I have been trying to find some quality 5.56/.223 frangible ammo for law enforcement related training at ranges inside 100 yards that won't tear up my steel targets.
I have been using AR500 targets from Big Dog Steel. Ryan is excellent to deal with and his targets are great. I have been very happy with them. I shoot this steel with .308 fairly often and have experienced no problems whatsoever. The hit marks are almost non-existent except for the black streaks from splatter and heat.
Last year I found a deal on some Winchester Ranger Frangible and bought a bunch of it. When I took it to the range to test it out, I found that it caused more damage to the steel than I anticipated. I started up close (25 yards). The gouges way too deep for a round that I thought was designed for this type of shooting. I got curious and to compare, I shot FMJ alongside the frangible. I shot both at various ranges out 100 yards. Without exception, the frangible did more damage than the FMJ at all ranges.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac61/basagoitiar/P7080236.jpg
The one blackened "halo" shot at the upper left with very little damage was a .308 round. The larger gouges are frangible and the smaller gouges are FMJ 5.56. I returned the frangible ammo in trade for .308 match ammo.
Since then I have been testing out some other frangible ammo and thought I would pass along what I have found and to see if anyone has better ideas for what to use for the type of training that I want to do.
I have tested: Cor Bon MPG, RWS Copper Matrix NTF, Federal LE Ballisticlean, Speer Lawman RHT (must be the same as the Ballisticlean), and Fiocchi Frangible. Now this is not scientifically rigorous and wasn't meant to be as I only have small samples that I was able to obtain. Each of the above was tested at 10 yards on one new plate of AR500 steel.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac61/basagoitiar/P3270001.jpg
Unless I am mistaken the Federal, Speer and Fiocchi are loaded with SinterFire compressed copper bullets. The Cor Bon and RWS bullets are different. The RWS website says they manufacture their own bullets.
You'll see on the plate that the top two groups (3 rounds of RWS and 5 rounds of Cor Bon) did the least damage to the plate and it was significant enough to me to cause me to make one or both of these be my selected training ammunition. I would use either and selection will be based upon the cost at which I can obtain it.
The rest of the test shots were with SinterFire or similar type bullets. These loads cause more damage to the plate than I like. This may be typical performance, but I've not found much in the way of discussion on this topic and I have searched quite a bit. If it is typical performance, I am just ignorant to that fact.
Does anyone have experience or recommendations they would like to share?
I hope this helps others struggling with this same issue.
Thank you,
RB
I have been using AR500 targets from Big Dog Steel. Ryan is excellent to deal with and his targets are great. I have been very happy with them. I shoot this steel with .308 fairly often and have experienced no problems whatsoever. The hit marks are almost non-existent except for the black streaks from splatter and heat.
Last year I found a deal on some Winchester Ranger Frangible and bought a bunch of it. When I took it to the range to test it out, I found that it caused more damage to the steel than I anticipated. I started up close (25 yards). The gouges way too deep for a round that I thought was designed for this type of shooting. I got curious and to compare, I shot FMJ alongside the frangible. I shot both at various ranges out 100 yards. Without exception, the frangible did more damage than the FMJ at all ranges.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac61/basagoitiar/P7080236.jpg
The one blackened "halo" shot at the upper left with very little damage was a .308 round. The larger gouges are frangible and the smaller gouges are FMJ 5.56. I returned the frangible ammo in trade for .308 match ammo.
Since then I have been testing out some other frangible ammo and thought I would pass along what I have found and to see if anyone has better ideas for what to use for the type of training that I want to do.
I have tested: Cor Bon MPG, RWS Copper Matrix NTF, Federal LE Ballisticlean, Speer Lawman RHT (must be the same as the Ballisticlean), and Fiocchi Frangible. Now this is not scientifically rigorous and wasn't meant to be as I only have small samples that I was able to obtain. Each of the above was tested at 10 yards on one new plate of AR500 steel.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac61/basagoitiar/P3270001.jpg
Unless I am mistaken the Federal, Speer and Fiocchi are loaded with SinterFire compressed copper bullets. The Cor Bon and RWS bullets are different. The RWS website says they manufacture their own bullets.
You'll see on the plate that the top two groups (3 rounds of RWS and 5 rounds of Cor Bon) did the least damage to the plate and it was significant enough to me to cause me to make one or both of these be my selected training ammunition. I would use either and selection will be based upon the cost at which I can obtain it.
The rest of the test shots were with SinterFire or similar type bullets. These loads cause more damage to the plate than I like. This may be typical performance, but I've not found much in the way of discussion on this topic and I have searched quite a bit. If it is typical performance, I am just ignorant to that fact.
Does anyone have experience or recommendations they would like to share?
I hope this helps others struggling with this same issue.
Thank you,
RB
