27June06

Frangible 223:

At a Patrol Rifle Course in the Midwest last week, we used frangible 223 ammunition. Because it doesn't strike our steel rifle targets with much fo rce, it doesn't generate the distinctive "thwack" sound that we h ave come to expect from ball ammunition. It is thus particularly unsatisfying, as hits and misses are difficult to distinguish.

In addition, we had many functional problem with our AR-15s. In several cases, the frangible bullet broke off at the case mouth during feeding. Th e errant bullet fragment then wedged in the bolt locking recesses, causing a subsequent failure to feed. Adding to our woes, "no-lead" primers proved unreliable. We tried to use up our entire supply of frangible, just to ge t rid of it, but eventually we had to switch over to ball, because we were squanderi ng too much time..

My opinion of frangible ammunition, particularly 223, remains negative! Compressed-dust bullets are not durable enough for any kind of serious use, and, even in training, they break in half, wasting much valuable training time i n the process. Leadless primers are unsatisfactory. I will never trust them .

/John