Getting the most out of your 5.56 SBR rifle with pricey .223 "hunting ammo"....

[ALCOAR]

Sometimes things really surprise me when testing various stuff. Perfect example was me thinking that 2 complete jugs should be sufficient enough of medium in order to stop both the 55gr. TSX and 62gr. fusion rounds @ 300yds. I was very much incorrect, and every round blew through both jugs and out the back making them un-recoverable. I got greedy and wanted to get more individual test setups so I went with four 2 jug setups....should have gone with at least three 3 jug setups. Long story short...both these rounds are still packing some serious punch at 300yds. One early observation from distance testing them with reduced velocity is that I didn't see any of that awesome early upset/destruction of first jugs that I saw with them at 25yds.

Both shoot super flat as well to 300yds which was very cool to see in the bullet trace cam footage that I'm posting below.

Stayed tuned for the "un failed" 300yd testing....(it's a bitch finding water jugs these days)






SBR bullet trace/300yd ballistic test fail

[doubletap2211]

I don't chime in much on here but I just wanted to say thanks for this post. Very good information. Thanks for all the work put into doing this.

[jstyer]

I too appreciate the hard work. Many thanks!

[g5m]

Thanks for this thread. Some very interesti ng info here.

[ALCOAR]

Glad a few of you gents are finding some of this stuff useful..

I have quite a bit more data and testing results to add from this afternoon. Firstly I continued to test various loads @ 25yds...secondly I made attempt number two at LR ballistic testing these rounds.

Continued 25yd/10.5" MRP CQB 5.56 testing.....

Setup:





Results: (Pics below accurately depict the locations of the jugs immediately after being shot.)

MK262 Mod 1



Fragmentation was a little better than I thought it would be, but nothing special at all. The majority of upset came in second jug, and ultimately the largest fragment recovered was found in the third and final jug penetrated.

Hornady Superformance 53gr. VMAX



Fragmentation was certainly better than the MK262 considering the weight difference b/t the two especially, and while this round is a huge paper tiger in terminal ballistics.....it really blows some shit up Note the location of that first jug that got A-bombed a few yards away. This round performed exactly like I thought it should....incredible disruption/upset in the first jug, and incredibly shallow penetration with only two jugs being consumed.

PRZI 55gr. SPBT



For $10.99 a box, this is pretty impressive stuff. This is another round that touches on the central theme here in this thread....."hunting" rounds deserve your consideration when picking a suitable (affordable/available/reliable/etc.) HD/PD round for your 5.56 SBR AR. This round retained 99% of it's mass, and expanded to double it's diameter. It had good early upset in that first jug, but that's about all it had going for it.....it had pretty shallow penetration, and was essentially done with after the second jug even though it did make it into the third.


Federal XM193F



Just like M855, the XM193 didn't fail to disappoint. This round totally lost it's shit in the second jug, where it turned into a wadcutter, and then dramatically tumbled upwards and to the right where it left the second jug....grazed the third, and then flew to who knows where. At least the M855 stayed put even though it didn't fragment a smidgen, and started to tumbled heavily late into the third jug.

Clearly the two military rounds...the 5.56 M855 and XM193F massively failed.

Recovered projectiles....
(3/4 rds. tested were recovered / XM193 absent)

(L-R VMAX/SPBT/MK 262)


Penetration results.....

[ALCOAR]

PART II: LR testing #2 / 350yds Federal 62gr. Fusion


I think you guys should like this video....very violent

SBR ballistic testing @ 25/350yds...

Before:



After:



Penetration results:


Again no recovered projectiles....the angle of trajectory, and the very narrow window that must be hit in order to line up the shot to go through all jugs straightly is clearly f**king my world up. Count on a third try. The footage is still badass I think

[g5m]

More interesting info. Also, your linked video is good. Seeing the atmospheric disruption of the bullet's passage to the target is something I always enjoy seeing.

[Pappabear]

Trident, you could make one hell of chart ranking these bullets at 25 and 300 yards. Lotta work but it does tell a piece of information.

I want to test my SMK's just for grins. 69 and 77 grains. They are target bullets, but I am still interested. A 69 grain bullet would toast a coyote whether it opened or not. So I would like to see how they performed.

Nice work as usual.

PB

[Clint]

Sometimes things really surprise me when testing various stuff. Perfect example was me thinking that 2 complete jugs should be sufficient enough of medium in order to stop both the 55gr. TSX and 62gr. fusion rounds @ 300yds. I was very much incorrect, and every round blew through both jugs and out the back making them un-recoverable.

One early observation from distance testing them with reduced velocity is that I didn't see any of that awesome early upset/destruction of first jugs that I saw with them at 25yds.

This actually shouldn't be too surprising.

The impact velocity at 25 yards is above the expansion threshold.

The impact velocity at 300 yards is below the expansion threshold.

Let's do a Ballistic Calc,

Using some data from this link
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=73955

Assume muzzle velocity of 2250 fps from the 10.5", a BC of .308 and a minimum expansion velocity of ~1900 fps.

At 50 yards we have 2121 fps.

At 300 yards we have 1547 fps.

Even allowing down to 1800 fps to expand, this projectile is out of steam at that range.

Without expansion, deeper penetration, late yaw and inconsistent terminal effects should be expected.


ETA:

Max performance range for the 10.5" works out to be 125-150 yards.

Max performance range for a 16" works out to be 300 yards.

Try the 16" at 300 to confirm.

[the_1iviper]

this has been a great thread with some good info , thanks trident