A guy selling very large quanties of ammo at a gunshow tells me that the Fed XM193 is actually an expermental ammo (thus the X before the M193).  It was never intented for military use.  He says that Federal was testing there ammo on LC brass.  They were working the "bugs out" on this batch.  He said he didn't really care for it, the IMI(WIN 3131A) and true LC surplus is probably the best ammo. He seemed to know his business, or he could be an idiot.

OK, just telling you what the guy said, don't know if there's truth to it or not.
Anybody heard this?
SugarD

He's pretty much telling the truth.

Hmm... That may make it collectible. I have a case of XM1911 and it shoots very well.

From the ammo fac, (posted at the top of the ammmunition forum): www.ammo-oracle.com/


The Lake City Shutdown Story
(courtesy of Dave_G):
Alliant Techsystems assumed control of operations at Lake City AAP on April 3, 2000.  There was a lot of stuff laying around in the warehouses, components, loaded ammunition and what have you, that had been produced under Olin's operations.  Alliant wanted to get rid of all Olin materials, so they approached Federal.  About September, several ammunition distributors were approached by Federal and offered the XM193 5.56mm ammunition, produced in 2001.  Millions of rounds were sold, packaged in generic white boxes with the Federal logo on them.

Some of this ammunition may have been Olin-produced loaded ammunition of 2000 vintage that was never packaged and shipped.  It was just stored in those great big bins awaiting the orders that never came.  Some may have been new ammunition loaded from leftover Olin-produced components.  Still more may have production run startup and stop overruns.

In December, Alliant completed acquisition of Blout's Sporting Equipment Group, including Federal Cartridge.  Now Alliant was both operating the plant and selling XM193.

Then the Army steps in and halts deliveries.  The word is that it is over liability issues.

All the headstamps on the Federal XM193 ammunition mean is that the cases are stamped LC01 and were intended for use in 2001 ammunition production.  Cases intended for 2001 production can be manufactured in prior years and stored.  You should not consider that the XM193 headstamps have any meaning at all other than to identify the cases as having originally been intended for production of 2001 Lake City ammunition.

Mike

XM193 is commercial ammunition produced to M193 spec and on the same machinery used to produce military ammo.

The X is not a military eXperimental nomenclature any more than the Bushmaster XM15-E2S is an experimental military rifle .

The XM193 Ball I've shot has been superior ammunition, not "experimental."

-- Chuck

I'm on my 3rd case of XM193 now.  Shooting it in my LEGP 2002.

I don't have the chrono readings at the moment, but it was the best shooting and most consistant ammo out of about six different types of commercial stuff I tried.

But, like everything else, you have to try your weapon, with different ammo, to find what works best.  Each firearm has it's own sweet spot.  Just try them all and find what works best for you.

BTW, Win 3131A was absolute crap.  Velocities and groups were all over the place.

i would have to agree, partially, on the Q3131A. i would not go so far as to call it crap because i have not a had a round FTF or fail to load but the velocity out of my colt m4 14.5 barrel was only 2984 best and a low of 2914. not real impressed. i get better groups in the Bushy A2 barrel from some old PMC M193 ball ammo in the woodland box. also, 3131A is only marginally better than the Guat.

The good thing is.....

Blast it !

clean it up, and reload it.

build it for what you want it to do.

I have been shooting XM193 and Q3131A side by side out of a 20" Colt HBAR all summer.  Over the chrono the xm193 consistantly is 3220 to 3250 all summer--LOT1 and LOT2.  The Q3131A
is also consistant - 3150 FPS!!! Accuracy wise I can not see a noticable differance between the two.  As an aside, S.A. battlepack (love that stuff) PMC 1977 are consistantly over 3200FPS.

RL556 out

we need the ammo