Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 55, or 62 grain?

Now I now that most of the guys here will only use Black Hills, TAP, or hand loaded ammo in their defensive carbines.

For those of us that are planning to have most of the set aside ammo in FMJ Military Surplus form, which would be the choice? XM193 55 grain ball, or M855 62 grain?

Long range is not my concern here, nor is hunting. Just CQB to medium ranges, and against soft skin targets.

I happen to prefer the 62, but any ammo over no ammo is good. 62s have been a bit more accurate in my guns, but my guns are set up for heavier bullets...

But at close ranges... I'm not so sure it matters.... personally I"d buy a bunch of brass, surplus powder and load up a bunch of 69s or 68s, hold back some 62 with penetrators just in case...

Sam, I use to prefer the 55's (hate 62's) but after reading some studies I started loading all 77's, they just work better.
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=19881
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=26905
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=57072

Sam, I don't reload anymore so I just use my standard varmit load which is a soft point 55 grain. I do have a bunch of 62's but the 55 grn SP's are my go to round for all sorts of varmits, 2 legged or 4.

The heavier bullet would make a better choice for a defence round against human targets

55 Soft points

This is my coice too, but my modified m-4 shoots them good, as does my CZ bolt gun. The m-4 is not my go to home defense gun though, and will mostly get used against Coyotes, Fox, and other less desirable critters... unless one breaks into my house, then I might use the M-4 on it.

If I was mainly concerned about CQB I would go with a heavy bullet, your not looking for long range accuracy, your gonna want connetic energy. Heavier/bigger is generally the winner in CQB. Same reason why many combat vets prefer .45ACP over 9MM parabellum; 45 has more knockdown power. 45 is slower but heavier and carries more energy, than the lighter faster 9mm. Not kocking the 9 though, I like them both for different reasons.

as I said, I am trying to decide on adding to the stocks of 55 grain ball, or 62 grain green tip.
I load a perfectly good 64 grain Winchester PP for hunting, but this question is not about hunting loads. I am not going to use this stuff for plinking, hunting or varmint control. This is strictly for 'what if', ya know?
I am not going to start loading 5 or 6 thousands of rounds of 77 grain SP or any other fancy rounds. I want military ball ammo.
I already have a 'modest' supply of both 55 and 62, but don't want to keep buying both.

The 4 AR rifles I have, as well as the Mini 14 and the AR180B all shoot both of those weights with good accuracy.

I wouldn't hesitate to grab a bunch of 55 SP even if its for SHTF scenario.... ball ammo just is not that good an ammo for shooting folks with generally... the folks running the 77 bthps in combat have proven how much better it works. I really wouldn't want to be hampered by FMJ even in a 7.62 round if I needed to kill folks.

AND... you should know this.. get you some good all around ammo.... even if its load up a ton of 64 sp bullets(no such thing as 77 sp) and you have dual duty, in SHTF.. you wouldn't be able to carry thousands of rounds, and those you have to kill will proably have a bunch of unfired ball if you need more....

If you're gonna make me pick tween the 2, I'd pick the 55's but it makes no sense to me to have a great load like your 64gr PP's and then choose a FMJ to defend your life with.

I got tired of remembering which gun is sighted for which ammo, now I just grab a mag and go. SHTF is not the time to be sighting in.

DOn't take much sighting in to shoot people out to 300 yards..

Ya they always stand out in the open giving you a clear shot...

Last I heard sighters weren't allowed.

never mind. I'll just buy another four or five K of each.:)

Kids over in the sand box are using ball, and it works there. Should work here as well.

55gr ball all the way. Green tip sucks, it won't work past 100 yd out of an M4. It'll fragment sometimes inside 100, so it isn't useless. 55gr will break at the cannelure the vast majority of the time and create a hellacious wound. SMK's or Bergers or Ballistic Tips would be better, but 55gr FMJ will git 'er done.

Last I heard, I was shooting service rifle almost exclusively where sighters were not allowed either...

You don't have to have much more than a basic zero to kill human size targets at 300 yards, and wind usually won't ding you for more than an edge hold worst case... and lead on movers at 300 for fast walk is typically half a body in front.... once you know that, and that the bullets do not drop more than 12 inches... IE dope on 4moa elevation you are good to go.

Past that it gets more interesting. Cover wise, I prefer to continue to fire. Concealment makes it tricky but I'll shoot where I think they are.... without shooting you have no chance...

The fire-breathers doing most of the killing are using 77gSMK's when they can get them. Green tip sucks.

Well, thank goodness my targets are coyotes and not bad guys. I stand by my decision to stick with one kind of ammo and not have a hunting load and a SD load, just doesn't make sense.

Not many can carry 5000 rounds on the move and anyone stationary won't last long enough to burn that much if the right team is upon them.

Odd, I've heard you speak of taking sighters more than once here.

Also they say it's a different ballgame when it's a two way range, I wouldn't want any more complications than I have to have. You know shooting at someone behind cover makes it a smaller target but if you're also behind cover and need to shoot flat on the ground or at an odd angle with bullets flying back at you...

I'm glad coyotes don't shoot back.

Sam, you're absolutely right, they are using 62 gr M855 but I doubt any would pick it over MK262 MOD 0 or MOD 1 if given the choice.

I'd still take 55's over 62's if forced to choose.
Sorry for the added input.

no problem TWR, and from the discussion here, and from reading other forums, I have pretty much decided that I'll stop buying the M855 62 grain, and channel my pack rat tendencies into the 55 grain.
I don't know of any source for the MK 262 ammunition in bulk. Certainly not any source with reasonable prices.
I have more than 600 rounds of the Winchester 64 grain SP loaded up and stacked in the safe.
I want to add to the stockpile though, and XM 193 is the most efficient way to go for me.

I am bewildered by this conversation. I understand the desire some have to stockpile vast amounts of ammunition; I have large(ish) amounts of components simply because it's cheaper to buy in bulk.

If I were to feel a need to stockpile ammo with the goal to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, it would definitely not be the 55gr or 62 gr FMJ ammo. The only reason the military uses that junk is because of the Hague treaties. With the fast twist rifles of today, that stuff acts like needles.

Comparing the military 9mm ball to 45 ball is one thing, how about comparing 9mm Gold Dots with 9mm ball ammo? I do not see why you SD ammo would be different than your hunting ammo, you have the same need and goal for both situations. The police does not use ball ammo, neither should you; you should use what the LE agencies use, not what the US Army uses.

Logically, you should be looking at getting the most lethal ammo that will function flawlessly in your rifles. I am partial to Swift Scirroco in my ARs for hunting but they are expensive. I also have lots of 77gr SMK bullets.