I'll be honest, I didn't like 5.45 at first because the surplus was corrosive and I argued against it because I knew the supply could be cut off at any time. However because the surplus round uses mercuric primers along with being sealed in tins- the ammo lasts forever. It's also relatively easy to clean, in the field you just bore snake it and wipe down the bolt, piston head- then rinse everything with water when available. However the mags and ammo were cheap back then so I just said, well this is the last time we'll have anything like this- so I stacked it deep. I'm still shooting what I bought about decade ago. Now I already had AR's and I had SLR 106's so accuracy wasn't what I was going for but it turned out to be a fairly accurate little round. It wasn't until much later when there were videos being posted of various gel block tests, shooting through wood, steel plates that I realized the properties of the bullet make it probably one of the best available for the money. It over stabilizes when it hits a hard surface in order to punch through but because of the air pocket- it will quickly destabilizes when it hits a softer material. It might not fragment but then again, if the round is spinning end over end retaining all it's mass- then it's just going to going to mess some things up. Seeing pictures of deer and stuff shot with it- it's like a buzz saw went through them. Even the non steel core rounds perform better than most other rounds. MAC did a video where he shot a 30" diameter tree with lead core 5.56, 5.45, 7.62x39 and .308- but only the 5.45 went through hitting the target on the other side. So that being said, it's a cool niche caliber.
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