KNOW THE FACTS BEFORE YOU FIRE THERE REALLY A DIFFERENCE? » BY NED CHRISTIANSEN Ce eer Ens eee a ert eet ened eet ae ete Aas Ten years ago, when an acquaintance suggested that there was a difference between the .223 Remington and 5,56x45mm NATO calibers, | didn't believe it. Erie Made dren Pet oe bos un raseg bal minded, Listening to everything doest't mean believing everything. but ten years more mindful of the fact that I don’t know all there isto know. [expect Tnever will, but it won't be for lack of on, La trying, ‘The condensed story is this: the 223 Remington cartridge is indecd the com mercial version of the 5.56 NATO « tridge (the reverse is actually more tual if one looks at the chronology of the cartridge’s development), But there are differences between the two. Some of the differences between the two car- tridges are very subtle, Comparing car mally, some of them amount to only a few thousandths tridge specs, dime fof an inch. Other differences are simply the presence of military specification cartridge features that usually are not present in commercial loadings, such as crimped-in prim measures. There isa difference in pres- = and waterproofing sure and velocity specifications, which critical issue, since it can become a the respective ety concem. Finall chamber dimensions are identical in some areas, but quite different in oth ers. I is important to understand those chaaber differences and how they can interact with the higher pressures of the NATO loading. That is the m this article Another “making a long, story short bit of info for those who may not be in in focusof terested in delving deeper into the tech nical details of all this: Do not fre ilspee ammo in 223 chambers! nailtary or GG SWAT.» sePreMarR 2008 ‘SWATMAG.COMPN ata aa ht) CU a sd Pa era z2asanmi | 254 | 22a0/.2245, Pad es) FREEBORE eer exc bru ent Butdearees: cd Praia HEADSPACE 22a wvue | 256/267 | 2240 ees heel 125 degrees Seal ssonaro | 255 | zz0s/zer0 Ua a SURES PHASE | (223 CHAMBER) 2700 a Spanish $5109) sealant and annular primer od Sos 2) 1:25 degrees eal eens) " 2.950 (9 of 10 into 2.250) PHASE ees) 2320, Cl eon) XMI93 55 FN 3580 ai 2.650 (9 of 10into 1.840) Heras 2.060, 2.200 (20) Hornady 75 FPD 1135 1420 1.6405) Hornady 556 75 1500 1155 7.080 15).750 6) ee Hornady 62 Ponatrater | __ 3360 72020 1750/9 choo 1370) MO Black Hills MA262 Modt| 1850 ee) 2455) [840 (5), 1020.5), Black MINS 77.223, not tested ees 1730) 120015) CorBon 77 ins: 1445 1.400 (5),.520 6) aad Federal WMT 7108015), 133015) 13005) Tue Winchester 03283) 2100 Frimer poctets deformed to 3040 2,450 (9 of 10 ino 1930) CoxBon DPX62 1.610 (5) eee eer 34 comarery 1,000.4) Feseral Tactical 62 11505) All are 10-shot groups unless otherwise noted If you don't want to take my word fort won't be offended (see paragraph one), but you can find the same basic state ‘ment from ammunition manufacturers in any numter of places. For example, it was printed on the boxes of some of the Hornady ammo [ used in accuracy testing for this article. Winchester’s Law Enforcement website has this to ‘The 556mm military cartridge fired in 4.223 Remington chamber is considered. by SAAMI Gporting Arms and Ammu- nition Manufacturers Institute) to be an unsafe ammunition combination.” This combination also has made the “don't do this” list on the SAAMI website know lots of folks who have gotten away with it, espe ally since over th plus ammo has been relatively plentiful and inexpensive (a period now known the good old days”). I've done it myself and sill have all ten fing rs and 2.2005) 2.450 cena rota Ca ct Short lengths of barre, partially chamtered and sectioned to illustrate much longer freebore and more gradual throst angle of 5.55 NATO chamber (right). Short feetore and abrupt throat of.223 SAAMEspec chamber eft) can cause pressure spike when fring hotter 5.56 anmo. both eyes—but I know better now and I the chamber, specifically, the part of the avoid it CHAMBER DIFFERENCES A comparison of some chamber di= chamber that stops the forward move meat of the cartridge. In a botllenecked cartridge like the 536, ths is doneby the shoulder of the cartridge meeting the mensions is in order, but first some of corresponding shoulder in the chamber; needs tobe laid out and understood. I'm sare S.W.A.T. readers know that head obviously some clearance in. Not enough clearance and the round will not permit the bolt 10 lock into bat the terminolo must be built ace refers tothe depth of ‘SWATMAG.COM SWAT. » SEPTE 2008 67tery; too much clearance and all sorts Of things can happen, including poor accuracy and case separation (the case siretches so much itbreaks in half [Nock diameter is the part of the cham: ber that the cartridge neck fits into. Freebore is very important to us. It is the part of the chamber just forward of the neck—the part that the bullet en ters into as the cartridge is chamber. It stands to reason thatit hasto be just alittle larger in diameter than the bullet, That diameter depends, to vary g degrees, upon exactly which style of chamber we are talking about. Throat is the tapered. a the end ofthe freebore. It starts at the di ameter of the freebore and tapers down and extends into the rifling, It eases the pated in the ea starting at bullet into the rifling as it leaves the cartridge. The rifling can’t begin with a sharp edge, or it would cut the bullet into shape, where we want it to be gen- tly and somewhat gradually squeezed into the lands, conforming to the inside shape of the barrel. The differences between the 223 SAA- en corey coed eterna Ml-spee chamber and the 5.56 NATO. chamber star at the base ofthe cartridge and go all the way to the throat. Base diameter and the shoulder starts are, as expected, tighter in the 223 than in the 5.6. In some of the mor iameter where the uly larget-oriented versions of the .223 chamber, such as the 223 Compass Lake—Kknown for building high-end target AR-15s dimensions are tighter still, but only by ‘a few thousandths of an inch. Shoulder angle (23 degrees) and the headspace di- mension, expressed as the distance from these rearward the bolt face to a datum point on the shoulder, are the same in every variant of the chamber that I've seen except one. Forward of the shoulder is where things start to get really different. ‘One more thing: the 223 Wykle ‘Chamber. Several manufacturers are us- ing a chamber designed by Bill Wylde. By virtue ofthe fact that it was designed for target competition, allowing room in the freebore for very long-seated, long, ogive bullets itis actually more “gener- us" than the 5.56 in some dimensions. I don’t have personal experience with this chamber, but looking at the dimen- sions, I would have to conclude it might indeed bea viable alternative to the 556 that ought to give a theoretical edge in accuracy due to its tighter freebore di- mension, which would tend to pre-align the bullet better with the bore. The differences between the three chambers can be seen in Table I, Cham- ber Differences, on page As can be seen in the table, the 5.56's freebore length is more than twice as Jong, and the angle of the throat is Tess than half that ofthe 223, so the “squee n° of the bullet into the rifling oc curs much more gradually in the 556 chamber. A perfectly logical question at this point would be, why arethere even two different versions? Why all the subtle differences? Why didn't “thoy” standardize on on The short answer, the lo the conventional wisdom, are “a cy.” Tighter chambers are traditionally held to give better accuracy than looser just sot of dimensions? nswer, and TEMBER 2008 68 SMAT »s 'SWATMAG.COM223VS. 5 (IEIN, alga ial BST ras ie pa ahs ine desppaenTaid vas aetone ae) Sete alee tyer soca lig Be eel eens ak of : tach oe for pret sing sed once (a tricity They willesizeonly the neck ofthe | Ain Miter th oid Mapne ard 7 a= cise when reloading fs thatthe body | al ee tl i an aay 1 hig a poable nd ot tho the oifing. Balls wil be seated out fing. Flash holes wl be eaefally teamed popes DN a fe for uniformity, With chambers so tight, the are ed 0 a (a BIE ics y stock eT om Operation Parts cases thus prepped Tactical Gear & Weapon Accessories ase and the The above just doesn’t work in the con- patrol rifle a fighting. sort, or really, even a plinker. Of course, text of wun of any’ more accuracy is always desirable, and AR-15s can be incredibly accurate. Many “10” ring and “X” ring have been per- forated at 600 yards in NRA High Power shooting, For anything other than a true target rifle, however, reliability trumps accuracy. How much is accuracy really af fected by going from a 223 chamber to a 5.562 Ihave some answers, but first, more on reliability THE PROBLEM Broadly speaking, milspecammo is hot= ter than commercial-spec ammo by about 200 feet-per-second (fps). Although SAA- MI protocols for measuring chamber pres- sure are different from those used to check aavdiicwsrontiocu cick Wl WWW.Operationparts.com Sean Top Brands « Low Prices « Fast Shipping milspec3.Séammanitioncanbeas muchas 5,000 PSI over the naxaverage pres- Customer Service Second To None! sure spec of 55,000 PSI. That's only about 9% increase, and thewerd “only” works 810-513-5093 allright until we fize that hotter ammo in Dealers Welcome! ‘SWATWAG.COM SINAT. » SEPTEMBER 2008692235. 5.56 Third and final go with the reamer, showing shavings from removal of mota infreebore and throat of chamber. the.223chamber Now,theshortfreebore and abrupt throat essentially try to put a haltto the bullet’ forward travel just as itis getting started, and just asthe cham- ber pressure is building exponentially and approaching its peak This causes a pressure spike that really starts to stress. things. Is it going to blow up your gun? ARsdogo“kaboom” on occasion, Ihave never been present forsuch an unhappy. ‘event and can’t say that I truly know of any that were proven to have happened as a result of firing 5.56 ammo in a.223. But think it’s safe to say that at the very Teast, firing mass quantities of 5.56 in a 223 chamber will shorten the service life cof someting in the rifle. What it will dois overstress the weak linkin the chain—the cartridge case. The result can be popped primers, “Popped” seems to be the common term, although, it is something of a misnomer. This is When primers fall out ofa fired case as it is ejected, due toan overpressure condi- ‘ion having actually expanded the entire case head and, along with it, the primer pocket. When the primer pocket gets bigger than the primer, even crimped:in primers will come out. I have measured the primer pockets of 5.56.cases that lost their primer somewhere between ejec- tion and Mother Earth. Where the gov- ernment crawing for the 5.56 case calls for a pocket diameter of .1738/.1745, these primerless cases have pockets th measure as large as .180. Primers usu- ally measure about .175/.1755 for a nice ‘press fit in a tospec primer pocket, so it's no wonder that they fall free from a 180hole. But who really cares about primers falling out, other than maybe handload- cers who can’t reuse brass with oversize primer pockets? It's all about where the ‘Primer goes, and rest assured that Mur- phy is right there, ready to help any ‘wayward primer with an easy-to-fol ow holiday map into the very bowels of ‘your rifle, Favored destinations include: Wedged under the trigger. Result: fire control is cut of commission until trigger group is removed so primer can be shaken out. Lying in berret extension. Result: bolt ‘cannot go into battery until spent primer shaken out or coaxed out with some kind of probe. Caught betwen bolt cari body and up- per receiver. Result: bolt group is wedged toahalt until upper and lower receivers are separated and carrier is pouudei out, freeing primer, It is less common, but more vexing, when the primer’s anvil becomes sepa rated from the cup and winds up in the carrier key spigot, preventing it from telescoping completely over the gas tube. Result: bolt group held out of bat tery while you check for everything bud this unbelievable feat of orienteering by a piece of metal smaller than some mos- quitoes. And when you do find it, you practically need a custom-made dental pick to get it out, since it's been really hammered into place by the end of the gas tube! ‘There are probably some variations con this | haven't seen, but obviously it does matter if primers are falling out, 1 suppose some do fall out harmlessly, but I've yet to find a primerless empty ‘on the grotind in routine policing-up of brass. There are other factors that can contribute to the pressure spike, too. You drive to the match/class/gu fight with your ammo in the trunk. It’s the hottest, sunniest summer day in throe years. You open the trunk and let ‘your ammo soak up another two hours’ worth of direct sunlight. It bums your fingers as you load it into magazines, ‘That ammo is going to have higher pres- sure than if it had been a chilly, overcast day in November Or, le’s say you've just fired two magazines as fast as you could. You pause for a minute. The round in the chamber is absorbing the heat from a barrel that is now way too hot to touch. When you fre that round, it will generate higher pressure, ACCURACY TESTING To test the chaniber’s effect on accu racy, I took a Nightforce NXS 3.5-15X56 scope and parked a new AR-15 top end. from Sabre Defence—their Heavy Bench Target mode!—anderneath it. It isa 24- inch stainless-barroled unit with a 1:8 twist and a 223 chamber. To make a complete rifle, [used the bottom half of my NRA High Power match rifle, which has an excellent trigger. To confirm the chamber configuration, I made a cast of it using Cerro-Safe from Brownells, and indeed it was a perfect SAAMI 223 chamber, Tamassed a collection of ammo types that feltrepresented some optionslikely tobe used ina more duty-oriented gun, including Special Purpose Rifles (SPR)/ precision role. As training ammo | cluded Federal XMI90 55-gr. FMJ,Span- ‘sh S109 62-gr: FMI, and some Israeli "55109 Compatible” ammo (62. grains but no steel penetraton). Street/duty ammo included Federal Tactical with a 62-gr. bonded bullet, CorBon DPX 62- grain loads (all copper/no lead bullet), 70 SMAT. » SEPTEMBER 2008, ‘SWATMAG.COMWinchester Q3283 with the No: partition bullet, Black Hills Mk 1 (with cannelured 77-gr. Sier ing), Horn r. penetrator load, and Hornady’s 5.56 TAP Z5gr. and .223 FPD 75-gr.londs. Except for the last two, these are restricted or somewhat re stricted to LE/military sales. For preci sion ammo, I used Hornady Match 75s, Federal Gold Medal Match 77s, CorBon 77s, and Black Hills 223 77s, [believe all three of the 77-gr. loadings are using the Sierra Match King, After a breakin period for the barrel consisting of about 50 rounds and 25 cleanings, I shot groups in three pha Phases T and I were with the original 223 chamber. The only difference tween [and Il was that after fring Phase discovered what I felt wae book crown at the Sabre’s muzzle. Al- had no complaints nnon-text- all about cy with the “ and also to see ifit would he! Toads shoot closer to each other. There was no change, confirming that concen- important than configura tricity is me tion ina crown. Dismounting the unbarreling the upper recrowning sembling and remounting the scope had almost no effect on the point of impact (POD, ether. THE VERDICT Phase Ill groups were fired after ream: ing thechamber to a rather generous reamer made “to the high side.” My two half-daysat the rang summed up like this: after shooting 53 groups from ‘bench at 100 yards using a Harris bi- pod, more than half of which were 10. shot, not fiveshot groups, | conduded that there was no difference in accuracy, ‘overall. [ acknowledge that this was one test with one guy and one ti not constitute anything near test conducted to a high scientific stan- dard, and that a real statisti rightfully declare the results a st inconclusive, Hove the results, I til feel [can unequivocally the chamber to the larger, looser dimensions did not cause accuracy to “goall to hell.” A few ammo ul does long-term, viewing SWATMAG.CON 324 VB. B56 - THE GRAIL An SLR15 fighting rifle SLR15.COM ‘P Defensive Edge SLRIS5 Rifles & PO Box 682, Anoka, MN 55303 Mane cevranetwerr NASW ‘**DISCOUNTS** is 2. O. Box 2544 «Idaho Falls, ID 83403 ose ioe GC ee ERM srr dd Sa ‘SWAT. » SEPTEMBER 200871123. VS. 5.56 Hornady ammo used bullets. Left to right: ‘62-arain "Barrier" features thicker jacket, harder core. 5.56 bullet has longest sha tuntest ogive. Match bullet: longer ogie, ‘camlure, FPO isalmosta blend ofthe frst two, 556 and FPD bullets are signty rolled In atti for better feeding. Note werding on 5.56 box: "NOT FOR USE N.223 CHAMBERS.” types shot larger groups after reaming. Many were remarkably similar before and after. Themajority were actually bet- ter, but anyone who has shot 10, 1-shot groups in an afternoon, each fired with, the same load under the same condi tions, knows that they will probably not all be the exact same size. Again, statist cally this test may not pass muster, but 1a degradation in accuracy would have shown itself in the 19 Phase II groups 1 fired, Some sample results are shown in. ‘Table Il Accuracy Results, on page 67. Tearefully inspected all my empties af- ter each phase ard, somewhat to my dis appointment, no primerless cases were found, On the other hand, the weather wasin the high 50s and, of course, firing \was slow and purposeful, How do you know which chamber you really have? That can be a tough ‘one. You might have a receiver marked. ‘one way that has had an upper or bar- rel installed with something else. You may havea barrel marked “5.56 NATO” When it really is not. Since many man- ufacturers don’t make their own bar- rels—and as | am convinced that many don't gage the chambers of incoming, barrels—the barvel marking is not neces- sarily the last word. Worse, it seems as. ifsomemanufacturersdon’t understand ‘or appreciate the differences, and a few have been known to get elusive, defe sive and downright snippy about it. A chamber castor visual check with a bore scope are two tedious, expensive ways, tobe sure ACCURACY TEST HARDWARE AND AMMO. Sabre Top End Sabre is one of the few AR-I5 manu- facturers that makes its own barrels. The heavy 24-inch barrel was fluted and free floating with a flattop receiver. Sabre also produces bolts and carriers; those that came with this unit were of top ‘quality. This is not surprising, as Sabre produces M2.50-caliber machinegun re- ceivers, barrels and other compont and has made complete M2s in the re- cent past. They also produce M60 and MI34 Minigun replacement barrels for the government. One would expectthem to have a good hanelle on “milspec” re- guitements, Nightforce Scope I'm no glass expert. But the Nightforce line is some impressive gear, and when Isaw the Army Marksmanship Unit us- ing them at Camp Perry, I figured I'd better put Nightforce on my map. The INXS 35-15X56 | used had their NP-R1 ranging reticle. While the capabilities of the reticle were rather wasted, what with all my shooting being at 100 yards, its very fine lines and perfect image made precision alignment easy. Subsequent ‘experimenting with dismounting and remounting the scope with insignificant tono changein POI bore out my impres- sion of the Nightforce mounting system as being very well made and repeatable. ‘One of my pet peeves on guns and ac- cessories is sharp edges and burrs. The Nightforce Unimount was exquisitely machined, deburred and rock-solid. ‘Ammunition Used ‘Thanks to Black Hills, Hornady and CorBon for providing ammo for test- ing. All three are producing 223 and/ fr 556 londings with 75- of 77. bul- Jets—wwhich in my experience and opin- ion are the long-awaited perfect mate 10 is, this cartridge in many ways, as long as the rifle has a 1:8 or faster twist It seems like just about any bullet of this weight shoots well. Ikis interesting tonote that, while Hor- nady offers 75-grainers in Match, FPD (For Personal Defense) and 5.56 flavors, the three bulletsare different. The match. bullet is an un-cannelured HP with the longish ogive one would expect in a long-range target bullet. The FPD has a shorter ogive, and the 556s is slightly shorter stil. Both have commensurately Jonger bearing surfaces, with the hol- Tow-point tip being ever so. slightly rolled over, I presume for bette feeding, Both featurea cannelure. To my surprise, Doth the FPD and 5.55 out-grouped the Match at 100 yards, but I would expect the Match to outperform the other two at longer ranges. Hormady’s excellent 75.ge. A-Max polymertipped target bul- Jet in 224 diameter is, unfortunately, too Jong to load in 223/556 unless they are Jeft so long that they cannot fit in the magazine. Plenty of people in the High Power game use them just this way, sin- sgle-loading them for the 60-yard, slow- fire prone: The CorBen 7-g¢. loading is new and very accurate, easily giving the Federal Gold Medal Match a run for its money. ‘The Black Hills Mk252 Mod 1 was current miliary-contract ammo meant mainly for the Special Purpose Rifles be- ing used in the war zones. It isa periect complement to those highly accurized _— 72 SWAT, » SrPTEMBER 2008 ‘SWATMAG.COMthan a combat load out of the Sabre In summary, despite wh Internet, the 2.28 Remington and the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridges are and the same, ard the manu marking on the barrel has been shown tonot always be accurate Iisthe resporsibility of the individual to make sure his weapon and ammunition ar fact, compatible. © $240 itis not inexp possible iniury to eouilabe at caren SOURCES: Sabre Defence Incustries, LLC wwwasabredofence.com Black Hills Ammunition Dept. SWA.T PO. Box 3090 Rapid City, SD 57709-3000 (605) 348-5150 wwewblack-hills.com Cortion Dept. SWAT PO. Box 369 Sturgis, SD 57785 (800) 626-7265 Homady Mfg. Co. Dept. SWA.T Box 1848 Grand Island, NE 68812-1848, (oo 338-3229, www.hornady.com Lightforce USA, In: Dept SWAT. 1040 Hazen L Orofino, ID 83544 (208) 476-9814 forceapticseom SWATHS. Ue eee eee Nei Weg fe) 9-146 Sec : Boag) Ny | Sueur ucc ee aia cers po Sirti Oe gr Bees ee nny Overkill UT To The /iLDERNESS™ Bees Bar eles) POrE TCT) a PENT PA Cee)