Current production HK 5.56mm rifles and mgs compatible with M855A1?

[Barn Owl Lover]

I know that early M27s had problems with the round (it tended to damage feed ramps) and most rifles that were used in the US Army's Individual Carbine program had issues with it, irrespective of manufacturer. But since M855A1 has been out for a while and FN and some European ammo makers are making their own versions of it, are rifles like newer 416s (A5 model onward) and the MG4 compatible with M855A1 or similar spec rounds?

 

[ghoulardi]

all NATO counties, which we are a part of, make rifles/MG as well as larger caliber weapons compatible to use NATO ammunition....whether it's 9mm, 5.56mm or 20mm, 120mm, 155mm etc.....

the whole concept of that is that one country's ammo can be used by other counties in their weapons

 

[AGG]

all NATO counties, which we are a part of, make rifles/MG as well as larger caliber weapons compatible to use NATO ammunition....whether it's 9mm, 5.56mm or 20mm, 120mm, 155mm etc.....

the whole concept of that is that one country's ammo can be used by other counties in their weapons

Just in case.

Tony

 

[Barn Owl Lover]

The reason I'm asking is that M855A1 (initially) was loaded to significantly higher chamber pressures vs SS109/M855. This caused issues with broken extractors and premature wear to bolt heads and barrels in the IC test rifles and M4s and M16s that were loaded with A1 ammo. Of course, the Army did change the specs of M855A1 to reduce the pressure spike and it works fine in M4s without any durability problems.

I did read that the early versions of the rounds caused issues in the M27 (based on the pre-A5 416) because the exposed steel bullet core tended to ding and gouge the feed ramps. I haven't heard any issues since the USMC standardized on M855A1 current production, and are also using updated mags.

It also has to be remembered that the SCAR was designed to use spec ops ammo like the Mk 318 and maybe over pressure 5.56mm and run with silencers. And the 416A5/A7/A8 are based on the 416 IC and are basically the production variant of it and incorporated lessons learned from the US Army IC program.

And I do believe that European companies are switching to M855A1 based rounds. I know that FN makes the SS109 Permax (steel cored ball EPR) and SS111 Propass (EPR AP) rounds, and from what I've read, Nammo/Lapua and MEN-DefenseTec are making similar rounds. Also, Austrailia in their F90 AUG-based rifles and New Zealand in their LMT MARS rifles use M855A1 as their preferred 5.56mm round.

Of course I'm pretty sure on the 7.62mm end that all NATO weapons can fire M80A1 safely. M80A1 is loaded the same pressures as M80/most commerical .308 ammo, and actually uses lighter bullets (130-135 grain vs 144-147), and is basically M855A1 scaled up to 7.62mm.

Granted, M855A1 is a big improvement on the M855/SS109 and M193 rounds. M855A1 tends to yaw and tumble more in soft targets (similar to the M193) while being more barrier blind/better at penetrating armor or cover (FN Permax can penetrate level 3 hard armor and Propass can deal with level 4 out to 300+yards), and though not match ammo, is a lot more accurate than previous 5.56mm ammo.