These are my impressions of 5.56mm ammo as I saw them in Iraq. First about 90% of our engagements happened near or in structures and the rest near roads thanks to IEDs or vehicle ambushes. We usually had a vehicle of some sort close by whether HMMVW, Bradley, M1 etc. Only rarely were we away on a patrol without a vehicle overwatch, and then we were always within indirect or CAS coverage, so this may affect my views. I have to say that most of the hajis we engaged were killed or stopped by M240, M2, 25mm, MK19 or even 120mm. Since the hajis hide in buildings and behind things like cars, walls, and other junk found on Iraqi streets they can be hard to hit with only things like their head briefly exposed if they feel like aiming that day. The M855 performed well inside where the ranges were 15m or less (except for making me deaf). But in street fights, on rooftops, in alleys etc. it seemed to be wanting. Shooting at cars, walls, doors and things of that sort where haji hides it didn’t perform well. We ended up basically using it to suppress with our M4s and SAWs while a 240 or larger weapon could be brought to bear. On the roof of our CMIC with fields of fire out to 1k in some directions it was about useless to have a 5.56 weapon, even the SAW mostly. Haji rocket and mortar teams would always be several hundred meters away when we could get a fix on them. They would never come up close and most engagements were at night. We hit guys at ranges between 1m and 200-250m with our M4s and the haji usually stopped fighting, but not being able to get hits through barriers was the problem. Some hajis do stand in the open and blaze away on occasion (showing their manhood or stupidity), but not often. They get lit up so when you’re struck with like 40 rounds of anything they get the job done. Having to move up closer to use an M4 is not fun when the hajis are shooting back. Hence our preference to basically suppress them and use a larger caliber weapon to end it. The effect of M855 on doped up hajis is in doubt from what I saw. Its hard to get head shoots in most fights so parts that were exposed is what we aimed at. It also seemed wanting when we looked over a dead guy that had armor on (later turned out he was Chechen) only a head shoot looked to have put him down. This guy was probably 150-200m from us. Speed+armor is a bad recipe in a street fight with M855 unless your close, not where I prefer to be on a two-way range. So I have a basically poor view of M855 except for limited close range use. The redeeming value of the steel penetrator seems to be in question also. I have to say if you’re under 50m with M855 in an M4 you’re good, even on Level III armor, but over that it’s a crap shoot. I’m just glad I didn’t roll snake eyes.
PS-Mk262 is better in some situations, but it’s not that great either. Maybe if I’d had an SPR I’d feel different.