55 gr. vs 68 gr. .223 ammo

[Pony Express]

Hello everybody,
For hunting applications, at what range would the difference between a 55 gr .223 rem. cartridge be significantly weaker (on coyotes, for example) than a 68 gr bullet? i reckon either is plenty good for killing at the ranges i encounter coyotes (anywhere from 10-150 yds.) but im just wondering from a scientific standpoint. Also, i know the 68 gr. bullets carry more energy and thus have a greater effective range, why doesnt the military make 68 gr. ammo standard issue? other than winchester green tip the only military ammo i've seen is 55 gr.

Thanks,

 

[longdayjake]

Coyotes will not know the difference between a 55 grain and a 68 grain bullet. Depending on what gun you are shooting it out of the 55 grain bullet may give you more accuracy. I personally use 62 grain ss109 bullets for all my hunting needs.

 

[R.W.Dale]

I would expect much quicker kills with expanding 55 grain bullets vs a match 69grainer

 

[taliv]

i'm not a terminal ballistics expert, but offhand, i'd say SS109/M855 is the WORST ammo you could use for hunting. Assuming around 100 yrds and shorter, with full-power 55g M193 from a 16 (or preferably longer) barrel, I'd guess you'd be quite pleased. I wouldn't use one of the heavier OTM bullets, but something like hornady TAP or other ballistic tips would probably be very good, probably better than even the 55g.

 

[LeonCarr]

Something with a plastic tip, like the Ballistic Tip, Vmax, etc will put the smackdown on the Yotes. I would pick a 55 grain Ballistic Tip or Vmax over any match bullet for Coyotes.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Bruno2]

I was always told not to use the balistic tips on coyotes b/c they wont hold together when you hit a rib cage . The 62gr ss109 which wont fly as staight as a lead core bullet would probably only be recomended by somebody that was selling them . Any hollow point smk's are my favorite . I would not shoot a 68 gr bullet unless the twist was faster than a 1 in 10 .

 

[rangerruck]

I agree, a 55 grainer hollow point , or sps round, would be better than the 68, unless you could get it also in a hollow point, or soft point round as well.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Within 150 yards the coyote isn't going to care. I would pick whatever is most accurate for you.

Military now uses M855 which is a 62gr FMJ with a small steel penetrator. It goes through slightly more armor than M193, the prior standard. It still fragments violently but in a somewhat less predictable way. FWIW, I think this is all academic as the target will be unhappy unless they're behind hard cover, and none of the people who've come back from the sandbox since 2001 seem to have a problem with it. However, the comment that it tends to be less accurate is generally correct - more complicated internal construction means worse balance and less typical accuracy. For best accuracy the match bullets (52, 68/69, or 75/77gr) will likely be best. They also tend to fragment violently at the speeds that they should be going within the first 150 yards.

 

[PandaBearBG]

I am not a ballistics guru, why doesnt the military use 68 gr ammo? Well most engagements are usually <300 meters and IMO a higher energy projectile may cause over penetration. M193 is pretty stable and very effective in this range, if things need a bit more punch or distance M855 can be used. There is such a thing as too much bullet.

 

[longdayjake]

The 62gr ss109 which wont fly as staight as a lead core bullet would probably only be recomended by somebody that was selling them .

I didn't recommend them. If you read my post again I actually recommended the 55 grain over the 68 grain. I like the insinuation that I was just trying to sell bullets though. Its true that I have them for sale, but in no way was I suggesting that he buy them from me to hunt with. I simply was trying to say that when I hunt varmints (which I do a lot of) I use the ss109. I meant it mostly to stress that pretty much anything works for small animals out of a .223. Sorry if it sounded like a sales pitch. I personally agree that ss109 are about the worst hunting round but they work just as well. The only reason I use them is because I have a huge supply of them. As far as accuracy goes, I get about 1/2" from a ruger bolt action with them. I have consistently gotten kills at 200+ yards on rockchucks with them. I went to the 62 grain bullets after I saw what the 55 grain soft points do to a pelt. My loads are not anywhere near hot loads and I get great kill results. I load them with 23 or 23.5 grains of TAC.

Here is a video of my fox kill in 2007 with hornady 55 grain soft point. Yeah I know shot placement wasn't the best, but that fox was very dead in the time it took for us to walk the 75 or so yards to it. After skinning it the hole was like 5" wide. I have since gotten a scope for my rifle and the holes that the 62 grain bullets leave are dramatic but not so dramatic as that. For what its worth the ss109 were more accurate out of my gun than the 55 soft points, but that may have had more to do with the semi auto crunching of the point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=terKDXGTk0w

 

[Z-Michigan]

why doesnt the military use 68 gr ammo? Well most engagements are usually <300 meters and IMO a higher energy projectile may cause over penetration. M193 is pretty stable and very effective in this range, if things need a bit more punch or distance M855 can be used. There is such a thing as too much bullet.

I don't think that's it. The military does make very limited use of the 77gr OTM bullet in Mk262Mod1 ammo, which I guess a few lucky specops guys get; this is better at long range than any of the above.

No, I think M855 is used for three reasons:
*cost - FMJ is significantly cheaper than a match hollowpoint
*penetration - FMJ in general and M855 (with the SS109 bullet) in particular has more penetration than most OTM bullets, especially on armor. The military never cares about overpenetration that I know of.
*standardization - M855 matches the NATO standard agreed in the 1980's, and no one wants to reopen a standards debate on something as mundane as rifle ammo.

One could also speculate about legality since the match bullets are hollowpoints, but the US Army JAG has issued a memo stating that match OTM bullets are perfectly legal, basing this primarily on a claim that their wounding capabilities are the same as FMJ - which is dubious though not quite false, especially if the FMJ used for comparison is M193, M855, or West German 147gr .308 FMJ (which had a thin steel jacket and fragmented like the first two). Most FMJ ammo other than those three does not fragment.

 

[PandaBearBG]

Well I meant for the average infantry with the average M4/M16/M249. Special forces, who knows what they really use, and I know the new Designated Rifle man uses 6.8 or 6.5 or something, I just meant in general. I assumed the OP meant the majority of grunts out there, when you bring in the military's special forces with their smaller numbers and high areas of specialization, you can argue that forever. The average infantry man is gonna use M193/M855 and the average engagement range is around 300 m of course they can push it out to 500 with the standard issued rounds. This does not include snipers, spec ops, specialized units, etc.

By "too much bullet" I mean having a bullet with too much energy and just shoots right thru a target is ok, but the 5.56 is a light bullet that does most of it's damage from riccochet and bouncing around and tearing soft tissue. I believe the 55gr and 62 gr do a good high ration of taking a target down. Are kill shots the most desired shots? OF course, the military wants all shots to be kill shots. But with a light bullet if you miss something vital the bullet will take the target out, maybe not immediately but large internal wound cavities will bleed them out in the end.

 

[C-grunt]

Actually I'd say the 5.56 does most of its damage through yawing and fragmenting inside the target which the M855 still does and gives better hard surface penetration. We arent always going to be fighting insurgent and next we might end up fighting people who do employ some sort of chest rig that needs to be penetrated.

Also the Designated Marksmen either use a M14 using 7.62 or an accurized M16 using the 77 grn OTM round. No one in the "Big Green" uses 6.8 or 6.5.

 

[Art Eatman]

All I've shot with a .223 have been jackrabbits and coyotes, for "big game". Prairie dogs, of course, as well. I've pretty much only used 55-grain bullets.

Center-punch Wily in the ribs and he stays right there, generally.

 

[CZguy]

or an accurized M16 using the 77 grn OTM round.

What does OTM stand for?

 

[taliv]

open tip match

it's not *really* a "hollow point" even though there's a hole in the tip

 

[rcmodel]

at what range would the difference between a 55 gr .223 rem. cartridge be significantly weaker (on coyotes,

400 plus yards.

The optimum bullet weight for the .223 is actually 50 grain if you consider flat trajectory and explosiveness on coyotes.
However, the 55 is close enough and offers slightly better wind drift resistance.

Your best coyote load for as far as you can hit them is a 50 or 55 grain Hornady V-Max or Nosler Ballistic Tip, or Sierra Blitzking plastic tip bullet.

They offer a higher SD for the weight, and will get inside a coyote and explode as far as you can hit them.

68 grain bullets are going too slow to explosively expand, and will often just shoot a .22 cal hole through a coyote, allowing it to run off and die somewhere else.

The most common long range coyote shot is when they stop running and turn sideways to look back at you.
They are too thin sideways for any "tumbling" to take place with the heavy bullets.

rc

 

[Walkalong]

I tried 50 through 60 Gr bullets in the .222 Mag (Ballistic equivelant of .223) and settled on 50 & 55 Gr bullets. They shot about as well as a couple of 52 Gr "Match" bullets did, and are better for live targets. My .222 Mag has a 1 in 12 twist, so heavier bullets were out of the question anyway. That was shooting around about 400 yards and in.