Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles M855 Green Tip.....good, bad ugly

Ah, ok that makes sense then.

So it seems the current accuracy standards on the M855/XM855 is really no better than Russian steel-case blaster ammo in 5.56 or 7.62x39.

Just for the sake of the audience - a 6.8 MOA Mean Radius is a HELL of a lot bigger than a 6 or even 6.8 MOA extreme spread. Imagine a target where every shot was exactly 6.8 MOA from the group center. What you would see is a circle of shots 13.6 minutes in diameter, a group with an extreme spread of 13.6 MOA.

Formidolosus,
You're the guy in the know and I appreciate the sharing. I agree that my anecdote about M855 scoring well is a statistical artifact. ...it was interesting nonetheless that the experienced riflemen were able to center up and still put them down the middle where everyone else was complaining about poor accuracy.

Questions about A1; The early press releases were about M855A1 utilizing a composite tungsten slug behind the steel penetrator. Not true? There were also later bits about the hazards of tungsten potentially dooming 855A1. On the match accuracy front, there was a bit of hoopla about 7 or 8 years back where Rob Harbison, former AMU Olympic shooter was drafted out of his retirement by Picatinny to shoot at Camp Perry across the course with M855A1 and turned in some very respectable scores. More than respectable for someone shooting a mag length round all the way across to 600 yards. Hand picked lot? Pre production with high QC?

Form, I have a question. Knowing that M855A1 is so hard on guns, why do they continue to load it so hot?

Probably trying to get rifle velocity out of the M4.

I too seen the same jump in accuracy from a1,s to a2,s from entry in july 83 then going to Carson till early 86 and getting an A2 in germany.
In summer of 96 they started fielding m4,s to sqd leaders and above when I was a wpn sqd leader in the 187th
It pissed me off actually cause I had reach out and touch someone with a A2 and also designate targets long range with it with a nice long sight lenght/ radius.
Big difference in a 20 versus 14 inch barrel .
Eventually by early 98 every infantryman had a m4 in the 101st.


I prefer the A2 till this day.
But i also wanna put together ( notice how I didnt say build) a m4 w/socom Barrel for it stiffness just ta see how it runs.

We was actually getting ammunition at times in oif 1
Canadian and Israeli 855.
Pita retweaking zero,s on the fly during down time.

Haji set a huge fire in the brush by the division asp up by the airfeild in Mosul in early June 03
Schit was cooking off for about 7 hrs
Everything from small arms to 105,s
We had to redistribute ammo across the board division wide to even everyone out or prioritize for need based on unit mission.
Going from double basic load for each wpn system on hand and turning "extra" in really was a gut punch.
At times we was down to 90 rds of 5.56 per man
Saw and 240 ammo got real critical being used up for about a week.
They had ta ass rape the rear echelon units for ammo for the 3 Inf bde,s even after the initial redistribution.

It was a relief to resupplied after about 10 days.

Fortunately during that time no one was killed or wounded in my company due to lack of ammo.

I was in on OIF1 also. 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade, aka TASK FORCE TARAWA. We went in on the first day of the invasion. An Nasiriyah, Al Amarah, Al Kut, and some other places along the way.

Lots of shortages. Low ammo, water, food. For a while we were only getting 1 MRE per day. My stomach was already tight, so I didn't notice the lack of food…..grin.

Great memories.

Shortly before D-Day, at a meeting, I suggested that those of us with pistols should swap them out with rifles of those staying in the rear party, in northern Kuwait. The officers looked at me like I had a dick growing out of my forehead.

Wasn't long before everyone was carrying an M4 in lieu of a pistol. I was out of there by then.

I got a hold of about 8 boxes of fmj 55 grain bullets made by Remington and they shot all over the place.

On a whim i weighted them and most were lighter than 55 grains.

Problem was one couldn't tell where the weight came from;nose side or what.

I think i have a box left just to look at,they sucked.

I have a buddy who is a tanker he talked about how he rat holed 10k rounds of 7.62 in his tank. I forget how much 50 cal that had on hand.

Yep .... wouldnt change any of em for anything.

My company got attached to C co 1/ 72nd armored.
Our battalion and theirs got broke down into double company task forces like that.
We went thru Najaf, Karbala, al hilla, we fugged up alot of haji,s/ fedeyeen .
Went to baghdad after you guys and the 3rd ID did all the thunder runs. Stayed their about 2 weeks.

Then we went to Mosul for 7 months .
My company was the city center armed goons/ vice cops 3 platoon combat out post.
Never got rotated out like the rest of battalion and brigade . power vacuum schit....
We took kia,s and wia,s but dished out 10x more on them mutha fugga,s


All for fugging nothing now..... looking back on it......
The Chinese have oil exploration rights in iraq....
Cock sukka,s got mineral exploration rights in Afghanistan also....

Dude whenever I needed 7.62 for my 240,s I just went to sgt Howell in "war pig" C3 and got as much as I needed.
They always wanted grenades.
They learned a lesson in Karbala
About haji wanting to hitch a ride and asking their buds in other tanks to hose fugga,s off em .
Hahahaha!!!

Looking at ya like ya had a cock growing outta your forehead.


Lmfao!!!

I was a platoon sgt
Carried an m4 , 9mm in an underarm holster with 6 mags for it.
12 mags between my pouches and buttpack for the m4.
4 pds C4 , 6 grenades, belt of 240 cause I was with the tail gun in movement which most times came forward to maneuver with assualt element sqd or sqds.
All your fighting load schitt chow water clotting bandages , 3 iv,s
With starters.
My fugging pl and sqd ldrs,s and Joe's knew I would do anything they had to do.
I ran that platoon , raised up a 2lt under fire to be an excellent officer and leader.
He has a battalion command at ft drum last I heard.
I'm sure he tells real world stories about his platoon,s actions and people he had.

Which is good, cause experience needs to be passed on.
Been that way since valley forge.
Happened for me as a private at Carson with my 1st sqd ldr ssg earl Dunn black dude from NYC
173rd vet. He seen something in me .
I learned alot from that man.
To this day I will never forget how to set up a mechanical ambush with a claymore, commo wire, mre spoon and a 9v battery.
Also told me to read 7- 70 manual while taking my morning schit and you learn and not even know it till you need it.

I loved my platoon like kid brothers and sons.
We took 4 Kia and 11 wia during our year.
But dished out way fugging more than what we got.

I live a peaceful life now.

I fired 4 rds during desert storm.
Oif 1 probably upwards of 1500.

Another bud was a tanker in 3ID he would tell this story when they were taking small arms fire from this house in some chit hole village. He said they spun the turret put a cannister round and let her go. Then he starts laughing like a deviant kind of laugh and said that whole ph ucking house was gone leveled. And he just kept on laughing.. good ol Iraq 2003 was the wild ph ucking west.

We went in Najaf with 72nd tank behind a ww1 style rolling artillery barrage about 650m behind the rounds.
ROE was kill any adult Male wearing black.
I shot 2 dikheads using cell phones on roofs calling in 82,s on us in a school house the m1,s breached for us with the main gun.
Rounds stopped after that.
My mg team was pissed at me cause I didn't let them engage the dikheads.

North west side of Karbala when our other 2 battalions flushed the toliet bowl in that place after a week of us all "clearing" the place.
Our battalion and all of the brigades Dco/ tow companies set up blocking positions out of the city.

Fugging Turkey shoot.
It was basically a calfax
Apaches, tows, 50 cal, mk 19, line dog IN plt systems.
My javelin crews got in some shots on toyota,s filled up with haji,s.
Probably 250 300 dead trying to leave that place that day.

Iraqi army was fugging nonexistent ....
They fugging changed clothes and went home.
These were mostly fedeyeen foriegn types.

I gotta take a picture of a picture from Karbala

Hahaha!!!

Thinking about karbala.
I had ta dig this picture out.
We assualted this fortified school house the day prior.
Bradley's pretty much did it with the 25,s.
We went in cleared the building found 3 Kia pretty well chewed up.
Had some down time the next day.
I went and took a dump in a room .
Found some fugged up helmet in a corner
Went and told spc shields a javelin gunner to get his camera and just be ready and stand right their
Grabbed my pro mask went inside put my sand filled dusty as fugg pro mask on and the fugged up Darth Vader looking helmet and made my appearance.

Lmfao!!!
My company commander and pl, Cpt Stanton and Lt Hobbs
Are behind shields dying laughing
SPC Evan's is on the right, my rear 240 gunner
One of my sqd ldrs ssg howdakowski on left.

Good times!!!!!

Then 1st Armor Division was coming to Iraq late 2003 to save it, from itself. The division at the time with the most experience at peace keeping (bosnia). Then chit spiraled out of control soon after, roe went to shoot at anyone that looks like a threat etc. we had to my log pac runs from Baghdad to Kuwait every month. We roll into camp Doha at 2300 hit the midnight chow hall. Looking like refugees, dcus faded, nasty. Meanwhile camp Doha finest in pressed uniforms setting next to us. We start talking about the run down from Baghdad. They would always get and move somewhere else. I remember msr Tampa when the 82d airborne showed up roms (refuel on the move sights) set up connex with the 82d logo. Then 4th ID finally showed the Ivy in full display. It was truly an eye opening experience to see the worlds most powerful army storied divisions show up in one big ol chitty chit hole. For the party

I recall on our way out of there we got a ride from Al Kut to Kuwait on a Marine Corps C-130, then after some delay, we took Marine CH-53's back out to the mother ship (LHD3 USS Kearsearge).

We were filthy of course, and during our few hour delay in Kuwait the USAF invited us to eat in their chow hall. It was awesome, like a stateside buffet or something. Really clean and classy. I'm surprised they even wanted us in there, but I have to say they were really giving us good hospitality. The USAF were clean and tidy...I think they felt we were some kind of savages they were not accustomed to...….kinda funny.