.556 ammo in .223 rifle - feedback

[BadAsMo]

My Target model says specifically 223 only. My Ranch 556.

Toemaeto Tomoto...

Unless your brass illustrates evidence of high pressure, it is safe to shoot in either 556 or 223 rifle.

Evidence of high pressure might be stiff bolt lift, really flattened primers, ruptured primers or primers falling out, and you can measure case expansion just forward of the rim.

All of this is a waste of time on factory produced ammo because it is well within the safe load parameter for both 556 and 223.

In other words, the brass itself tells you the pressure story, not the rifle you fire it in.

All this garbage about which one is "loaded hotter" is nonsense because the brass is the weakest link and over pressure would be evident in the fired brass regardless of which rifle you fired it in.

 

[Galt]

The 223 leade on the Mini Target is tighter and the 556 may cause potentially higher pressure..note it is potentially higher not always higher. It really depends on the ammo manufacturer and how close they stick to the 556 specs.
I shoot 62 gr in the target so it doesnt affect me.
But a blanket statement that it doesnt matter is not all of the story.

 

[Greenhorse six]

The 223 leade on the Mini Target is tighter

I think "Shorter" is a better way to say it for the difference in the leade between the .223 and 5.56 then tighter , tighter is kind of misleading , and for those of us who are unfamiliar with the term , its the gap the bullet jumps from the chamber to the rifling .

You stand more of a chance of having a issue with a out of spec round of ammo , be it .223 or 5.56 then you do from having trouble using 5.56 in a .223 chambered self loading rifle , as has already been said here more then a few times, just check your brass .

 

[Galt]

I think "Shorter" is a better way to say it for the difference in the leade between the .223 and 5.56 then tighter , tighter is kind of misleading , and for those of us who are unfamiliar with the term , its the gap the bullet jumps from the chamber to the rifling .

You stand more of a chance of having a issue with a out of spec round of ammo , be it .223 or 5.56 then you do from having trouble using 5.56 in a .223 chambered self loading rifle , as has already been said here more then a few times, just check your brass .

Yes shorter is better.. 223 is half the 556 leade.

 

[BadAsMo]

I'll humor you with this response even though I'm certain this will never actually happen with factory loads.

If the bullet is seated too long for your particular chamber you will know it.

When you try and close the bolt you will feel the resistance and you'd need to slam the bolt forward to close the bolt.

If you can close the bolt smoothly on the round and it feels no different than any other round when you close the bolt, then there is no problem with bullet seating depth and the round is safe to shoot.

If the bullet is actually seated too long and you feel that you need to apply extra force to close the bolt, it may not mean the round is not safe to shoot, but that depends oh how much resistance there is.

You can check this by measuring the over all length of the round and then chambering the round in your rifle, but don't fire it. Instead... extract the round and measure the over all length again.

If the round is now shorter than before you chambered it, then the throat in your rifle is too short for the round and you are "jamming the lands" which pushes the bullet back into the case. How much too short is now the concern.

If its just 0.001" to 0.010" I personally would not be concerned. If its more than 0.010" then (first of all I'd be shocked, get the defib) you could have a problem.

Having said all this I believe such a condition on factory loads would be extremely rare and only temporary I might add. This fictitious rifle is just too new. I say temporary because the throat wears with every shot. It could well be that after 200 or 300 shots the throat would wear and move forward enough that the problem would have gone away.

So the moral of this story is that if you actually have this problem, you don't shoot enough.