What Is the All-Around Best 5.56mm Cartridge for the AR Platform?

By Len Waldron

Expert trainer Kyle Defoor recently traveled South Dakota to teach a class, and along the way he stopped to visit Jeff Hoffman, the founder of Black Hills Ammunition. While there, he had a specific question: What’s the best all-around 5.56mm cartridge for the AR platform?

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Black Hills 77-grain 5.56mm Match

“I have fired them all, from green-tip 55-grain rounds to much heavier 77-grain OTMs,” Defoor said. “I wanted some testing and data to back up what we were seeing in the field. Students always want one bullet, one knife or one rifle, which is unrealistic, but it’s worth thinking through what’s currently available and has the broadest utility.”

A two-hour conversation ensued. Hoffman and Black Hills have produced ammunition for civilian and government customers for more than 20 years, so he had a lot to say, and field and lab tests to back it up. The pair examined accuracy tests, ballistic gelatin, cycling reliability, fragmentation, penetration through various media and other factors. For example, Hoffman uses more than a dozen gels tests per load to get a consistent data set before he reaches conclusions.

5.56mm Cartridge Verdict

The Black Hills load using Barnes’ 62-grain TSX bullets was the all-around winner. …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life