Quote Originally Posted by Daan Kemp View Post
Agree with you on the military vs commercial ammo debates. Interesting it never happens with 30-06, 303, 30-40 Kragicon, 9x19, 45ACP, etc. Only 308/7,62 and 223/5,56.
the issue with these cartridges, .308/7.62x51 and the .223 debacle is that there have been so many versions of the same cartridge given different pressure levels.

take the 7.62x51 cetme that spain created. good round, but used light bullets at high velocity. chambers identical to .308/51 nato, but not safe for it. thus lots of issues with the converted 1916 Spanish Oviedo mausers.

.223 and 5.56, the standard ball round of 55 grain IS the exact cartridge released as .223 Remington. That has been admitted by saami SO MANY TIMES its not funny. the only issue is that....

1.there have been two updated versions of the 5.56 nato that increased NATO pressure chamber EPVAT testing limits to deal with increased bullet weights.

2. ORIGINAL Vietnam production M16s given the original chamber and .223 ammunition SAFETLY use the higher pressured forms of 5.56 nato that are supposedly unsafe in .223 Remington chambers

3. CIP declares .223 Remington and 5.56 nato to BE THE SAME CARTRIDGE and firearms MUST be safe to use with both.

4. ARs with .223 Remington on the barrel are actually given 5.56 nato chambers. And people have discovered DECADES ago that any modern rifle with a .223 ONLY needs a few minutes of touchup with a 5.56 nato finish reamer to get the lead taken care of , and can instantly use ANY 5.56 cartridge

5. SAAMI ONLY uses the original .223 Remington pressure levels.

6. commercially produced 5.56 nato ammunition, even the 55 gr fmj clones are allowed to be loaded to ANY of the 3 nato pressure levels. Thus they are not actually safe to use in an unmodified chamber.
I got that from SAAMI and Federal Cartridge

7. only way to get actual mil spec 55 gran fmj is to have it come with a nato head stamp. No one is techinically sure if the IMI 55 grn fmj meets original spec