Quoted: I like RRA too because of the wylde chamber, I like the idea of being able to shoot both types of ammo. is that a standard thing or only an RRa thing? |
just to clarify something, as it sounds like you may be a tad confused here.
an AR15 chambered for 5.56mm NATO can shoot either 5.56mm NATO or .223 Remington cartridges.
an AR15 chambered for .223 Remington in theory should only shoot .223 Remington; the use of 5.56mm NATO with the shorter leade (the chamber throat area just in front of the bullet) of the .223 Remington chamber will increase pressure. i have not read of many catastrophic failures of shooting 5.56mm NATO in a .223 Remington chambered AR15, but that doesn't make it a good idea. note that it is definitely not advised to shoot 5.56mm NATO in an older bolt action rifle chambered for .223 Remington -- the barrel and bolt assembly may not react well to the increased chamber pressure and that could be detrimental to your fingers and eyes.
so why does the Wylde chamber exist? if the AR15 is chambered for 5.56mm NATO, it will accept either cartridge -- so why do we need the Wylde?
compared to the 5.56mm NATO chamber leade, the shorter leade of the .223 results in better accuracy. hence, the Wylde chamber sort of is an "average" of the 5.56mm NATO and .223 Remington leades. the Wylde chamber is an attempt, a reasonably successful one at that, to maintain the feed reliability of the 5.56mm NATO chamber and the accuracy of the .223 Remington chamber.
finally, note that 99% of Bushmaster AR15's use the 5.56mm NATO chamber. only a few Bushmaster barrel types designed for competition shooting use .223 Remington or modified Wylde type chambers.
ar-jedi