Independent George
New member
There's plenty of information on the the cartridge length, headspace, and chamber pressures - all useful stuff, but not what I'm interested in right now.
What I want to know is WHY there are two different chamberings of what is essentially the same round, and I haven't been able to find anything on it. Why did NATO standardize on 5.56 instead of the commercially available .223? Or, alternately, why didn't manufacturers converge on 5.56 when militaries were tooling up in that caliber? What benefit is there in having two different rounds that are essentially the same?
What I want to know is WHY there are two different chamberings of what is essentially the same round, and I haven't been able to find anything on it. Why did NATO standardize on 5.56 instead of the commercially available .223? Or, alternately, why didn't manufacturers converge on 5.56 when militaries were tooling up in that caliber? What benefit is there in having two different rounds that are essentially the same?