5.56 x 45 M855 (green tip)

45forme

I see this sold as Winchester M855 (white box), Winchester Ranger M855, Federal American Eagle XM855, Federal American Eagle XM855F, and Lake City Brass bulk.

These have the nato headstamp & a green painted tip, and are supposedly the exact same ammo as is issued to the US Army.

The question I have is: Are these surplus (i.e. good quality), QC rejects, or are they a civilian (i.e. tuned down) version of the M855?

How do you tell the difference?

Would it be better to go with a foriegn Nato round like PRVI or IMI?

(SHTF ammo)

Thanks

Tim

11b6r

Overruns. Produced, but not ordered by the DoD, so gets sold on the civilian market. Due to liabilities, I know of NO maker of ammo that will sell "rejects".

TANK78Z

slightly off topic, but, CCI , does sell seconds of its 22 ammo . and Federal has recently sold .40 S&W as seconds. the factory says they may not meet strict velocity,accuracy, or cosmetic specs but are safe to shoot and use as practice ammo. other calibers are offered occasionally, and usually in" small" quantities. I bought a case of 4,200 ( 21 boxes of 200) CCI 22 H-V mini-mags seconds, they had slightly discolored cases and a heavy coat of "wax" on the bullet, they shot just as good as their normal ammo. and cost .054 cents a round (5.40 per hundred) delivered to my door.

MrM1A1

Many companies sell "Factory Seconds". I wouldn't call them rejects, and they have shot just fine in both pistols and rifles for me.
About the ammo in question, the M855 that I have encountered have been in loose bags of 500rds and are advertised as either factory seconds or just general DOD milsurp. Hard to tell the difference, but I think I remember the Federal boxes of 500rds were factory seconds. Most that I see comes from Lake City. Not sure about the Winchester, but I've shot the Federal and the Lake City and they both functioned fine and were reasonably accurate IMHO.[;)]

laylandad

Here is some info copied directly from Federal's website.

XM193 product is first run, first quality product manufactured at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant for Federal Cartridge and is made to Federal specifications typical for commercial ammunition.

All XM193 product is the same regardless of the sku or part number. (ie. XM193C is the same as XM193F, XM193CBP and etc.) The only difference is the package configuration.

http://www.federalpremium.com/resources/xm193.aspx


I emailed them, and they replied that the M855, XM855, and all other variants were indeed factory firsts, but that they were contract overruns. The ammo is not second quality.

sandwarrior

45sforme,

This is the standard 62 gr. mil ammo with the steel core penetrator. I don't know why the military nomenclature didn't change when they took out the steel core for more lethality. But, it didn't. It used to be when you bought this stuff it was called SS109 (even though it carried the mil number M855)

jeffb1911

SS109 is what the Swiss (IIRC) called it when they originally designed it. Our number is M855. M856 is the tracer, M857 something else, etc. Basically SS109 and M855 are the same round, but different names for different countries.