Is this ammo safe to shoot

[Bentwing]

Last fall I bought a Savage model 14 in 223Remington. As you remember there was a shortage of ammo then. Ibought a 400 round case of Federal Ammo, XM193F
5.56mm M193 ball, I shot a box of twenty with no problem.

Now my question is: Is this safe to shoot in my gun as I have been reading that 5.56mm ans223 ammo are not the same, the Csaes are marked L C 08 but no NATO mark.

Thanks for any help.

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[TCOV]

I shoot .223 and 5.56 interchangeably in my bolt actions with out problems and both are accurate. Theoretically the 5.56 may produce high pressure in .223 chambered sporting arms but I have never read about any arms damaged by shooting them in sporting arms. There is a small difference in case capacity and reloaders need to take this into account. Others may feel differently. The way I understand it the difference is in the rifle throats, not the length of brass.

 

[motoman98]

and there is NO WAY a semi-auto is as strong as a modern bolt action.

 

[schnackenberg]

L C 08 is lake city made in 2008. 55 grain

should be fine to shoot out of a .223 bolt. you will get better preformance with .223 ammo.

enjoy

 

[Celtic Armory]

I personally wouldn't recommend it. The 5.56 does produce considerably higher chamber pressure than the .223. Before you go shoot this stuff up do lots of research. See if you can find any cases of damage in a .223 when using the 5.56 and then see if you can find any evidence of it happening in your rifle. When it comes to .308 the roles are reversed, for some reason. Civilian .308 produces higher chamber pressures than the 7.62x51. Go figure.

 

[shoggoth80]

It is a very similar argument to the .308/7.62x51 stuff. I shoot both out of my boltgun with no ill effects. I have never heard of anyone experiencing issues interchanging .223 for 5.56. This doesn't mean it hasn't or can't happen, just that I have not heard of it. I have heard you can use civie ammo in a NATO spec gun, but it's not a good idea to do it the other way around.

 

[John Gault]

When ammo was real high priced and availability was low I bought some of the newer manufacture Wolf .223 but I prefer the 5.56 in my rifle so If you decide to not use the 5.56 I'd be happy to trade you or consider a purchase on what you don't want.

 

[Hawaiian]

My Bushmaster M4 shoots both. If you gun is chambered in 223 and not 5.56 I will trade you some Remington 223 for your 5.56.