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Posted: 11/25/2008 5:39:31 AM EDT
| I have an M-4 barrel. I know this because of the feed ramp cuts. How can I tell if it is .223 only or if it is 5.56/223? |
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How sily of me to misspell silly. Maybe that is what that red line under the word was trying to tell me.
I have looked everywhere for any markings. None. I have been lurking around her for sometime and several months ago I decided that I could put one together by following the instruction on this board. So far so good. Shoots great. It has a: DPMS lower + parts. Rock River Stock Spikes Tactical Upper YHM Two Piece 4 Rail Streamlight M-6 Tactical Laser tactical light Bolt and Carrier from Del-Ton Vertical Graphite Grip from Brownell's Sightlink fiber optic front sight G-6 Vortex Flash Hider The barrel (16in chrome lined 1-9 twist) I purchased from a reputable Tac weapons dealer in Ft Myers. I naively took his word that it was chambered 5.56/.223 It does have the feed ramp cuts That is about it for now. Here is a crude photo of the weapon. http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b280/GreekJews/2a.jpg By the way this BRD is definably a horrible infliction. I have tried to suppress it for many years. As you can see it did not work. As I was putting this one together I was thinking of the next one. A co-worker got to close and now he also has the disease. He now has a DPMS lower and parts kit. Thanks |
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Quoted:
Can't you just drop a 5.56 round in it to see if it fits or something? A .223 round will "fit" even if it's a 5.56 chamber. Did you take off the handguards while looking for barrel markings? FWIW, and this is most certainly NOT definitive, I haven't noticed an M4 barrel chambered in .223 before. |
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get yourself a go/no go gauge.
If its 5.56 it should shoot anything. If its 223 it wont shoot the 5.56 (at least thats what Ive been told about the situation I buy all my parts to shoot both) If a 223 go gauge fits you shouldnt have any problems and its a great tool to have later when you build another and need to match grade it together for accuracy. |
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The upper receiver is from spike's. Not the barrel. The barrel (16in chrome lined 1-9 twist) I purchased from a reputable Tac weapons dealer in Ft Myers. I naively took his word that it was chambered 5.56/.223 It does have the feed ramp cuts
So far the only markings I have been able to find are (M1S 1-9) |
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Stupid question but the seller should be able to tell you what brand and what chamber.
The only M4 barrels i've seen without markings are the ones sold by Sarco & gun parts corp without barrel extensions. These barrels are sold like that because the gas whole was clocked incorrectly. A gun smith can fix these pretty easlly but that costs more than a new barrel. One of the barrels I bought like these was marked CMMG the other was not marked at all. |
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some more info
This is what fulton armory has to say abou things. As I understand it, if you have a nato chamber, you should be good to shoot anything. If you have a SAAMI chamber, you can only shoot commercial loads. Its all about pressure and honestly, Im having a hard time believing anything made in the AR platform is going to have chambers so signifigantly different that it would matter. I think that the majority of this confusion if for people using military rounds in .223 bolt guns and blowing them up. Wikipedia has some good stuff for it as well. From wikipedia.... While the 5.56 mm and .223 cartridges are very similar, they are not identical. Military cases are made from thicker brass than commercial cases, which reduces the powder capacity (an important consideration for handloaders), and the NATO specification allows a higher chamber pressure. Test barrels made for 5.56 mm NATO measure chamber pressure at the case mouth, as opposed to the SAAMI location. This difference accounts for upwards of 20,000+ psi difference in pressure measurements. That means that advertised pressure of 58,000 psi for 5.56 mm NATO, is around 78,000 psi tested in .223 Rem test barrels (SAAMI .223 Rem Proof MAP is 78,500 psi so every 5.56 mm round fired is a proof load, very dangerous). The 5.56 mm chambering, known as a NATO or mil-spec chambers, have a longer leade, which is the distance between the mouth of the cartridge and the point at which the rifling engages the bullet. The .223 chambering, known as the "SAAMI chamber", is allowed to have a shorter leade, and is only required to be proof tested to the lower SAAMI chamber pressure. To address these issues, various proprietary chambers exist, such as the Wylde chamber[2] or the Armalite chamber, which are designed to handle both 5.56 mm and .223 equally well. These 5.56x45mm NATO cartridges are identical in appearance to .223 Remington. They are, however, not completely interchangeable. Using commercial .223 cartridges in a 5.56-chambered rifle should work reliably, but generally will not be as accurate as when fired from a .223-chambered gun due to the excessive lead. [3] Using 5.56 mil-spec cartridges (such as the M855) in a .223-chambered rifle can lead to excessive wear and stress on the rifle and even be unsafe, and the SAAMI recommends against the practice.[4] Some commercial rifles marked as ".223 Remington" are in fact suited for 5.56 mm, such as many commercial AR-15 variants and the Ruger Mini-14[5], but the manufacturer should always be consulted to verify that this is acceptable before attempting it, and signs of excessive pressure (such as flattening or gas staining of the primers) should be looked for in the initial testing with 5.56 mm ammunition. |
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Thanks, but I have read all this before. I am aware of the differences between the 5.56 and .223.
For that reason I am trying to ascertain whether the barrel I have is chambered 5.56 (which would allow me to fire .223 also). Or whether it is chambered .223 (allowing me to safely fire .223 only). And yes the seller does state that the barrel is chambered 5.56 and that the type of barrel is an EM-4 C.A.R. from Model 1 Sales. But it would be comforting to see some sort of marking stating so. I just thought there was an easy way to confirm the chamber of a barrel. From reading the post left here, there is not. I guess it was not such a SILLY question after all. |
I think the most definitive way I have ever seen is to put a dowel rod down your barrel with a paper patch on the end, stopping it at the end of the rifling, then pouring lead into the chamber making a cast of it, then pushing out the lead cast, and measure the dimensions of the cast. That's probably more complicated than you were hoping for though. 
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Places to look for markings include the muzzle end of the barrel (not exactly at the muzzle, but forward of the front sight base) and above the chamber. A LOT of barrels seem to wind up being marked somewhere that isn't obvious like that. My first Rock River rifle was marked over the chamber, and it took a lot of looking to find the markings and strong light to be able to read it.
If you find something like a code (as in "N 9 A" from my first RRA) or just some digits (252A) post them. They may be code for both the barrel's chambering and other characteristics like rifling. But look at the whole barrel before you give up. |
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Quoted:
I think the most definitive way I have ever seen is to put a dowel rod down your barrel with a paper patch on the end, stopping it at the end of the rifling, then pouring lead into the chamber making a cast of it, then pushing out the lead cast, and measure the dimensions of the cast. That's probably more complicated than you were hoping for though. Yep, that would absolutely do it. But, as you stated that is not the easy way I was looking for. I will call the barrel manufacture tomorrow ad see what info they can give me. Thanks to all for helping me with my silly question. |
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The upper receiver is from spike's. Not the barrel. The barrel (16in chrome lined 1-9 twist) I purchased from a reputable Tac weapons dealer in Ft Myers. I naively took his word that it was chambered 5.56/.223 It does have the feed ramp cuts
So far the only markings I have been able to find are (M1S 1-9) Then your barrel is a Model 1 Sales barrel made by E.R. Shaw. If it is in fact a 16" EM-4 1:9 twist chrome lined , then it is chambered in 5.56. the chromlined barrels from Model 1 Sales are ONLY chambered in the 5.56 
The chromoly barrels are offered in either 5.56 or .223
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