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Exactly, which leads me to conclude that somehow my M4 bbl has a lot to do with it. Hence, the search for a replacement.I can't speak about the tracers. Your experience differs from mine and from "conventional wisdom."
What do you have now (bbl profile, lenz, twist)? No need to list all your 20-plus uppers/rifles , only a representative sample. Why? You've made me think hard about 55gr. I have only one AR platform rifle and I am not happy with it. If more are to come, I'd like to get on the right path now.If I could have just one AR it would have a 1:9 twist and it isn't any surprise that it's the most common now in off the shelf guns.
I started LR shooting with a 308Win bolt. Although 168SMK and 180gr Noslers do fine, I obtained best performance from 155gr silver scenars on a 1/11 24" bull bbl pushed at just under 2800 fps. There is something about driving that bullet as fast as possible to its target that seems to work wonders. I know this is different from the fast 55gr premise on the AR platform, but, this now is about external ballistics, not terminal ballistics.
Stoner had it right the first time. When going fast, the bullets blow to smiterines. If too slow fragment, then, it'd tumble. IIRC when the military moved to from 1/12 to 1/9, 55gr ball lost most of latter wounding capability (55gr ball is not particularly unstable IMH, like when compared to 5.45x39 7N6). Terminal ballistics relied mostly on fragmentation, which diminishes after just over 100 yd. But, that's from the top of my head... memory could be failing me...The .224 bullet in 5.56 is known to have some unique tumbling and breaking characteristics upon impact which causes wound channels beyond what common wisdom would expect. Those events don't happen without speed and they happen more or better with the shorter bullets as in 55 and 62gr, which is what the military happens to use.
What's your favorite 55gr HPBT bullet, that you handload for? Why?My best and favorite load out to 500 yds is a 55gr boat tail at 3150 fps, or about XM193.