5.56mm Round (Fallout: New Vegas)

The 5.56mm round is a type of ammunition in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics
The 5.56mm round, a high-velocity small-caliber rifle cartridge, is a general-purpose round for all guns, spanning the entire game's arsenal, from the early varmint rifle to the light machine gun. 5.56mm is common, light, cheap, easy to make, and is considered one of two "small rifle" cartridges, the other being 5mm.

Production
Standard and match hand load 5.56mm rounds can be crafted at a reloading bench. A single cartridge requires the following materials:

Breakdown
Breaking down a standard 5.56mm round yields:

5.56mm, armor piercing
Armor-piercing rounds are designed for punching through armor plating. For this purpose, they have a greatly strengthened case with a specially hardened and shaped nose. Due to the high muzzle velocity and penetrative properties of the round, damage to the target is slightly reduced.

5.56mm, hollow point
Hollowpoint bullets mushroom and break upon impact, causing massive trauma on fleshy, un-armored targets. However, this also means they break up when they hit things like armor plates, drastically reducing the weapon's penetrating power.

5.56mm, surplus
Surplus ammunition is poor-grade ammunition made in large quantities by using corrosive materials in their construction. The resulting product is a slightly more damaging round at the cost of more regular maintenance on a firearm due to the damaging corrosive materials used in the round's construction. This ammunition is usually much cheaper than regular ammunition and comes in bulk packaging.

5.56mm, match (hand load)
Introduced with the Gun Runners' Arsenal add-on, match ammunition is precision-made so that every bullet has the same powder, shape, and weight. Match ammunition is often used in tournaments, sight alignment, and sniping. This ammunition type is given a slight damage boost and a significant reduction in the weapons spread. It requires the Hand Loader perk to craft.

.223 round
A common commercial hunting round designed for civilian use, most commonly used in hunting small to mid-sized game. This ammunition does less damage, due to lower internal pressure, resulting in less stopping power. These rounds tend to put less stress on the chamber, resulting in better weapon durability. .223 ammunition can be bought in bulk from vendors. Prior to patch 1.3.0.452, these rounds had a -8 DT effect.

Locations

 * Most merchants who deal in weapons will have some 5.56 rounds in their inventory.
 * Most NCR troopers carry some 5.56mm rounds.
 * There are two boxes of surplus 5.56mm rounds at the end of the trench at the Fort.
 * traveling merchants commonly sell .223 caliber and 5.56mm rounds.
 * Vendortron at the Gun Runners kiosk.
 * Cliff Briscoe at the Novac gift shop.
 * Quartermaster Bardon in the Hoover Dam offices may sell around 2000 .223 caliber rounds from time to time.
 * Alexander at the 188 Trading Post usually sells these rounds.
 * Sunny Smiles will give the Courier around 160 rounds if asked about surviving in the desert.

Note
The world model for 5.56mm rounds is borrowed from Fallout 3 and is identical to the magazine of a Chinese assault rifle, though the weapon itself is not available in New Vegas.