15 Sport Ammo Questions

[sonofthebeach]

Have a new 15 Sport with 120 trouble-free rounds through it, and I'm having fun with the rifle.

I'd like to stock up on some range/practice ammo, and I understand from most comments on this forum that the M&P Sports are pretty much reliable with most any ammo run through them.

I'm looking at a description of Brown Bear 62 gr HP ammo on the SGAmmo website, and it's mentioning "62 grain magnetic hollow point with lead core" for one of its products.

First, I'm guessing that there's some iron mixed with lead in the bullet construction...and I'm wondering what significance this has.

Secondly, could somebody tell me if any .223 hollowpoint bullets moving at around 3000fps will actually expand, and if so, in what target material?

As you can see, I'm new to this caliber, and am wondering if the slightly increased cost of hollowpoint ammo is worth it.

Thanks.

 

[Dave B.]

I recently ordered 500 rounds ($140.00) of Silver Bear steel cased .223 FMJ 55gr. from Bulk Ammo for range/practice ammo to try out. It has worked fine with no FTF or FTE issues. I was hitting a steel upper torso silhouette at 200 yards today with my irons using that ammo.
So far I've run 420 rounds of Federal American Eagle 5.56 and about 220 rounds of that Silver Bear .223 without any issues. Buying hollow point for the range seems kinda pointless, IMO.

 

[robkarrob]

If you shoot at a particular range, check their rules regarding bullet types, as some ban steel. I'm not referring to the casing, but the projectile (bullet) that is fired at the target. Magnetic means the bullet contains steel.

Bob

 

[Pisgah]

These bullets have a lead core and a very mild steel jacket, copper plated.

 

[JaPes]

Russian manufacture polymer coated steel case ammunition typically uses bi-metal jacketed projectiles. The projectile is lead core, with a mild steel jacket that has been copper washed (thinly electro plated). I have not had any issues shooting this type of ammo through my 15-Sport or the AR I assembled myself. As Bob already stated, make sure whatever range you frequent allows the use of bi-metal jacketed ammo. All of the ranges within convenient driving distance from me have banned it's use.

Why do ranges ban bi-metal jacketed ammo? There are two reasons. First, the range gets a small additional revenue stream from selling brass cases. Steel cases can't be reloaded, they then have to be sorted from the brass cases. The cost of labor to sort steel from brass outweighs the profit from selling re-loadable brass cases. Second, the mild steel jacket can spark against a backstop. The spark can ignite range dust causing a fire.

IMO, the absolute best practice ammo is Wolf Gold:

https://www.wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=100001442&dir=18|830|845

I've shot a case of it. I have one case on hand and one case on order. Because I'm a reloader, I like the reloadable brass cases. I have a small bucket of cleaned, deprimed, resized brass ready for reloading.

 

[JaPes]

F.Y.I., a good web article on Brass v.s. Steel case ammo.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

 

[Dave B.]

JaPes.....good info on ammunition composition. We recently shot at a Lions Club public range and the great range masters there are always scooping up used cases and they deposit them in 5 gallon plastic buckets while people are shooting away. Everything including steel and aluminum cases are scooped up (maybe for safety reasons) and I assume sorted later. Do the awesome Lions Club folks who volunteer their time at the range and keep us all safe and educated sort the casings? I don't know yet but I'll find out next time we go. We have been shooting rogue out in the vast desert where we live and just went to this legit range this past Saturday. There is nothing in the range rules stating the use of steel cased ammo. They do, however, deny using armor piercing, tracer or incendiary ammunition. Nothing about using bi-metal projectiles. Maybe its because of the location, I don't know but will report back.
BTW, I was actually hitting a steel silhouette at 200 yds with iron sights (yes!)

 

[schgsd]

am wondering if the slightly increased cost of hollowpoint ammo is worth it.

Thanks.

Hollow point in this case is doing something different than in the HP defense rounds in handguns. As it was explained to me, in this case the hollow point bullet is creating a small cone of air in front of the bullet that helps stabilize it's flight path. It's not a mechanism for expansion in this case. The hollow point is being used to achieve tighter shot grouping. If you see one the "hollow" is way smaller than pistol hollow points.

 

[sonofthebeach]

Thanks all for your replies. Now I know what the deal is with using projectiles containing steel at some indoor ranges.

As for the hollow points, I agree that the size of the opening at the tip of the .223 reminds me of .22LR.

And schgsd, thanks for mentioning a secondary purpose of hollow points (stabilizing bullets in flight). I always wondered about Nosler HP's in .44mag, or in .45ACP...they seemed to be recommended more for target shooting, than expansion rounds for hunting.

A friend and I are going to place an order for some cases of Wolf Gold, and save the brass for reloading, (if I ever get into reloading the caliber). For plinking or casual target shooting, I doubt that I'll be able to justify the cost of components and time spent reloading against the relative low prices of case lots of commercial ammo.

Thanks again.

 

[JaPes]

Wolf Gold is loaded to NATO spec. It also has a crimped primer. Once you collect a bucket full of primer pocked crimped brass, you'll want to get yourself a bench mounted primer pocket swager.