According to Rock River Arms catalog, some of their rifles and uppers have a .223 Wylde Chamber. Of course they also have some listed with .223/5.56 NATO Chamber.   I'v never heard of this ".223 Wylde Chamber" before.  

Bill Wylde was and is one of the originators of the accurate AR.  My understanding is he designed the wylde chamber in anticipation of the Armed Forces producing match grade ammo for the M16.  It has an outstanding reputation within the highpower community.

HTH....SRM

So what is it? I just bought a RR Varmint Upper and apparently it has this chambering. What the hell is it?

Quoted: So what is it? I just bought a RR Varmint Upper and apparently it has this chambering. What the hell is it?

What you really want to know is how tight is this chamber or how deep/shallow is its throat.  Additionally, does the Wylde chamber restrict you to certain ammunition types (ie. no milsurp).  Since the RRA Varmint upper has 1:8 rifling, that should mean the 62gr and heavier loads are okay, but.....

Does anyone know if you can shoot Nato 5.56mm surplus ammo (brass case of course) with RR 223 Wylde Chamber?

anybody know any more on this? i did some searches... all i could find was a few mentions on snipershide about a gunsmith named bill wylde who is supposed to do great work on ARs and bolt rifles. presumably it's his .223 chambering. guess we already knew that...

Quoted: So what is it? I just bought a RR Varmint Upper and apparently it has this chambering. What the hell is it?

Skipper, let me know how your RRVU shoots.  These look like nice uppers, I'm curious about what kind of group you will get with it.  

Post your question in the Competition forum and one of the guys there will be able to give you a more precise answer.

Bill Wylde is definitely one of the world's top AR15 gunsmiths.  Unfortunately, his waiting time is measured in years... He designed his reamer in 1984, with the expectation that military issue match ammo might someday become available. This reamer was an adaptation of the existing 5.56mm NATO reamer, but modified in the throat/chamber neck to improve accuracy.  It is an excellent design, capable of superb accuracy, and is not as tight in the body as some other reamers, such as Mike Bykowski's (High-Performance Int'l) or Frank White's (Compass Lake Engineering.)  In my experience, it will feed ammo that is sized larger/longer than what the tighter match chambers can tolerate. Wylde changed the NATO reamer's overly-large freebore section, narrowing it to 0.2240", which helps guide bullets straight into the rifling.  The leade angle is 1 degree, 13 minutes per side, and the throat allows 80 gr. Sierra MatchKings to be seated out to about 2.465" to touch the rifling. It is one of the longer-throated custom match reamers. If you want absolutely top accuracy, you may benefit from a relatively blunt bullet (e.g., the Sierra #1390 55 gr. HPBT) & also by seating bullets out past mag length. Example: in one load for my Wylde match AR15, 55 gr. Bergers shoot 0.5" average 5-shot groups at 100 yds when seated to mag length; seating them to the rifling instantly drops group size to 0.3" avg. (This works for other chambers as well, depending on which one you have.) I have averaged 0.68" at 200 yards for six consecutive 5-shot groups at a registered benchrest match with a Bill Wylde AR15, 1:8" twist Krieger barrel and tuned handloads seated to the lands.  This information plus lots more is found in my book, "Black Magic:  The Ultra-Accurate AR15."  (By the way, AR15.com members get a $3.00 discount on autographed copies if they order direct from me!  
Hope this helps,
John

John_Feamster, thank you very much. That is just exactly what I wanted to hear. Two questions: How much is your book and how does one shoot an AR15 with bullets seated longer than magazine length?

HBAR, I'll let you know as soon as I shoot it. I am waiting for a mount and rings which should be here in a week or so.

Sorry if I missed it, but,can you or can you not shoot Nato 5.56 milsurp ammo in the Wylde Chamber?

Thanks, Later,

Exnavarm

Paint a bullet with cheap spray paint, then stick it in a fired cartridge casing. Chamber the round in your gun. If the bullet sticks in the rifling, push it out with a cleaning rod. Seat the bullet in the empty casing up to the mark in the paint. Measure with a caliper. This is the maximum length you can seat your bullets out to. To fire a longer than mag length round, simply lay on top of the mag, and chamber. I know people who use these for the single load stages of a high power match. I belive stoney point makes a tool that does the same thing as the bullet/paint method described above.

Howdy, to be honest, as my Wylde rifles are super-accurate match and varmint rifles with $400+ barrels, I have never shot military surplus ammo in them.  I would guess that non-tracer military surplus "SHOULD" be ok, but the best source of this info is Rock River, since they build the rifles and should know.

Black Magic is normally $24.95 for softcovers, plus shipping, or $29.95 for hardcovers, plus shipping.  With the $3.00 AR15.com discount, plus priority mail shipping, the total for AR15.com'ers is $25.95 for softcovers, shipped, or $30.95 for hardcovers, shipped.  If interested, please send a check or money order to:
John Feamster
P.O. Box 4846
Biloxi, MS 39535-4846
Thanks!  Books are shipped in a padded mailer to ensure they arrive in great condition.
Hope this helps!
John

FWIW, I consider the good Mr. Feamster to be one of the reasons that AR's dominate the world of Highpower rifle.  His book is the first (as far as I know) serious look at the AR as a platform for ultra accurate rifles.  Current custom smiths have the ability to turn out rifles that can outshoot many of the varmint rifles, either factory or custom.

Only accurate rifles are interesting.....

SRM