".223" headstamped as 5.56

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PhantomXero

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Hello all,

I recently purchased a box of what was labelled .223. Upon opening the box I noticed that the ammo was all headstamped 5.56. What gives? Putting some 5.56 through my .223 could cause me some dangerous issues no?

Now, I am using a Steyr Scout .223 which is match grade. If I use 5.56 in a match .223 will that increase the risks even more?

Will using non-match (regular) grade ammo in my match grade gun have any adverse effects on the rifle such as excessive wear or anything?

If I have a choice between match grade steel cased ammo, or regular grade brass cased ammo, other than being able to reload the brass (I could reload the steel but that sounds like a bit of a PITA) and other than one is match and the other is not, will there be any advantage to using the brass over the steel (ie again, more wear with the steel ?)


Any assistance that could be given would be greatly appreciated.

PX
 
.223 and 5.56 are the same, one is just a NATO round, should be perfectly fine to use, is it American eagle by chance?

match ammo is just built with tighter tolerances, some rifles don't like factory ammo, like mine has a tight neck and when fired liked to stick in my chamber and not wanting to extract till it cooled after firing, I had to resize and shorten my neck from factory to make it fit and fire right

my preference is brass because I reload, steel is fine and ment to be throwaway, no wear issues more then usual with either
 
If it's boxed and sold as .223 it's fine to shoot. Some of the MFG's have used mil cases to load their commercial ammo before. I believe Hornady has used 5.56 Nato spec cases for some .223 loads before and I have some WWB 9mm that is loaded in Nato cases.
 
Thanks everyone for the info, I appreciate the input.

saskcop said:
5.56 and .223 are not the same. 5.56 NATO rounds such as the M193 are loaded to significantly higher pressures.
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As for the above, this is what I heard also. I heard that if you are running .223 through a 5.56 thats no problem generally, but going the other way putting 5.56 through a .223 could be catastrophic.
 
"catastrophic"??? Really???
Factory ammo is pretty much interchangeable, just like the 7.62/.308 discussed above. Does anyone really believe that ammo manufacturers would risk making .223 and 5.56 so different that the results of mixing them would be "catastrophic"?????
Nah.
 
They say to not switch them for liability reasons but any good firearm manufacturer proofs their products to a minimum of 125% SAAMI spec. Some go up to 160% to past 200%.

5.56 NATO is loaded to somewhat higher pressure than .223 Rem, not significantly. A stout handloaded .223 can easily match 5.56 NATO pressures and can even surpass it. Factory loaded ammo is generally relatively weak compared to what is possible with handloading within safe tolerances anyway. There are some differences in the dimensions of the chambers as shown in the thread stickied in the black and green rifle section but it's mostly just extra space in a 5.56 NATO chamber to allow for more fouling before a round wont chamber.

As for damage to a match grade rifle/barrel it wouldn't be an issue. There are some older surplus rounds you really don't want to fire through a match barrel but they are generally from com-block countries and are most commonly found in 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R.
 
LUTNIT said:
They say to not switch them for liability reasons but any good firearm manufacturer proofs their products to a minimum of 125% SAAMI spec. Some go up to 160% to past 200%.

5.56 NATO is loaded to somewhat higher pressure than .223 Rem, not significantly. A stout handloaded .223 can easily match 5.56 NATO pressures and can even surpass it. Factory loaded ammo is generally relatively weak compared to what is possible with handloading within safe tolerances anyway. There are some differences in the dimensions of the chambers as shown in the thread stickied in the black and green rifle section but it's mostly just extra space in a 5.56 NATO chamber to allow for more fouling before a round wont chamber.

As for damage to a match grade rifle/barrel it wouldn't be an issue. There are some older surplus rounds you really don't want to fire through a match barrel but they are generally from com-block countries and are most commonly found in 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info :)
 
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