S&B or Federal American Eagle .223 55g ?

[rightisright]

Natchez has some pretty good sales on .223 going on: http://www.natchezss.com/ammo.cfm?conte ... 0&orderBy=

The S&B and Federal AM are about the same cost. Any thoughts on which is superior?

[SoupOrMan]

I'd go with the Federal. S&B can be a little lacking in quality control. I've bought both before and got a few bad primers in the S&B. The Federal was uninspiring, but it worked.

[NVGdude]

I reload, and Federal brass has a lousy reputation in .223, so I'd pick S&B.

[Flintlock Tom]

Okay, this seems like a good thread to air out my ignorance.
It has been my understanding that 5.56 NATO is loaded to higher pressures than .223 Remington. And that if you have a rifle chambered in 5.56 it is safe to use .223 in it. However a rifle chambered in .223 is not (always) safe to fire 5.56.
The website linked seems to use the two calibers interchangeably, as if it does not matter which you use.
So, is there a significant difference that shooters should be aware of?

[SoupOrMan]

.223 Remington in a 5.56 NATO chamber: OK

5.56 NATO in a .223 Remington chamber: NO

5.56 NATO won't wreck your chamber immediately, but it will reduce the life of the gun.

The Ammo Oracle has more information. Some of it is out of date, but most of it rings true.

[Combat Controller]

Not wreck it, just get stuck in it sometimes due to different tolerances, the .223 chamber is really tight.

I find that Federal has a had a lot of recalls recently and not S&B. S&B is pretty good stuff, but has military primers so they can be hard. That might have been the source of your issue Soup.

[SoupOrMan]

Not wreck it, just get stuck in it sometimes due to different tolerances, the .223 chamber is really tight.

I find that Federal has a had a lot of recalls recently and not S&B. S&B is pretty good stuff, but has military primers so they can be hard. That might have been the source of your issue Soup.

That's weird. I was using an AR at the time. Maybe it's like the my luck with Remington .22LR. I've only had one box of lousy .22LR from them, the rest have been spot on. This time the S&B problems got out of the way early.