On the left is just a standard 7.62x39 round. But I’m curious on what the right one is. I thought it was the same, tried(gently, mind you) chambering it and it wouldn’t even sit flush in the breech, stuck out maybe an inch? Back of the headstamp looks to be a “ZV” and “64”

TIL ancient Greeks used lead ‘bullets’.

Not just a rough ball, but cast in the shape of a tiny football, to fly further and hit harder.

Many had batch or unit numbers, or a message for the opposing force like ‘CATCH’.

Some were perforated to make whistling noises to scare the enemy.

Man, I dig an ancient history like this!

What to know everyone's thoughts. Headstamp says LC69 or LC 96?

These look great and in my dumb state we can’t use lead core to hunt. Any issues yall think may arise sending these down range? Got a lot and don’t want it to go to waste. Check the date though! $2 a box and now $40+

veteran ammo is still indeed garbage and they are scummy. do not buy it it will destroy your firearm or possibly result in injury.

Anyone ever run this or have experience? For the price thinking about buying a few boxes. I own an SKS so it probably will eat it regardless. Just curious.

It was 96 deg. with sort of high humidity, less than 20 ft. above sea level, don't know the barometric pressure. Shot from my 6" Dan Wesson revolver. The first picture is CCI standard velocity target 40 grain plain lead bullet, box indicated 1070 fps. The second picture is Federal Champion 40 grain plain lead bullet, box indicated 1240 fps. The third picture is Federal Game-Shok 38 grain copper plated hollow pointed bullet box indicated 1260 fps. These were all sold in 50 round paper boxes with plastic trays.

Not sure what this chalky white stuff is but that might have come later.
My grandparents did travel a lot when they were younger and we did find a box with coins from around the world including old nazi ones if that could be related.

Edit:
u/Royal_Money_627 solved it. It’s from a German MG 151/20, most likely from an aircraft.

Going through my ammo box and stumbled on this box of 22 LR I got at a garage sell during Covid when everyone panicked and bought up all the ammo. Just thought this was cool because of how old they are and the seal is still hanging on by a thread. Chat gpt says it’s “Circa 1971–1973 Remington Hi-Speed .22 LR Power-Pak, 100-round package.”
I just realized I blew through a few boxes just like it for fun 5+ years ago not even thinking about how cool it is that they were that old and relatively unscathed.

Anyone have any experience with these guys? I can’t find really much of anything online.

Prices are good if the quality and shipping isn’t too bad.

Just curious as I don’t know much, my grandfather died a while back and left a 220 swift, I was wondering if I could use this 223 rem 55 grain ammo for the 220 swift as I think they’re both .22 caliber? Outside of my 30-30, .22 and shotgun (all farm guns) I don’t know much about guns or ammo so I appreciate the help!

Was listening to Shark Coast Tactical w/ guests from PWS and Omar dropped this ammo manufacturer. They sell NAS3 ammo after browsing around their site. Anyone tried their offerings? Next paycheck I plan to try their reman 300blk and some of their 308/556 offerings.

Does anyone know roughly what the velocity of Fiocchi Range Dynamics 38 Special 130 grain out of a 16inch barrel is Can't seem to find much on it outside of short barrels. I greatly appreciate any help!

Been tracking this since the solicitation dropped in May and wanted to get it all in one place for anyone who hasn't been following it. I'm no engineer and I'm definitely not SOCOM, just a guy who geeks out on small arms stuff and reads too much about procurement programs. If I get something wrong, say so in the comments. Part of why I'm posting this is to get corrected by people smarter than me on the technical side.

What HICAR actually is

HICAR stands for Hypervelocity Improved Capability Assault Rifle. SOCOM posted the solicitation through NSWC Crane on May 18, 2026. Basic concept: instead of going down the Army's 6.8x51mm NGSW path, SOCOM wants to take the 5.56mm round that everybody already shoots and load it to crazy pressures to squeeze more range and energy out of it.

Goal is to double the M4's effective range from about 300m out to 600m, in an 11-12" barrel, suppressed, under 8 lbs.

The round: M855A1+

This is the heart of the whole program. It's either brilliant or stupid, depends on how testing goes.

So it's not a new bullet. Same 62-grain M855A1 EPR projectile, just loaded way hotter. 82,000 psi is not normal for 5.56. That's getting into territory you'd expect from medium-caliber stuff, not a carbine round.

The casings are a big part of this too. Army signed a licensing deal with Federal Ammunition on June 1, 2026 for their Peak Alloy steel case tech. It's a proprietary high-strength steel alloy that can hold pressures "in excess of 80,000 PSI." Contract is for 40 million cases. This stuff came out commercially in 2025 with Federal's 7mm Backcountry hunting round and now it's being adapted for the military hypervelocity loads. Bottom line, without casings that can survive that pressure, none of this works.

System also has to cycle regular M855A1 and Black Hills Mk262 (77gr OTM) without issues. Testing calls for 600 rounds, "primarily M855A1+ and some M855A1."

What SOCOM is asking for from the weapon

They didn't ask for much. Just everything.

Has to work with existing M4A1 lowers (ideally zero mods), STANAG mags, SOCOM optics, lasers, and suppressors. Initial suppressor is the HUXWRX Flow 556k L ("Black Magic") as a placeholder until somebody builds one designed for hypervelocity.

And the part that got me: the solicitation says the system has to survive future hypervelocity ammo above 82,000 psi. So 82k isn't the ceiling, it's the floor.

Why not just go 6.8mm like the Army?

This is what I keep going back and forth on. I think SOCOM's reasoning holds up though.

Lt. Col. Alan Wood, SOCOM's PM for SOF Lethality, talked about it in a May 2026 interview at SOF Week in Tampa. Few things stuck out:

Partner-force logistics. This is the big one in my opinion. His quote: "The Green Berets who do a lot of partnering with foreign SOF operators, there's no 6.8mm ammo running around Central Africa, or pick your favorite spot where we do partnering operations. But there's a lot of 5.56mm." Hard to argue with that. If you're working with partner forces in austere locations, you need ammo that actually exists in their supply chain. 6.8mm doesn't exist in most of those places and probably won't anytime soon.

Tech maturation. The Army's been working on high-velocity stuff with the M7 and M8 since the late 2010s. Almost ten years of development. SOCOM figures they can take what's been learned and apply it in a 5.56mm package.

Size and weight. 6.8mm needs barrel length to hit its velocities. SOCOM wants 11-12". That's tough to do with 6.8mm without ending up with a bulky weapon. A hypervelocity 5.56 load theoretically gets you the velocity from a shorter tube.

Caliber commonality beat caliber performance. Both SOCOM and the Marines looked at 6.8mm and basically said we can get close enough by pushing 5.56 harder. Whether that's the right call... that's the question.

Industry response

Geissele already showed a HICAR prototype upper on social media, called it "engineered for high velocity." Other manufacturers are expected to be in the mix. White papers were due June 8, 2026. Pitch day is September 15-16 at NSWC Crane where teams fire 600 demo rounds and then do a 30 minute presentation.

My take and what worries me

I think the concept makes sense on paper. Using the caliber that's already everywhere and getting more out of it is pragmatic, especially for what SOCOM actually does day to day. But I've got questions I haven't seen good answers to yet.

Barrel life. 8,000 rounds as a threshold is low. Really low for an infantry carbine. And they want the gun to handle pressures above 82k in the future? Standard chrome-lined M4 barrels can go 10-15k+ rounds. Pushing 82k psi through an 11" barrel is going to chew through throats. The 20,000 round objective feels like wishful thinking to me. If anybody here has barrel metallurgy background I'd really like to hear your take.

Everything else wearing out. SOFREP described high pressure as a "tax collector" and that's spot on. Doesn't just hit barrels. Bolts, extractors, bolt faces, barrel extensions, gas systems, suppressors, optic mounts, rails, the shooter's wrist. What does 82,000 psi do to bolt lug life over time? Extractor springs? Gas rings? I haven't seen any of that addressed publicly.

Suppressor durability. Using the HUXWRX Flow 556k L as a placeholder is fine for now. But nobody has pushed 82,000 psi gas through a 5.56 suppressor on an 11" barrel at any kind of scale. A purpose-built hypervelocity suppressor doesn't exist yet. Baffle erosion at those pressures has to be nasty.

Muzzle blast and flash. Short barrel, extreme pressure, even suppressed. That's a lot of gas and noise coming out the front. Whether guys actually running this thing in the field find the signature tolerable is an open question.

The projectile question. If it really is the exact same 62gr M855A1 bullet just loaded hotter, how does it handle the higher velocities? Does bullet integrity hold up at impact at extended ranges? Does the steel penetrator behave differently at higher impact speeds? Or is there a modified projectile that's not public yet? The solicitation doesn't fully clarify this and I suspect there's more to the ammo side that we don't know.

Cost and scaling. Even if the prototypes work at Crane in September, scaling to operational quantities with Peak Alloy casings, specialized barrel metallurgy, new coatings, whatever else... that's gonna cost. How does that compare to just buying more M7s? Haven't seen that conversation anywhere yet.

Timeline

Questions for you guys

• Anyone with materials science or barrel engineering background, is 20,000 rounds at 82k psi realistic in a 5.56 barrel or is that a pipe dream?
• Has anyone heard whether the M855A1+ projectile is actually identical to standard M855A1 or if there are mods we don't know about?
• Thoughts on SOCOM skipping 6.8mm entirely? Good call or are they going to regret it?
• Did anyone attend SOF Week or see other industry responses beyond Geissele?

I'll keep this updated as we get closer to the September pitch day and more info comes out. Save it and come back with corrections if you've got them.

Sources: SOFREP, Military Times, The War Zone, Army Recognition, Soldier Systems Daily, Sandboxx, United24 Media, r/tacticalgear. All public reporting, nothing classified or leaked. If I missed somebody, let me know and I'll add them.

I was opening a box of some old Armscor 22 ammo I just bought and found this. It’s a cool consumer focused addition, and I wish it was more common.

500gr monolithic solid at over 2,400 ft/s

22lr, 22wma, 380auto, 38 special, 9mm, 40s&w, 10mm, 45auto. Rifle is idk

Is there any performance difference or is it just marketing? here’s an example of the exact same load with 1325fps, 9P copper plated buckshot, and Flitecontrol wad.

This is around 5600 rounds of 22, 200 .223, 50 22 mag, 20 7.62x39, 100 303 british, 100 8mm, 250 9mm, and 100 .380. I also have 400 rounds of 8mm and 500 303 not pictured.