The AR-15 was originally designed as a military rifle, so it was meant to shoot military ammunition – not all of which is safe to shoot at your local range. According to Brownells Gun Tech™ Caleb Savant, the M855 variant of 5.56 NATO has a steel core. It’s not technically an armor-piercing round, but it can damage steel targets and backstops pretty easily, so most public ranges don’t allow it. M855 is easy to identify because the bullet has a green tip. Other forms of .223 Remington or 5.56 NATO with plain copper jackets or polymer tips are OK to shoot at your local range. Red-tipped M856 and M856A1 military tracer rounds are prohibited by almost all ranges because they can start fires. Black-tipped M855A1 and M995 armor-piercing rounds are absolutely NOT OK to shoot at a civilian range! Right now in Summer 2021, 5.56 NATO / .223 ammo is still hard to come by, and you may be tempted to shoot some oddball stuff. So keep these rules in mind: Green-, red-, or black-tipped ammo = NO GO. Uncolored copper jackets or polymer tips = GO.
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A good way to check if your ammo is steel cored is to just run a magnet over it. If it sticks, not safe. If it doesn’t, it’s safe. A lot of military surplus rounds use steel too and don’t have green tips on them.
You couldn't be more wrong, the M855 will not penetrate as well as the M193 will. Speed kills and the velocity of the M193 are higher than M855.
Had a local indoor range burn down, tracers lit the rubber bullet stop on fire.
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My local range is cool with m855 because the instructors understand physics. 😏
I shot my green tips at my local range.
Lol, in 1983, I started a fire with tracers at the machine gun range in Camp Pendleton that burned almost 2/3 of the base.
M193 will ruin a steel target faster than m855. Velocity kills steel.
SS109 steel core is also magnetic and therefore not allowed at many ranges, especially indoor ranges. It is NOT green-tipped, though.
I feel like approximately 0 people have gotten their hands on any 855A1 or 995 and decided to go blast it at their local public range, but not a bad idea to mention them anyway.
Little flex with the belt of ammo?????
Glad my silver tip BMG ammo is good to go for the local range.
A local range around here had a major fire when someone shot tracers at their indoor range. Not good.
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If you're shooting M193 out of a 20" barrel you're causing more damage to steel than M855. Lol
I think you meant steel tip, not steel core. A hard steel core bullet meaning inside the jacket is armor piercing. The 5.56-mm ball M855 (A059) cartridge has a gilding, metal-jacketed, lead alloy core bullet with a steel penetrator.
https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m855.htm
M993/M995 is a tungsten carbide core bullet designed for piercing light armor. There are soft steel core bi metal bullets like commercial Tula that are not hard enough to pierce armor. Tula is not allowed on many indoor gun ranges also. Steel sparks or any sparks are a fire hazard.
https://www.nammo.com/product/our-products/ammunition/small-caliber-ammunition/5-56mm-series/5-56-mm-x-45-armor-piercing-3/
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Hey Caleb ! Should I clean ammunition with WD 40 before firing? 😆
Thank You’ll for information