Load choices for AR SBRs

[ST911]

I still have a bunch of the 64gr Gold Dots but it looks like those aren't made anymore. I'm not sure why, but Speer won't make a 5.56mm version. That would be clutch.

Odd they would stop producing them. Did they replace them with something else?

The 62 and 64 GDSPs coexisted for awhile, 62 was thought better* overall. There have been contract variants of the GDSPs that aren't commercially available and some of that info has been posted here and elsewhere. A 5.56 variant of the 62/64 would be beneficial to an SBR or pistol but less so in 14-20", the SBR need is thought to be met with the 75.

From a 16", the (.223) 62 #24445SP is ~2650. At that speed it's a very accurate load (~MOA) and does well in testing.

[okie]

What you would choose for a 10 inch SBR would be pretty different from what you would want from a PDW with a 5" barrel. Almost anything will work well with a 10" barrel, even the dreaded M855 green tip. About the only thing you want to avoid outright are the ballistic tip varmint bullets, as they fragment and fail to penetrate past a few inches. Pretty much any FMJ or bonded HP is going to get the job done. I think the Black Hills 77gr stuff is probably the gold standard, but Speer Gold Dot also seems to perform very well. That comes at a massive price premium, though, and at the end of the day it's probably unlikely to do anything in a human target that Lake City wouldn't do, as well. If you have a department that will foot the bill for anything you want, though, Black Hills is probably ideal.

Things change quite a bit with barrels under 10 inches. The best case scenario seems to be a solid copper bullet in the 40gr range. Very, very spendy, though. Surprisingly, the ballistic tip bullets start to kind of work from those barrel lengths because the velocity is starting to get low enough that they don't fragment on impact, and will penetrate pretty deep. Whether that's at all superior to 55gr M193 I have no idea. You might be just as well off with the cheaper M193 option. Suffice it to say, if you opt for something highly specialized like an AR PDW, you might just want to go into it expecting to pay out the nose for ammo.

[gaijin]

I run 64 or 75 gr. GD and 77 gr IMI m262 clone in my 11.5's for imagined SD.

[yoni]

Here is the question a 35 caliber bullet at 2300fps v a 5.56 bullet at 2300 fps.
Which has better stopping power or should they be about the same?

[WillBrink]

Here is the question a 35 caliber bullet at 2300fps v a 5.56 bullet at 2300 fps.
Which has better stopping power or should they be about the same?

That's one of those "on paper" I'd guess yes, but bullet design is a major variable and formal testing required to know what type of temp and perm cavities produced, against barriers, be it thick clothing, etc. Just as example, if the 5.56 yaws and fragments creating multiple wound tracks, and the 35c does not, then it's likely gonna drop goblins better all things being equal. But, unless designed to do so, 2300 is border line for yaw and too low for fragmentation from typical 5.56 FMJ, hence the various bullets in the vids designed to perform well from SBRs at those lower velocities. That's my non SME understanding.

[yoni]

I carried a 10.5 or a 11.5 gun for year with only one kind of ammo available to us. 55 grain, I never was concerned about its ability to kill guys. We never fired one shot and our ranges were 300 down to point blank. If I thought longer range was needed then I might throw my 20 inch upper in my back pack.

As civilians in the USA, I don't think the chance of a shot being longer away than let's say 150 and I base that on the distance where the first cop at Uvalde saw the scum bag. That would be a fast shot to drop the guy. Believe me that would have been the end even before it got started.

[WillBrink]

I carried a 10.5 or a 11.5 gun for year with only one kind of ammo available to us. 55 grain, I never was concerned about its ability to kill guys. We never fired one shot and our ranges were 300 down to point blank. If I thought longer range was needed then I might throw my 20 inch upper in my back pack.

As civilians in the USA, I don't think the chance of a shot being longer away than let's say 150 and I base that on the distance where the first cop at Uvalde saw the scum bag. That would be a fast shot to drop the guy. Believe me that would have been the end even before it got started.

I been making that point all along in the various threads to date, and the role of SBRs and PDWs for civies is SD/HD distances, and that's all I'm interested and concerned with personally. That's a different issue to that of LE and or mil, and they are far more likley to require a 100y shot legally taken. I understand those who want to be prepared for all possibilities, I tend to be a stats guy who prefers to focus on training, prep, etc for what most may have to deal with most of the time.

[Eurodriver]

My issue with the slow speed of the 64/62gr GDs is that I try to maintain consistency across rifles. I use those rounds for home defense, but home defense means something different for me than for somebody else. Home defense means shooting a coyote at 180+ yards off my back porch. I also like going coyote hunting which is 200+ all day long.

The speed sucks for that. I could always use two different cartridges, but why can't anyone make a faster 5.56 rated ~62gr bonded loaded round?

Once these gold dots run out, I'm just going to load my own.

[Disciple]

My issue with the slow speed of the 64/62gr GDs is that I try to maintain consistency across rifles. I use those rounds for home defense, but home defense means something different for me than for somebody else. Home defense means shooting a coyote at 180+ yards off my back porch. I also like going coyote hunting which is 200+ all day long.

What about the 55 grain Gold Dot as velocity is more respectable from those? Poor wind performance?

[ABNAK]

My issue with the slow speed of the 64/62gr GDs is that I try to maintain consistency across rifles. I use those rounds for home defense, but home defense means something different for me than for somebody else. Home defense means shooting a coyote at 180+ yards off my back porch. I also like going coyote hunting which is 200+ all day long.

The speed sucks for that. I could always use two different cartridges, but why can't anyone make a faster 5.56 rated ~62gr bonded loaded round?

Once these gold dots run out, I'm just going to load my own.

XM556SBCT3.....the vaunted "FBI load". Good luck finding it though. I have ~ 700rds of it bought prior to the current tom-foolery when the picken's were good. It's essentially the 62gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw JSP load at 5.56 pressure.

I also have about half that number of the 64gr Gold Dots. I too have wondered why Speer only did a limited run of 5.56 pressure loads then mostly went to .223.