What is so bad about the 5.56 nato round

[Airborneranger4israel]

I have heard bad things about the 5.56 round. What is so bad about it and why is teh 6.somtin mm round better.

Also why is ISrael, and the US using it in their up and coming weapons (negev&xm-8)

[ExtraT]

I have heard bad things about the 5.56 round. What is so bad about it and why is teh 6.somtin mm round better.

Also why is ISrael, and the US using it in their up and coming weapons (negev&xm-8)

Negev is not an "up and coming". It's the standard light machine gun in the infantry right now.

[American Patriot]

The 5.56x45 is a good round as long as it does what's supposed to do.. fragment.

[Beowulf]

I have heard bad things about the 5.56 round. What is so bad about it and why is teh 6.somtin mm round better.

Also why is ISrael, and the US using it in their up and coming weapons (negev&xm-8)

M855 ball is not necessarily a "bad" round.

It can be very effective under certain conditions. The round usually makes a small entrance wound, after travelling about 5 inches it will yaw to 90 degrees and fracture breaking into 2 main pieces 60%/40%.

The 40% shatters and sprays fragment up to 3 inches radially away from the main wound tract. This cuts the flesh, and the normal effect of flesh expanding and contracting (temporary woubnd cavity) to a relatively small permanent cavity is disrupted by the cuts. This results in a much larger permanent wound cavity.

there are two problems:
1: the bullet leaves the body before travelling the 4.7" needed to cause yaw
2: the bullet lackes the necessary velocity to cause yaw. Anything less than 2500fps.

These two problems are highlighted by the use of shorter barrels on .556 weapons. (i.e. M4.) and decreased engagement ranges (i.e. urban fighting)
Clear as Mud?

edit: source Tacticalforums.com not a cut and paste, so I don't have a link

[front]

Have a read of the ammo oracle:

Everything you ever wanted to know about .223 and 5.56 (http://www.ammo-oracle.com/)

Really good page...

cheers

front

[Beowulf]

wow...tons of info on that page...[brains leak out of ears]

[Obergefreiter]

The ammo oricle is the best place to find info. It is a litle biased and tailored towards the members of AR15.com though.

The round is fine, but is velocity dependant. Get below the magic velocity, and it is quite in-effective.

The shorter the barrel, the shorter the effective range is.

The 6.8 is designed to replace the 5.56mm, but making it NATO standard is another thing.

[MEGR]

I like the 556. Its accurate, and carries decent power at a resonable range.. I've never shot a dude with it, but like it nonetheless.