SHOT 2022: Maxim Defense Frangible 5.56

The term frangible means something special when it comes to ammunition. Frangible ammunition identifies the projectile as such that breaks apart when it impacts a hard object. But complications arise, as the materials that typically make an object fragile enough to disintegrate rarely make a good bullet, until today.

Maxim Defense, the company behind the super-short-but-effective MDX, has just released their latest ammunition that does the impossible. A military protocol has long dictated that the minimum safe distance for shooting at a steel target with a 5.56 carbine is 25 meters. With Maxim Defense's newest 5.56 ammunition that distance is functionally 0 feet.

But that would make a great training round if not for its performance out of the barrel. The 40-grain projectile leaves the barrel at 3150 feet per second giving it an effective range by terminal ballistics of at least 300 meters. Upon hitting steel, the copper-polymer slurry disintegrates immediately, with no sprawling to impact the shooter.

Maxim Defense has just officially launched the new 5.56 frangible round, and is available on their website at maximdefense.com/product-category/ammunition/5-56/

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