imported post
TheMrMitch wrote:
IF....there is a gun ban...."assault weapon" will be whatever the powers deem. Don't worry about it yet.
Yes, it's a good rifle. The .223 (5.56x45 Nato) is a fine caliber. Get it and enjoy it.
Most Mini 14's are stamped .223 not 5.56. .223 is technically not the same cartridge as a 5.56.
If you have a gun stamped 5.56 you can shoot either 5.56 or .223. If you have a gun stamped .223 it is not recommended that you shoot 5.56 through it. Some of the Full auto Mini's (AAC 556) are stamped 5.56 IIRC as well as some of the semi auto versions, but most of the wood stalked Mini's are stamped .223 and IMHO you should not shoot 5.56 ammo through it.
http://www.thegunzone.com/556v223.html
Almost a quarter of a century ago, SAAMI recognized potential problems with shooters assuming that the 5.56mm cartridge was identical to the commercially available .223 Remington round. Here is their 31 January 1979 release, with some minor errors corrected:
With the appearance of full metal jacket military 5.56 ammunition on the commercial Market, it has come to the attention of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI) that the use of military 5.56mm ammunition in sporting rifles chambered for Caliber .223 Remington cartridges can lead to higher-than-normal chamber pressures and possible hazards for the firearm, its user and bystanders.
Tests have confirmed that chamber pressures in a sporting rifle may be significantly higher in the same gun when using military 5.56mm ammunition rather than commercially loaded Caliber .223 Remington cartridges, according to SAAMI.
SAAMI points out that chambers for military rifles have a different throat configuration than chambers for sporting firearms which, together with the full metal jacket of the military projectile, may account for the higher pressures which result when military ammunition is fired in a sporting chamber.
SAAMI recommends that a firearm be fired only with the cartridge for which it is specifically chambered by the manufacturer.
In Rifle Chambered For
Do Not Use These Cartridges
223 Remington
5.56mm Military
222 Remington
30 CarbineAdditionally, SAAMI's
Unsafe Arms and Ammunition Combinations Technical Data Sheet page states:
The .223 Remington is rated for a maximum of 50,000 CUP while the 5.56mm is rated for 60,000 CUP. That extra 10,000 CUP is likely sufficient to cause a failure in a chamber that's only rated for the "sporting" .223 Remington.
The .223 Remington and the 5.56mm NATO, when checked with a chamber ream from a reliable manufacturer of each, also have discernable differences in the areas of freebore diameter, freebore length (
leade) and angle of the throat.
SAAMI
Technical Office:
P.O. Box 338
Branford
CT 06405-0338
(Ironically, given the nature of the on-line confusion exhibited by .30 caliber shooters, no similar SAAMI advisory is given concerning 7.62 NATO beyond the fact that those who have rifles chambered in "308 Winchester" shouldn't attempt to shoot cartridges marked "7.62x39" or "300 Savage." Well, duh!)
However, the estimable Clint McKee of Fulton Armory, has thoughtfully provided a brief monograph,
The difference between 5.56mm and .223 Remington chambers in the AR-15®-type rifle, which explains this issue in greater (but quite readable) detail.
Olin's Winchester Ammunition site, in 2001, addressed this matter as well, in a concise
monograph by Paul Nowak, and Randall Rausch has a number of excellent technical documents, with graphics displaying the differences between the two cartridges, available at
AR15barrels.com. Of particular interest are
headspace and
reamer dimensions.
Further Views on "Differences"
At the October 2001 IALEFI Conference in Reno, Nevada, Giles Stock, retired from Phoenix Police Department after 20 years service, discussed the differences between the .223 Remington/SAAMI and 5.56mm/NATO rifle chambers. The long-time range master for handgun, rifle, carbine and shotgun at Gunsite and developer of the acclaimed
Giles Tactical Sling suggested that, as a general rule, recreational rifles have the former, and military rifles the latter… but there is some overlap, most notably in the popular Sturm Ruger Mini-14 which has been offered in both specifications!
NATO chambers have a long
leade1. SAAMI chambers are tighter and have a short
leade. SAAMI chambers are designed for increased accuracy, but will yield dangerously high pressures in guns using military ammunition and/or which are subject to high volume shooting. Under such high pressures, a primer may back out completely, drop into the action and cause the firearm to stop working.
It has been suggested that an autoloading rifle utilizing a SAAMI-spec chamber may increase risk of overpressure due to the tighter, shorter
leade which retards the projectile somewhat as it is attempting to exit the case. Leave the SAMMI chambers to the a bolt action and single-shot rifles.
ArmaLite, not the original, but the Eagle Arms pretenders, has
its own views on the subject.
Lake City plant2, Winchester is also a primary supplier of M193 to the U.S. military. That particular X223R1 round is commercially available in the white USA box product encoded "Q3131." What few realize is that Israeli Military Industries (IMI), the sole supplier of ammo to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), also supplies their M193 as a subcontractor for Winchester; that round is often made available in the USA white boxes marked "Q3131A." By most reports, qualitatively, it is the same round and performs virtually the same as the home-grown variant.