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The Gun Zone 5.56 v. .223 Rem.

Similar but not the same

5.56/.223 Rem FAQ 5.56mm 'Timeline' 5.56mm Propellant Flechettes and SPIW Green Ammo

5.56mm v. 223 Remington

Deconfusing the issues of a couple of differences
SUMMER 2007 ADVISORY: With the increased demands for ammunition

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check ammo prices (and availability) lately? by the U.S. Military and the multi-national "war on terrorism," the regular suppliers of small arms munitions have gone to maximum capacity (double and triple work shifts, etc.) and new resources have been brought on-line. In some instances, Quality Control and Quality Assuance (QC / Q A) has suffered, and the issue of 5.56mm v. 223 Remington has taken on a greater significance. Not to unduly alarm anyone, but as always, "ya pays your money and takes your chances."

Almost a quarter of a century ago, SAAMI recognized potential problems with shooters assuming that the 5.56mm cartridge was identical to the commercially available .223 Remington round. Here is their 31 January 1979 release, with some minor errors corrected: With the appearance of full metal jacket military 5.56 ammunition on the commercial Market, it has come to the attention of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI) that the use of military 5.56mm ammunition in sporting rifles chambered for Caliber .223 Remington cartridges can lead to higherthan-normal chamber pressures and possible hazards for the firearm, its user and bystanders. Tests have confirmed that chamber pressures in a sporting rifle may be significantly higher in the same gun when using military 5.56mm ammunition rather than commercially loaded Caliber .223 Remington cartridges, according to SAAMI. SAAMI points out that chambers for military rifles have a different throat configuration than chambers for sporting firearms which, together with the full metal jacket of the military projectile, may account for the higher pressures which result when military ammunition is fired in a sporting chamber. SAAMI recommends that a firearm be fired only with the cartridge for which it is specifically chambered by the manufacturer.
In Rifle Do Not Use These

Guest Commentary
Walter Kuleck, author of The AR15 Complete Owner's Guide, informed the rec.guns newsgroup: .223 Remington and US 5.56mm ammunition are so similar that for all practical purposes the cartridge cases are interchangeable. The specifications for the loaded ammunition are subtly different, however. SAAMI proscribes the use of 5.56mm military ammunition in rifles chambered for .223 Remington, as explained in the FAQ article referenced.

Remington was the original manufacturer of the ".222 Special" ammunition designed by Gene

Chambered For 223 Remington

Cartridges 5.56mm Military 222 Remington 30 Carbine

Stoner for his AR-15 design. This cartridge design was standardized as 5.56mm (5.56x45mm) by the US Army. Concurrently, Remington added the cartridge to their product line as the ".223 Remington." However, there are small, subtle differences between the two. If you held the two cartridges side by side you'd never be able to tell. Army 5.56mm ammunition has more tolerance in the case neck diameter than the civilian SAAMI .223 Remington chamber drawing. It is possible to fire .223 Remington cartridges in 5.56mm chambers. It is also possible to fire 5.56mm cartridges in .223 Remington chambers, but the tighter civilian chamber spec may cause certain types or lots of 5.56mm ammunition to fit too tightly for proper function, if not safety.

Additionally, SAAMI's Unsafe Arms and Ammunition Combinations Technical Data Sheet page states: The .223 Remington is rated for a maximum of 50,000 CUP while the 5.56mm is rated for 60,000 CUP. That extra 10,000 CUP is likely sufficient to cause a failure in a chamber that's only rated for the "sporting" .223 Remington. The .223 Remington and the 5.56mm NATO, when checked with a chamber ream from a reliable manufacturer of each, also have discernable differences in the areas of freebore diameter, freebore length (leade) and angle of the throat.
SAAMI
Technical Office: P.O. Box 338 Branford CT 06405-0338

(Ironically, given the nature of the on-line confusion exhibited by .30 caliber shooters, no similar SAAMI advisory is given concerning 7.62 NATO beyond the fact that those who have rifles chambered in "308 Winchester" shouldn't attempt to shoot cartridges marked "7.62x39" or "300 Savage." Well, duh!) However, the estimable Clint McKee of Fulton Armory, has thoughtfully provided a brief monograph, The difference between 5.56mm and .223 Remington chambers in the AR-15-type rifle, which explains this issue in greater (but quite readable) detail. Olin's Winchester Ammunition site, in 2001, addressed this matter as well, in a concise monograph by Paul Nowak, and Randall Rausch has a number of excellent technical documents, with graphics displaying the differences between the two cartridges, available at AR15barrels.com. Of particular interest are headspace and reamer dimensions.

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Document History Publication: 09/01/2001 Last Revised: 08/10/2007

Further Views on "Differences"

At the October 2001 IALEFI Conference in Reno, Nevada, Giles Stock, retired from Phoenix Police Department after 20 years service, discussed the differences between the .223 Remington/SAAMI and 5.56mm/NATO rifle chambers. The long-time range master for handgun, rifle, carbine and shotgun at Gunsite and developer of the acclaimed Giles Tactical Sling suggested that, as a general rule, recreational rifles have the former, and military rifles the latter but there is some overlap, most notably in the popular Sturm Ruger Mini-14 which has been offered in both specifications! NATO chambers have a long leade1. SAAMI chambers are tighter and have a short leade. SAAMI chambers are designed for increased accuracy, but will yield dangerously high pressures in guns using military ammunition and/or which are subject to high volume

shooting. Under such high pressures, a primer may back out completely, drop into the action and cause the firearm to stop working. It has been suggested that an autoloading rifle utilizing a SAAMIspec chamber may increase risk of overpressure due to the tighter, shorter leade which retards the projectile somewhat as it is attempting to exit the case. Leave the SAMMI chambers to the a bolt action and single-shot rifles. ArmaLite, not the original, but the Eagle Arms pretenders, has its own views on the subject.

Winchester "White Box" Confusion

This has been making American shooters nuts for a number of years now particularly in the immediate aftermath of 11 September 2001 when there was a major run on 5.56mm ammunition. Winchester's "generic" or "budget" USA, or "white box," brand of ammunition actually has two different 55-grain FMJ rounds, and one has to look closely at the "small print" to discern the difference. For openers, in addition to the ATK-operated Lake City plant2, Winchester is also a primary supplier of M193 to the U.S. military. That particular X223R1 round is commercially available in the white USA box product encoded "Q3131." What few realize is that Israeli Military Industries (IMI), the sole supplier of ammo to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), also supplies their M193 as a subcontractor for Winchester; that round is often made available in the USA white boxes marked "Q3131A." By most reports, qualitatively, it is the same round and performs virtually the same as the home-grown variant.

1.- Leade is the distance the projectile of a chambered round must travel upon ignition before it enters the bore of a barrel. It is measured in thousandths of an inch, and is a datum of considerable interest to benchrest shooters.

2.- The government-owned, contractor-operated Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) in Independence, Missouri, is the largest (458 buildings on 3,935 acres) small-arms manufacturing plant in the world.
Founded in 1941, "Lake City" manufactures and proof-tests small arms (5.56mm - 20mm) munitions. It was initially operated by Remington Arms Company until 1985 when Olin Corporation bid and was awarded the contract to operate the facility. In 1999, Alliant TechSystems (ATK) in conjunction with Federal Cartridge Corporation won a ten-year contract to assume the operations. ATK subsequently acquired Federal Cartridge from Blount Sporting Goods Division.

by Dean Speir, formerly famous gunwriter.

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