AR15 Ammo Forum FAQ

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AR15 Ammo Forum FAQ

Zhukov

Does not play well with others

Joined Apr 2003
Posts 24708
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TX, USA

Posted: 7/14/2010 10:28:48 AM EST

[Last Edit: Zhukov]

AR15 Ammo Forum FAQs

BEST CHOICES FOR SELF DEFENSE AMMO. This is hopefully going to answer all your questions about what ammunition to pick for your rifle, pistol, or shotgun. Lists of well-performing ammunition are provided.
THE AMMO ORACLE - The original resource to learn about the .223/5.56 caliber, its history, development, and caveats. Even though it mostly centers around M193/M855 and omits some of the newer OTMs, it is a great read and everyone should go through it at least once. There's also a downloadable PDF version, although it may not be completely up-to-date. For the most complete line-up of CURRENT ammo recommended for self-defense, please refer to the post "BEST CHOICES FOR SELF-DEFENSE AMMO".
AMMUNITION REVIEW AND REFERENCE. Refer to this post for information about commercially available ammo. Reviews are generated by readers, and a ranking is provided to help you pick out the wheat from the chaff. Unfortunately, the number of manufacturers has grown to the point that keeping track of this list has become unwieldy, so the effort has been abandoned. You can read through the reviews, however, and see what makes some ammo better than others.
COLLECTED POSTS BY MOLON - THIS POST IS A MUST-READ. Arfcom member Molon has authored some incredibly informative posts about all kinds of ammo with detailed information about sighting in, shooting groups, accuracy, velocity, etc. There is a lot of information about the various heavy OTMs as well. This post pretty much deserves its own FAQ.

Sighting in and shooting for accuracy
Optics-specific evaluations and report
Miscellaneous technical information
Accuracy evaluations of various rifles
Ammunition reviews

COMBLOC/Steel-case AMMO FAQ - All you need to know about steel-case ammo, including "Is Wolf Ammo OK to shoot in my rifle?"
WHAT AMMO CAN I SHOOT IN MY Bushmaster/Colt/Armalite/Rock River/etc. RIFLE?
WHAT BULLET WEIGHT CAN IN SHOOT IN MY (1/7, 1/8, 1/9, etc.) RIFLE?
WHAT IS THE MOST ACCURATE AMMO FOR MY RIFLE?
WHAT DISTANCE SHOULD I ZERO MY RIFLE AT?You have several options to consider:

EXOTIC AMMO FAQ - answers your questions about ammo such as Extreme Shock, Glaser, RBCD, etc.
WOUND BALLISTICS - research papers that provide a wealth of information about bullet terminal performance.
BALLISTIC GELATIN EXPERIMENTS - data about the performance in ballistic gelatin for various types of ammo.
THE BOX O'TRUTH - Arfcom's own Old_Painless's website. Practical information for what happens when you shoot various things with different bullets. A very informative website - please make sure to check it out.
FACTORY LOAD VELOCITY DATA - database of factory load chrono results for many popular types of ammo
HEADSTAMP IDs - how to identify the ammunition manufacturer based on headstamp code
AMMUNITION CROSS-SECTIONS by wolfganggross. I've collected all the cool cross-sections of ammo that he's posted and hosted them on the Arfcom Ammo Server.
AMMUNITION VENDORS - list of dealers selling ammunition on the internet.
AR VARIANTS - forum for questions referring to AR's in calibers other than 5.56/.223
How to pack ammo on stripper clips in bandoleers into a .50 caliber ammo can - provided by Gloftoe
Suppressed 5.56 velocity loads from 10.5", 11.5", 12.5" and 14.5" rifles. - provided by Eagle_19er
SHOTGUN AMMO FAQ - Written by Old_Painless, and contains the most important information about what shot works best for self-defense.

If you discover a common question that isn't answered by this FAQ, or if you notice a problem with any of the links/outdated info, please contact moderators so that we can get that information added:
IM Eric802
IM brouhaha
IM Zhukov

Daddy loves you. Now go away.

AR15 Ammo Forum FAQ

AR-15 » Ammunition

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