Buy 223 Remington Online Australia
Introduction
The .223 Remington (designated as the223 Remington by the SAAMI and 223 Rem by the CIP) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1957 by Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries for the U.S. Continental Army Command of the United States Army as part of a project to create a small-caliber, high-velocity firearm. The .223 Remington is considered one of the most popular common-use cartridges and is currently used by a wide range of semi-automatic and manual-action rifles as well as handguns.
The development of the cartridge, which eventually became the .223 Remington, was linked to the development of a new lightweight combat rifle. The cartridge and rifle were developed by Fairchild Industries, Remington Arms, and several engineers working toward a goal developed by the U.S. Continental Army Command (CONARC). Development began in 1957. A project to create a small-caliber, high-velocity (SCHV) firearm was created. Eugene Stoner of ArmaLite was also invited to scale down the AR-10 (7.62×51mm NATO) design. Winchester was also invited to participate.
CONARC ordered rifles to test. Stoner and Sierra Bullet’s Frank Snow began work on the .222 Remington cartridge. Using a ballistic calculator, they determined that a 55-grain bullet would have to be fired at 3,300 ft/s to achieve the 500-yard performance necessary.
Robert Hutton (technical editor of Guns and Ammo magazine) started the development of a powder load to reach the 3,300 ft/s goal. He used DuPont IMR4198, IMR3031, and an Olin powder to work up loads. Testing was done with a Remington 722 rifle with a 22″ Apex barrel. During a public demonstration, the round successfully penetrated the US steel helmet as required, but testing also showed chamber pressures to be too high.
Stoner contacted both Winchester and Remington about increasing the case capacity. Remington created a larger cartridge called the .222 Special. This cartridge is loaded with DuPont IMR4475 powder.
During parallel testing of the T44E4 (future M14) and the ArmaLite AR-15 in 1958, the T44E4 experienced 16 failures per 1,000 rounds fired compared to 6.1 for the ArmaLite AR-15. Because of several different .222 caliber cartridges that were being developed for the SCHV project, the .222 Special was renamed .223 Remington. In May 1959, a report was produced stating that five- to seven-man squads armed with ArmaLite AR-15 rifles have a higher hit probability than 11-man squads armed with the M-14 rifle. At an Independence Day picnic, Air Force General Curtis Le May tested the ArmaLite AR-15 and was very impressed with it. He ordered a number of them to replace M2 carbines that were in use by the Air Force. In November of that year, testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground showed the ArmaLite AR-15 failure rate had declined to 2.5/1,000, resulting in the ArmaLite AR-15 being approved for more extensive trials.
In 1961, marksmanship testing compared the AR-15 and M-14; 43% of ArmaLite AR-15 shooters achieved Expert, while only 22% of M-14 rifle shooters did. Le May ordered 80,000 rifles. In July 1962, operational testing ended with a recommendation for the adoption of the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle chambered in .223 Remington. In September 1963, the .223 Remington cartridge was officially accepted and named “Cartridge, 5.56 mm ball, M193”. The following year, the ArmaLite AR-15 was adopted by the United States Army as the M16 rifle, and it would later become the standard U.S. military rifle. The specification included a Remington-designed bullet and the use of IMR4475 powder, which resulted in a muzzle velocity of 3,250 ft/s and a chamber pressure of 52,000 psi.
In the spring of 1962, Remington submitted the specifications of the .223 Remington to the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI). In December 1963, Remington introduced its first rifle chambered for .223 Remington a Model 760 rifle.
Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 = 23 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 305 mm (1 in 12 in), 6 grooves, Ø lands = 5.56 millimeters (0.219 in), Ø grooves = 5.69 millimeters (0.224 in), land width = 1.88 millimeters (0.074 in) and the primer type is a small rifle.
According to the official CIP rulings, the .223 Remington can handle up to 430.00 MPa (62,366 psi) Pmax piezo pressure. In CIP-regulated countries, every rifle cartridge combination has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum CIP pressure to be certified for sale to consumers. This means that .223 Remington chambered arms in CIP-regulated countries are currently (2016) proof tested at 537.50 MPa (77,958 psi) PE piezo pressure. This is equal to the NATO maximum service pressure guideline for the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge.
The SAAMI pressure limit for the .223 Remington is set at 379.212 MPa (55,000 psi), piezo pressure. Remington submitted .223 Remington specifications to SAAMI in 1964.
The external dimensional specifications of .223 Remington and 5.56×45mm NATO brass cases are nearly identical. The cases tend to have similar case capacity when measured (case capacities have been observed to vary by as much as 2.6 grains (0.17 ml)), although the shoulder profile and neck length are not the same, and 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge cases tend to be slightly thicker to accommodate higher chamber pressures. When hand-loaded, care is taken to look for pressure signs as 5.56×45mm NATO cases may produce higher pressures with the same type of powder and bullet as compared to .223 Remington cases. Sierra provides separate loading sections for .223 Remington and 5.56×45mm NATO and also recommends different loads for bolt-action rifles as compared to semiautomatic rifles.
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