Sorry, I missed the fact that you were looking for 5.56 only when I responded in #17.
It has been some years since we bought the .223 Remington- and it all started coming back to me. Here are a couple of interesting articles, with actual pressure testing with a strain gauge:
http://thearmsguide.com/645/is-there-a-difference-between-223-and-5-56/
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/5-56-vs-223/#bookmark0
As I recall discussing this about six years ago when purchasing the rifle with the gun shop owner, it essentially became a non-issue for us.
Here's a test that I'd like a manufacturer-with unlimited ammo supply- to do.
Take one of their .223 chambered rifles off the end of the assembly line, and shoot 5.56 NATO factory ammo through it until the barrel (or receiver) fails.
My bet is, it never will.
I'd like to know the engineering tolerances they "build into" their receivers.
Does anyone think that a manufacturer would build in such a small safety tolerance of 10 or 15,000 psi in designing their barrel? SAAMI pressure for .223 is 55,000. Will 62,000, even 65,000- ever cause catastrophic failure of the barrel, or even the receiver locking lugs because of this "overpressure"?
Most everyone realizes that "occasional" use of 5.56 in a 2.23 (which was what we discussed when buying ours) would not be a problem. At the time, we hadn't begun handloading so we figured if for some reason we couldn't get 2.23, a few boxes of 5.56 would be fine.
Like I said, I would love to know the design pressures. Many years ago, Bannerman took imported and U.S. Military Mosin-Nagants, set back the barrels and re-chambered them to 30.06.
Internet lore is "OMG- unsafe to shoot!!", yet no one can find a documented case of a failure. Others have put .300 WM barrels on these same receivers.
If there's a documented case of failure due to shooting 5.56 from a 2.23 chamber, I'd like to see it.
It has been some years since we bought the .223 Remington- and it all started coming back to me. Here are a couple of interesting articles, with actual pressure testing with a strain gauge:
http://thearmsguide.com/645/is-there-a-difference-between-223-and-5-56/
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/5-56-vs-223/#bookmark0
As I recall discussing this about six years ago when purchasing the rifle with the gun shop owner, it essentially became a non-issue for us.
Here's a test that I'd like a manufacturer-with unlimited ammo supply- to do.
Take one of their .223 chambered rifles off the end of the assembly line, and shoot 5.56 NATO factory ammo through it until the barrel (or receiver) fails.
My bet is, it never will.
I'd like to know the engineering tolerances they "build into" their receivers.
Does anyone think that a manufacturer would build in such a small safety tolerance of 10 or 15,000 psi in designing their barrel? SAAMI pressure for .223 is 55,000. Will 62,000, even 65,000- ever cause catastrophic failure of the barrel, or even the receiver locking lugs because of this "overpressure"?
Most everyone realizes that "occasional" use of 5.56 in a 2.23 (which was what we discussed when buying ours) would not be a problem. At the time, we hadn't begun handloading so we figured if for some reason we couldn't get 2.23, a few boxes of 5.56 would be fine.
Like I said, I would love to know the design pressures. Many years ago, Bannerman took imported and U.S. Military Mosin-Nagants, set back the barrels and re-chambered them to 30.06.
Internet lore is "OMG- unsafe to shoot!!", yet no one can find a documented case of a failure. Others have put .300 WM barrels on these same receivers.
If there's a documented case of failure due to shooting 5.56 from a 2.23 chamber, I'd like to see it.