M855A1 Accuracy and Velocity

[Chris F]

I appreciate the critical review and dissection of M855A1. I recall about 10 years back, the Army Ammo Development folks sent Rob Harbison to Camp Perry to demonstrate the capabilities of the new M855A1 round. Harbison is retired from the USAMU and shot on their International team against the Worlds best. He shot the CMP matches with a match service rifle and made very respectable showings with what was essentially combat ammo. I was optimistic with what we were equipping our soldiers with. I guess it lost something going into large scale production.

Army's newest general purpose round shows accuracy in rifle competition

The Army's new M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round is performing well under combat conditions in Afghanistan, but how does it stack up during a rifle competition?

www.army.mil

 

[sinister]

I coached an Army ROTC Combat Shooting Team at a Senior Military College from 2015 through 2020. We shot a bunch of M855A1 through M16A2s, M16A4s, and M4A1s at our home range, at Fort Benning, and various places in between.

It is better than M855 but is not a magic cartridge. At 400 Yards and beyond it gets blown around more in the wind than 77s.

You can load a decent stand-in using 69-grain Sierra Tipped Match Kings. I'd rather spend the money on Sierra 69s than a premium for "Meh"-performance ammo.

 

[TheHorta]

I coached an Army ROTC Combat Shooting Team at a Senior Military College from 2015 through 2020. We shot a bunch of M855A1 through M16A2s, M16A4s, and M4A1s at our home range, at Fort Benning, and various places in between.

It is better than M855 but is not a magic cartridge. At 400 Yards and beyond it gets blown around more in the wind than 77s.

You can load a decent stand-in using 69-grain Sierra Tipped Match Kings. I'd rather spend the money on Sierra 69s than a premium for "Meh"-performance ammo.

It was designed for improved barrier and body armor penetration along with an improvement over Green Tip in accuracy. A1 isn’t meant to directly compete with 262 or any precision round — even though Internet Lore made it sound like MK211 in 5.56 clothes.

If I were going into combat (and had to use a small caliber) I’d choose A1 over just about anything else because it chews through light armor and barriers and does gnarly things to living tissue.

If I need something effective out to 500+ yards, no 5.56 round would enter my head.

 

[sinister]

It was designed for improved barrier and body armor penetration along with an improvement over Green Tip in accuracy. A1 isn’t meant to directly compete with 262 or any precision round — even though Internet Lore made it sound like MK211 in 5.56 clothes.

If I were going into combat (and had to use a small caliber) I’d choose A1 over just about anything else because it chews through light armor and barriers and does gnarly things to living tissue.

If I need something effective out to 500+ yards, no 5.56 round would enter my head.

The original requirement was for a lead-free round to keep Massachusetts federal and National Guard small arms ranges from being closed as lead hazards. Whether or not it performs well against barriers and body armor was a coincidental benefit of the R&D, but not a stated requirement.

I'd take A1 to combat in a heartbeat over M855 or M193. No ammo is effective if I can't hit the target.

77s do well in combat to 500. That's not an academic argument.

 

[Plinker 73]

I have 3-4K rounds of the stuff. Not easy to get, but not hard either. Plenty available on Gunbroker. Price is a bit… steep.

View attachment 8092611

That looks to be Winchester loaded due to the collet crimp. I found some of that and it was more accurate than LC load in my informal testing.

 

[TheHorta]

That looks to be Winchester loaded due to the collet crimp. I found some of that and it was more accurate than LC load in my informal testing.

100% concur. I’ve tested both and the Win/crimped stuff is easily 1+ MOA tighter. I have about 2K of that and 4-5K of the LC.

Much prefer the Winchester/Olin. Clear improvement, but not nearly as much out there.

 

[bulletbluesky]

Any available long range (up to 1500 yards ) radar data (velocity vs distance) for M855A1 ?