5.56mm round

The 5.56mm round is a type of small guns ammunition found in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout Tactics, named after the size of the bullet's diameter.

Fallout 3
Relatively speaking, the 5.56mm round is the third most common small guns ammunition found in the game, compared to the .32 caliber round and 10mm round. After The Waters of Life, the 5.56 round becomes more common as enemies will use assault rifles more often than hunting rifles. The 5.56mm rounds' world model is a black banana magazine (resembling the magazines from the Chinese assault rifle).

Obtaining 5.56 rounds
5.56 rounds are typically found in raider, Talon Company, and super mutant camps. Notable areas to search include Downtown DC and the Metro tunnels underneath the Downtown area. However, 5.56 rounds appear to be scarce early in the game. Large amounts of 5.56 rounds can be acquired quickly through several means:


 * At Fort Independence, Brotherhood Outcast Casdin will trade technology items for 5.56 rounds, stimpaks, grenades, or Rad Away. It is notable that Casdin's subtitles incorrectly say ".556 ammo" instead of "5.56 ammo". See the unmarked quest The Outcast Collection Agent.


 * In the Fallout 3 add-on The Pitt, completing the quest Free Labor will unlock the the ammo press. Located in The Mill of the Pitt, the ammo press converts any ballistics-based firearm ammunition or scrap metal into any other type of ballistic firearm ammo, including 5.56 rounds.

Weapons using this ammunition

 * R91 assault rifle
 * Chinese assault rifle
 * Xuanlong assault rifle
 * Infiltrator
 * Perforator

Characteristics
5.56mm is a standard intermediate calibre rifle cartridge used in most military, hunting and sporting rifles. Traditionally magazine fed, they usually come in magazines of 30 rounds and are an extremely common round to be found. They can be bought in bulk from vendors for very little caps and are used in the majority of the Guns rifles.

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 property's of the round damage to the target is slightly reduced. However they can be rather hard to find and vendors almost never have more than 200 in stock at any given time.

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

.223 Caliber
A common commercial hunting round designed for Civilian use, most commonly used in Hunting small to intermediate game or used in Sporting Rifles for Target shooting. The 5.56mm was derived from the .223 but as a result, .223 ammunition does less damage due to a lower internal pressure, resulting in less stopping power and overall damage but increases it's chance at penetrating armor due to it's sharp nosed point. However, the round does less damage to a firearm due to lower pressure rate and more cleaner materials used in it's construction. Ammunition can be bought in bulk from Venders, usually between 20 to 100 rounds.

5.56mm Surplus
Surplus ammunition is poor grade ammunition made in larger quantities by using corrosive materials in their construction. The resulting process is a slightly more damaging round but at the cost of more regular maintenance on a firearm due to the highly damaging corrosive materials used in the rounds construction.

Used in

 * Light machine gun
 * Ratslayer
 * That gun
 * Varmint rifle
 * Service rifle
 * Marksman carbine
 * All-American

Weapons using this ammunition

 * M16A1
 * Ruger AC556F
 * XL70E3 Enfield
 * Steyr
 * Avenger minigun