Originally Posted by
Ned Christiansen
My comments here would be the following, randomly presented:
1. I don't recall ever seeing a primer pop in a 5.56 chamber. Now this is based only on examining guns that DID pop primers, and of those, all were found to have "not 5.56" chambers.
2. Although my lifelong study is not yet over and is based on what different guns do or seem to do, as opposed to actual laboratory research, .223 Wylde seems to me to be OK with 5.56 ammo.
... if well over half the guns I examine in class have "not 5.56" chambers when they are stamped or engraved 5.56, I conclude that barrels marked ".223 Wylde" may not have that actual chamber. So I hesitate to judge a barrel too harshly unless I can confirm the chamber config.
7. Everything has a tolerance. Even a perfect chamber can be on the large or small end of its tolerance. My opinion is that a true 5.56 chambers is not going to pop primers even if it's at the low limit for diameters and lengths.
9: I'm with everyone here in the quest for .5MOA groups. I'm not up to the level of many of you in many of the aspects of this quest but I gotta say that I have had very satisfactory groups with a true 5.56 chamber. I have zero barrels with .223 Remington chambers; in my range experiences I can't say I've seen a world of dif between .223W and 5.56. I have not ever personally popped a primer in a .223W chamber. I'll grantcha that among National Champs at Camp Perry there are zero 5.56 chambers in use.