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.

M855/SS109 all has a 17gr steel penetrator. So does Greek black tip.

Magnets stick to M855.

Magnets don't stick to copper or lead.

Quoted: Magnets stick to M855. Magnets don't stick to copper or lead.

Yup, what he said.  When in doubt try the magnet.  All M-855/SS-109 ammo has the penetrator.


-K

Buy a small box and tear one projectile apart to prove him wrong.
American Ammunition 223 Remington 62 Grain SS109 Full Metal Jacket Box of 50 Price: $13.49
Lake City M855

When I took in the info I printed off I took in a M855 round I had "aquired" while serving in the Army, and of course he couldn't argue with the fact his range magnet stuck to the green tipped cartridge with the LC and the NATO cross stamped on it, but like I said, he said that when Federal et. al. manufacture M855, they also run "civilian" versions of the ammo at the same time on the same line and paint the tips green too. I tried to explain to him that "overruns" mean they made too much (hence the "over-run") and would therefore have the same projectile, but like I said, he stuck to his guns and insisted they make a green tipped, non-steel penetrator version for civilian consumption.

I just wanted to post this and see if anyone knew of any instances of this. I'm leaving the matter alone at the range as it's obvious this guy isn't going to see the light, but I was a bit pissed when a week later I saw a guy shooting a bunch of Wolf 5.56 on the range, and when I approached the range officer ( a different one) he said he knew the guy was using ammo with steel components, but he didn't have the heart to tell him he couldn't shoot it. Nice of him to do that since I've had them refuse to let me shoot steel cased, 100% copper jacketed Wolf (yes, you can buy that) because of their no steel policy.