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Posted: 2/6/2003 6:46:00 AM EDT
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Other than SAAMI here in Europe CIP does not distinguish between 5.56 NATO and .223 since both calibers have the same external dimensions and (according to CIP) pressure. As a consequence "NATO" chambers seem foreign to most manufacturers. Any comments on that? Sincerely Cato |
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The joke is, there is no "5.56mm" or "5.56mm NATO" chamber spec. There is, of course, a chamber spec for the M16 rifle which fires 5.56mm NATO. There's a DIFFERENT chamber spec for the SAW (Minimi) which also fires 5.56mm NATO. There's still another chamber spec for the little 5.56mm GE minigun. I'm sure the Styr AUG and L85 have their own specs. Start to get the picture? General purpose AR15 rifles with the M16 chamber will digest all known .223 and .556mm ammo. As you note the cartridge specifications are identical for 5.56mm and .223. Not surprising as they're diffenent names for the same cartridge. All the nice South African (and other) surplus .223 ammo sold by the pallet is really 5.56mm which has been converted to .223 in a sheltered workshop where ".223" labels are pasted over the "5.56mm" labels on the boxes. The number of of AR15 rifles which have blown up using 5.56mm in .223 chambers is staggering -- I believe the number is zero. SAMMI specifies that one should not fire 9mm NATO in a 9mm Parabellum maked chamber. More nonsense, of course. The US Army does it daily. All the M9 and M11 pistols are marked 9mmPara and we don't shoot that, we shoot 124gr 9mm NATO. -- Chuck |
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