Replies

I think those have the steel core in them, but even so 5.56mm isn’t enough knock down power. A steel core might penetrate well but will have a tendency to over penetrate. If that steel core could be have a hollow point that ammo would rock.

7.62mm/.308 cal. is the best. I’ve read way too many war stories about the 5.56mm not getting the job done and the enemy shakes off the hits and just keeps on coming. It’s kinda like the 9mm and the .45 cal. rounds. Again the 9mm just doesn’t have the knock down power like that of the .45. Cops have had many run-ins with drug-crazed criminals who take five or six 9mm rounds and they just keep on going. Why do you think the .40 and .45 caliber pistols have become popular again with law enforcement?

When you have a drug-crazed criminal on the street or in the high mountains with drug-crazed Muzzies in another country you have to have confidence that your gun and ammo are going to do the job intended.

I know a former Army Ranger who was in Vietnam who would go out on patrol and exchange his M16 for an AK-47 he took off of a dead NVA or Vietcong he had stashed away simply because it had a longer effective range and had better knock down power. Not as accurate as an M16 but the gun proved itself in jungle warfare.

With proper bullet selection the 5.56 cartridge has plenty of killing power. A 62 grain soft or hollow point does some serious tissue damage. Hollow points tend to expand very rapidly and almost explode in tissue, but you don't get a lot of penetration.

The soft points penetrate further and also expand rapidly doing devastating damage on a target. Don't discount the ability of the 5.56 to rapidly incapacitate providing you pick the proper bullet for the task at hand. You also need to remember that at 100 yards a 5.56 bullet has as much energy as the venerable .45 ACP does at the muzzle.

Now us civilian types aren't limited to those crappy FMJ steel core rounds our military guys are. Those steel core bullets do indeed penetrate like crazy. That's what they were designed for. But they're a lot like pushing a pencil through a bad guy. But I guarantee that if you hit a bad guy with a 62 grain PSP 5.56 center mass there will be a decidedly different outcome.

So if you're a civilian and own an M4gery of some kind just be sure you get decent ammo for it and it'll do the job.

The 7.62 AK round is better at penetrating jungle growth than the lighter 5.56 round, but the 5.56 used today is a 62 grain bullet fired through a 1:7 twist bore.

The 55 grain bullet fired through the 1:12 twist M16s used in Vietnam created massive wounds because the bullets were not as stable as the modern NATO load, and they tumbled on impact.