Best AR-15 ammo

ggammell

Does not pass up an opportunity to criticize P&S.
@MikeIA will for sure have some info for you.

Also remember that most of the FBI labeled ammo avail on the market is essentially second quality.
 

Mike_IA

Regular Member
FBIT3 over golddot. fBIT3 passes all barriers in the FBI protocol, gold dot in my agency’s testing and other testing lacks in Sheetrock, Plywood, auto glass, and over penetrated in bare gelatin. My agency’s testing was held to FBI standards.
 

Hammer329

Newbie
FBIT3 over golddot. fBIT3 passes all barriers in the FBI protocol, gold dot in my agency’s testing and other testing lacks in Sheetrock, Plywood, auto glass, and over penetrated in bare gelatin. My agency’s testing was held to FBI standards.


What does your agency use now?
 

Mike_IA

Regular Member
Federal LE223T3 or Winchester 64grain Ranger Bonded as a backup. The LE223T3 is 223Rem pressure version of FBIT3 which I believe is 5.56 NATO pressure.
 

pointblank4445

Established
Not sure about others, but the 75gr gold dot has been disappointing and not exhibited the accuracy of other viable duty rounds or even its 62 gr little brother.
 

Mike_IA

Regular Member
If you have 5.56 barreled guns the 5.56 pressure ammo helps push the bullet a bit farther than 223 but that’s really it.
 

BJ Norris

Supreme Overlord of Customer Experience
Vendor
Another one to consider would be Nosler Bonded Defense. I did a lot of development and testing on ammo using that projectile when I was working for Freedom Munitions. Unfortunately, since we were loading it into a hunting round, I didn't get around to lab testing barrier performance when I had the facility available. That being said, we shot a lot of pigs and whitetail through the shoulder and never really had to chase anything. This reminds me to reach out to Nosler and see if they have any independent lab results.
 

Pat Tarrant

Custom testicles
Staff member
Moderator
From a non-military/LE perspective, I've been grabbing 75gr Gold Dots. They are more widely available, slightly less expensive, and perform well. The T3 load that I'm seeing available commercially is the XM556SBCT3, and because these are rejected from contract batches, I'm slightly concerned with what I'd be getting. My biggest concern with it though is commercial availability.

Right now, per ammoseek, there are 8 sites that have 75gr Gold Dot in stock.

For the 5.56 T3 62gr load, ammoseek does not see any sites with it in stock. There are some LE223 loads available though.

Cost, availability, and performance are three factors that need to be weighed for each person's needs. My needs may not match your's, so take the above in that light.
 

jaschul

Newbie
I have a couple of hundred rounds of both XM556SBCT3 and 75gr GDs. I'm looking for external ballistic data for both of them from a 11.5" and a 16" barrel so I can know my drops.

I'm also wondering if a 50/200 yard zero is even a possibility with either of these two rounds from my 11.5" - Any thoughts from someone who has experience with these cartridges in a 11.5?

Does anyone have any Chrono data and ballistic coefficients I can plug into shooterscalculator?
 
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