspect that another major culprit is the fact that the tip of the bullets are dipped in what appear to be green enamel paint. In the cartridges I have examined from both Federal and Winchester that paint job is not very uniform, and that off center weighting probably has something to do with a box of M855 ammo making a 100 yard target look like somebody fired a shot gun at it.

Has anyone tried dipping known accurate ammo bullet tips in paint to see what the paint does to the accuracy?
 
Not all M855 is created equal. I've tried Five or Six different brands of it. The IMI is pretty accurate for M855. I can get 1.5" groups at 100 yds with it. The tips on the IMI are unpainted too though ????.
 
The green coloring on the Lake City M855 I have looks more like an ink, or maybe you could call it a stain. Very thin. It also appears to be reasonably evenly coated. I doubt it could throw off the travel of a bullet at all. Also, I believe the small steel insert in the bullet is not really a pin, it's more in the shape of a "coned arrowhead" if that makes any sense. It should be easy to center in the bullet jacket. The reason for inaccuracy? Well I believe 3 MOA is acceptable for the military. LC M855 shots about 2.5-3 MOA in my AK101 (Saiga 223). So if it shoots that well in an AK, it should be even better in an AR.
 
First, it was never intended to be match ammo. I don't recall the actual MOA limit, but I think Mike is close if not on target.

Second, coming from someone who has fired more M855 than most on this forum from M-68 equipped M-4 and M-16A2, I had no problem reliably hitting green Ivans out to 300 meters. All that and I'm no Alvin York....

Bottom line: it does what it's supposed to do.
 
Hi.

As mentioned, M855 'green tip' is not armor piercing. It is a "penetrator tip" round which some people interpret as "armor piercing" or "armor penetrating". Some governmental type people and agencies see it that way too. M855 is for penetration at long range, but it's not armor piercing. It's actually ball ammo.

M995 is armor piercing and has a black tip. Black tip is the traditional cue for US AP rounds.
 
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