Does M855 "Green Tip" Ammo Live Up To The Hype?

By Bob Owens | 6:21 PM | August 23, 2015

Don’t get us wrong, we are absolutely opposed to the ATF’s attempts to ban M855. But that doesn’t mean that M855 is good ammo or that we have any interest in using it. Frankly, M855 is probably the worst military-issue 5.56mm ball ammo ever made.

The original 55 grain M193 ball had a tendency to tumble in the body and make effective wounds. The new Mk262 77 grain ball also destabilizes quickly, and has much better long-range energy retention than the M193. The M855 was designed to poke holes in Russian helmets in the Fulda Gap, and offers poor wounding ability and poor accuracy.

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com. Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun. He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.