A lot depends on the rifle. I have seen a Remington .223 Police 1/9 twist barrel blow off the extractor using 5.56 loads. For rifles marked .223 use .223 only.
A lot depends on the rifle. I have seen a Remington .223 Police 1/9 twist barrel blow off the extractor using 5.56 loads. For rifles marked .223 use .223 only.
Sunray, send a email to RCBS and tell them there is no such thing as a 5.56 die and there is no metric equivalent for a .223 cartridge.
The older M193 5.56 is loaded to 55,000 psi and the newer M885 round is loaded to 58,700 psi SAAMI testing standards. And this is why the SAAMI came out with their interchangeability warning in 1979 when the M885 cartridge was adopted by the U.S. military.
And the throat length of my two AR15 rifles are .0500 and the throat in my Savage .223 with a 1 in 9 twist is .0566 and "longer" than the AR15. It is the .223 rifles with a shorter .0250 throat with a 1 in 12 or 1 in 14 twist that will have a pressure spike when firing 5.56 ammo designed for a longer .0500 throat.
sunray, the link below was written just for you.
5.56 vs .223 – What You Know May Be Wrong
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/5-56-vs-223/
Below the .223 is rated for 55,000 psi "BUT" the green bar on the far left shows you that the factory .223 ammo was only loaded to just below 50,000 psi.
Lake City 5.56 brass is harder in the base and not thicker like 7.62 Lake City brass. As you can see below the majority of .223/5.56 cases are close to the same capacity. But the difference between the older Lapua cases at 28.0 grains of H2O capacity and the Lake City cases at 30.6 capacity can cause 6,000 psi difference in chamber pressure with the same powder charge.
I buy bulk once fired Lake City 5.56 brass for my AR15s and bolt action Savage .223 because the brass is harder and a higher quality than commercial .223 brass.
How Hard is Your Brass? 5.56 and .223 Rem Base Hardness Tests
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/...ardness-tests/
223 Rem + 223 AI Cartridge Guide
http://www.accurateshooter.com/cartridge-guides/223rem/
"...no metric equivalent for a .223 cartridge..." There isn't. Not that I said anything of the sort. However, .223" does not mathematically convert to 5.56mm for one. Converts to .218". (.308" doesn't convert to 7.62mm either.) And the 5.56NATO case is the same as a .223 Remington case.
Remington's marketing types agree with "The cases still are." anyway. Nor is the RCBS die set a 5.56NATO die set.
Spelling and grammar count!
GI brass from Jeff Bartlett is $100/1000 deprimed, primer pockets reamed, and polished.
$.35/round for brass is crazy. Midway will sell you 420 rounds of IMI brass for $160 ($.38 ea.) and it comes primed, polished, and loaded with a 62 gr SS109 bullet, and postage paid in a metal can.5.56mm NATO Just in: Recent shipment, once-fired, 95+% LC, a few SAWS (M249)
(223) brass, mixed dates, mostly LC10 and LC11. Nice brass,
Add $25/M to polish and process primer pocket.
Ttl Qty: 100 500 1M 5M
$ Cost: $10 $40 $75/M $350/5M
IMI Ammunition 5.56x45mm NATO 62 Grain M855 SS109 Penetrator Full Metal Jacket Boat Tail Ammo Can of 420 (14...
4.8 (45 Reviews)
Sale$159.99 & SHIPS FREE
Last edited by RED; 07-05-2017 at 07:59.