I went to the indoor range the other day and started what's become a debate with the range officers. They explained they don't allow bullets with any steel components (including casing) on the range, so I said "OK, I guess you can't use green tip M855's here." He said they're fine, because they have no steel in them, which started the debate. The other range officer explained that he was a former Marine and no, M855 has no steel penetrator, only the AP round does. At that point I just gave up and left. I did print off some info for them the next time I went to the range (including info from a Marine TM), and when I showed it to the guy, he told me that yes, M855 DOES have a steel core, but not all M855 does. He said that they have "overruns" that they make available to civilians which don't have the steel penetrator but do have the green tips. At this point I gave up on him and left after shooting.
What I'd like to know is if this has any truth to it; Do they make green tips with no steel penetrator? I know they had been looking at an environmentally friendly round with a tungsten penetrator like the AP round, but this talk of running civilian runs along with military runs, and painting the tips of the non-steel rounds green and marketing them as M855 sounds like BS to me.