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Posted: 7/13/2010 8:13:04 PM EDT
| I have an older Colt Carbine I bought back in 1999, the lower is stamped 223 and the barrel is stamped 1/7 5,56 , so can I shoot 5.56 or just 223? |
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You can aways shoot both regardless of the marking. .223 Remington and 5.56mm NATO cartridges have identical case exterior dimensions. If one fits the other will too.
Same same with .308 Winchester and 7.62mm NATO. Bullet weights and chamber pressures may vary, but these rifles ain't gonna blow up with factory/arsenal ammo. A military 5.56mm or 7.62mm chamber will usually be a bit looser to make case extraction easier in automatic fire but these [i]trival differences]/i] (much loved by gun store commandos) don't matter a twit in our applications. Much 5.56mm/7.62mm NATO ammo is converted to .223/.308 by the highly technical process of pasting .223 and .308 labels on the boxes... –– Chuck |
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I always heard it was safe to shoot .223 out of a 5.56 barrel, but NOT safe (i.e. jams?) to shoot 5.56 out of a .223 barrel? Typical gun store/show commando talk. 
You might get in trouble shooting 75gr or 80gr bullets out of either, but that's not a common .223 variant. A so-called "5.56mm chamber" is slightly larger than a ".223" but the differences are so minor as to be unimportant. Doesn't stop vendors from hyping they have "milspec 5.56mm chambers" in the rifles and charging you a premium for them. –– Chuck |
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Quoted:
I always heard it was safe to shoot .223 out of a 5.56 barrel, but NOT safe (i.e. jams?) to shoot 5.56 out of a .223 barrel? Typical gun store/show commando talk.
You might get in trouble shooting 75gr or 80gr bullets out of either, but that's not a common .223 variant. A so-called "5.56mm chamber" is slightly larger than a ".223" but the differences are so minor as to be unimportant. Doesn't stop vendors from hyping they have "milspec 5.56mm chambers" in the rifles and charging you a premium for them. –– Chuck Oh Really?  .
From the AR-15 FAQ http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=492084 6) Is .223 the same as 5.56, can I shoot .223 in a 5.56 chamber or vice versa? In short .223 is not the same as 5.56 in chambering - though the ammo dimensionally is identical. Yes you can shoot .223 in 5.56, no you should not shoot 5.56 in .223. For details and explainations why read the Ammo FAQ (above). And from the AMMO ORACLE - 5.56 vs .223 . |
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