re: AR guys- Which ammo do you prefer out of PMC .223 or Independence 5.56?

The stuff we chrono'd was (avg) 200 ft/sec. below NATO spec.

This was 18 months ago -- maybe ATK's doing better now, maybe we just had a bad batch, ??? The Independence ammo has been known as (I presume still is?) the promo line from ATK (which also owns Speer, Federal, et al).

I suspect there is more std. deviation in the low end "promo" ammo than in the "top quality" ammo, irrespective of the manufacturer. (e.g. more deviation in WWB than in Ranger-T).

Independence is good stuff. But I would still prefer (if given a choice) to rely on the Barnes bullets for possible social work, instead of the M193 type bullet.