# Walmart 5.56 ammo,,,,,What's inside the green box?



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I bought some 5.56 ammo at wall mart that came in an ammo can, The problem is it's sealed and you can't
see what's inside. For some reason I like to see what I'm buying. So I asked the clerk if it was boxed loose or 
what? He said all I know is it's on stripper clips. That leaves a lot questions about how it is packaged.
I bought a can and thought I would show you what's inside just in case you are considering buying a box 
and want to know if it is loose or boxed or what ever. 420 Rounds green tipped
It also comes with the loading tool for the magazine but it's not in the picture --oops





Now Elmer can take care of that pesky wabbit


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

The first thing I would do is look on the bottom of one of the rounds and see of it has a circle with a cross stamped in the case. It will also have LC for lake city stamped in it. The circle cross means that it passed all specifications for NATO.


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## Nathan Jefferson (May 11, 2013)

It's lake city thats what the LC in XM855LC1 stands for. M855 62gr penetrator tips. I can't remember exactly what the X stands for, either commercial production or somehow designated for non-military use but it is loaded to the same NATO/military standards. (I believe the X was introduced to track mil/non-mil lots - even though they are loaded on the same lines with the same components - back in the Slick Willy years when surplus ammo from the US mil was banned.)


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

rickkyw1720pf said:


> The first thing I would do is look on the bottom of one of the rounds and see of it has a circle with a cross stamped in the case. It will also have LC for lake city stamped in it. The circle cross means that it passed all specifications for NATO.


 Ok,, yes it has the circle with the cross,, To small for my cheap camera to get a picture of but it is there
And the LC is there also


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## whoppo (Nov 9, 2012)

What was the price, if I might ask...


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

whoppo said:


> What was the price, if I might ask...


$199 I know that may a little high but I needed the ammo.


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## Alpha-17 (Nov 16, 2012)

Federal equals Lake City for any military designated ammo. $200 for 420 rounds is a little steep, but not bad when you factor in the fact that you didn't have to worry about shipping costs or issues. Decent ammo, good buy.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

budgetprepp-n said:


> Ok,, yes it has the circle with the cross,, To small for my cheap camera to get a picture of but it is there
> And the LC is there also


Circle with cross means that it passed all military specifications so it is the exact ammo our soldiers is using.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

So, the ammo is good as long as you don't use it in a gun chambered for 223....


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Alpha-17 said:


> Federal equals Lake City for any military designated ammo. $200 for 420 rounds is a little steep, but not bad when you factor in the fact that you didn't have to worry about shipping costs or issues. Decent ammo, good buy.


 Yea,,, And you can pay cash


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

At Walmart today they had several boxes of federal 150rnds for $69.95 not to bad of a price, I just bought 1000 rnds from targetsports for $450 per 1000 free shipping.

Many people always speaks bad of Walmart but they may be the one that bring ammo back to a reasonable price. No body is going to buy from Cheaper Than Dirt's inflated price when they can buy it reasonable at Walmart. Now if they can just do the same thing for 22 LR's.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Wally in Tucson just had 1000 rounds of .223 FMJ by Federal for $399.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

paraquack said:


> Wally in Tucson just had 1000 rounds of .223 FMJ by Federal for $399.


I posted in another thread that as soon as I buy them at $450 for a 1000 they would go down in price and now it seems my luck is holding out.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Yea,, The can of ammo I bought for $199 for 420 rounds with an ammo can looks good now. 
That was the last time I saw the cans. I hope they come back

I wish I would have bought more than just one


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## wesley762 (Oct 23, 2012)

All the Walmart's in my area are out of stock of these. I think it's a very decent price, going to start watching the stores and might pick up a few of these.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

How do you think Uncle Wally got this ammo past the DHS and on the shelves? 
I don't think they really want us to have it do you?


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

I looked into this a little bit and I am thinking a couple of things based off my experience in the military.

The X in the XM designation is likely in reference to experimental or prototype load of the basic M855 load that meets Nato Standards. I need to do some checking on this to verify this suspicion. If this is the case that may be why you are seeing a lot of it on the civilian market cause it might not have passed muster with the military or the idea on that load was abandoned by the military for one reason or another...which doesn't take much for them to do.

Something else I noticed about the ammo was the lot number! It wasn't made by Lake City, but by a subcontractor for Lake City. The reason you may have the LC markings on the cases base is because LC supplied the brass to the sub contractor. I do not recognize that particular designation but it was clearly made by a subcontractor non the less.

SQM13H303S513

SQM = Designation identifying the company who made it.

13 = Year of manufacture

H = Month of Manufacture. In this case it was made in the month of August 2013. You can determine this by using the alphabit from A-M with I being skipped because it can be mistaken too easily as a 1 instead of I.

303 = Batch number of that run of ammo on that day through the loading press line.

L519 = I cant remember exactly what it is.

But all of these numbers combined I can acertain which exact manufacture made the ammo in question, which date it was made, which batch of ammo it is and which line that ammo was produced on and what exact day and shift! This is important for weapon types to know because if we have a problem with ammo we need to do an investigation and determine if there was a problem in the manufacturing process or with the components or with the weapon system in question. Depending on the circumstances of the investigation, a NAR (National Ammunition Reclassification) may be issued and the ammo restricted to use in training only, not for over head fire due to unreliable performance or condemned for use and if that happens it may be purged from the inventory and released to the civilian market for use as "surplus". Most of the military ammunition "surplus" you see on the market is not surplus at all but ammunition found to be unsuitable for the military for a number of reasons some pretty petty in nature. Sometimes the military will move to a new and improved load, there by relegating the previous milspec ammo "obolecent" not to be confused with "obsolete" which is completely different. Its rarely cause the military had too much! That sorta thing just doesn't happen very often.

Just some trivial pursuit....


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

Federal runs Lake City and when they make ammo for the civilian market they give it the x designation there is no difference. If your ammo has a circle with a cross in it than it met the same standards as what they make for the military. Surely people don't think all the millions of xm855 rnds they sell is defective ammo, modern equipment just isn't that bad. 

According to Federal, the X designation means it was produced for the commercial market. It is produced from new components, not spent brass or rejects as many like to say. 
Source: Federal Ammunition

I would be more concerned that it has the circle cross on it then the x designation.

Now I am not 100% sure on this but the x was add because of the Clinton ban from selling anything made for the military, one of the reasons you can't get surplus MREs anymore.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Wasn't implying that the ammo was jacked up and in some way defective, unsafe or used remanufactured components. There are a ton of reasons the military may contract a manufacture to produce something and then decide in mid stream before the full order is delivered that its in some way unsuitable for their purposes even though it has the circled cross stamp on it. For example, TZZ (Isreali Military Industries) head stamped ammo is often notorious for producing velocities for lots of ammo that will exceed the velocity standard by a few feet per a second to high of a percentage per a 1000 rounds and the military will reclassify it or dump it on the market or the manufacture will dump what its loaded on the market so as to not take a loss when the military cancels the contract. This often works well to the civilian markets advantage as the "problems" with this ammo is rarely a problem at all! Just our government splitting hairs more than anything. Indeed the X may in fact in this case be Federals way of indicating the ammo was destine for the civilian market from the get go. Its is very common in the world of weapons to indicate that this is a an experimental or test run of ammunition as well, as I have seen this often when dealing with AA&E while in the military. That might not be that case here with this ammo.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Back to the OP though...its good to see exactly what was in the box and how it was packed. That's some good information to know and something that could greatly benefit the rest of use so we don't have to buy it to find out. Thanks to your post I might buy a couple of boxes just to have a little of that on hand, get the ammo can and get the stripper clips! I am one of those folks that likes to see exactly what it I am getting anyways...Im kinda fruity like that!


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## Alpha-17 (Nov 16, 2012)

rickkyw1720pf said:


> According to Federal, the X designation means it was produced for the commercial market. It is produced from new components, not spent brass or rejects as many like to say.
> Source: Federal Ammunition
> 
> I would be more concerned that it has the circle cross on it then the x designation.
> ...


^----- This. While some of the Military reject lots end up on the commercial market, most really is contract overruns/commercially made ammo. Federal/ATK/Lake City aren't dumb; they know there's a buck to be made by selling cheap ammo on the Civilian market.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

Alpha-17 said:


> ^----- This. While some of the Military reject lots end up on the commercial market, most really is contract overruns/commercially made ammo. Federal/ATK/Lake City aren't dumb; they know there's a buck to be made by selling cheap ammo on the Civilian market.


c

Actually any ammo that doesn't meet spec is not sold on the market. All companies are worried about law suits and it just isn't worth it. If they have a bad batch then the components are pulled and then sold on the open market that is why you see pulled bullets and brass sold in bulk sometimes. I work in a auto factory and if a car has a defect found they don't remove the tires or take anything out of it they completely destroy everything engine, transmission, seats, radio, gps, everything it get crushed there is a small portion does go to school for teaching purpose but even they have a tag saying it is illegal to take on the road or sell even if it is just a small split in the door frame. You don't think when they make millions of bullets they are going to worry about losing a fraction of them. They just made a bad choice by using an X to designate lot that were ran for the civilian market, and don't forget they don't make the bullets unless buyers have already put the orders in. I don't understand people saying they are government over runs the government gives an order for so many rnds and that is how many they make do people think some one fell asleep and the machines made a couple of million to many. Some people say the are experimental or test, no body is going to make 80% of their bullets for testing or for experimental use maybe 1 in 100,000. I guess if they would have put a c instead of an x people would say that means it is Crappy ammo.


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## Alpha-17 (Nov 16, 2012)

I know some Federal ammo is in fact Government reject/out of spec ammo. I've purchased more than a few boxes of Federal T556TNB1 5.56 that have a sticker on them "Factory Seconds, Low Velocity" or "Factory Seconds, Visual Defects". Just because it is out of Military or contract specs doesn't mean it is out of safety specs, and can be sold as such.

As for the over runs, it just makes sense to keep making more bullets if they've got the materials. Why stop at the 1.2 million rounds the contract called for if you're already running the line, and it'll cost more to stop and switch to something else? Might as well make an even 1.5 and sell the extra. Happens quite a lot. Winchester did this a couple of years ago with a FBI contract for PDX-1/Ranger Bonded .40 cal JHPs. They ended up selling 50rd boxes cheaper than their flashy 20rd PDX-1 boxes, and it was the same bullet, only in a brass instead of Nickel case. I've got the expanded bullets to prove they're the same too. :roll:


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

I guess this is just one of those things that people disagree on and it has been brought up on just about every gun site sooner are latter, and I don't think anyone changed their mind.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

That is the ammo you want for your AR 5.56 16 inch barrel .
If you are looking to buy bulk, granted there are some custom loads that may do better but for the most part that is the stuff you want.


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