Armor Piercing Rounds Legality

[1lostinspace]

can you get black tipped rounds in 5.56mm in california? I know everyone thinks that M855 is AP but can you get the black tipped?

[CD MCKINNEY]

I have some actual "5.56 black tip", but it is very rare, hard to find and quite expensive.
Also, it has very limited AP effect [compared to 7.62] as the light weight of the projectile
doesn't allow it to do all that much; though it is better than the M855.

I think the best round for the AR15 is the 75 or 77 gr OTM, which has good power and range;
remember the 5.56 was designed as an anti-personnel weapon and the 62 gr "green tip" was
only designed and intended to penetrate the thicker body armor the Russians were wearing
decades ago, so if you want real AP results 7.62x51 [or more] is the ticket.

[CSDGuy]

M855A1 (if you can get your hands on it yet) isn't exactly an AP round, but it's supposed to have some improved penetration capability over the M855 round.

[CD MCKINNEY]

The military is trying everything they can to not have to replace the 5.56-AR15, as it would be quite costly and the new M855A1 is still just a
"band-aid" to avoid going to a better round like the 6.8 SPC. There really isn't much more that can be done with the 5.56.

Now the 6.8 with some AP or semi-AP would be a nice step up from the 5.56, but the 7.62 will remain a much [much] better AP bullet.