A Wylde chamber is simply a chamber that's in the middle, if you will.
Even with that long freebore, which isn't all that much longer than NATO chambers, especially compared to the other specs in the chart that crazy was nice enough to paste in.
There's only one reamer on the list that has longer freebore.
Trent, sorry to gang up, but I disagree as well.
And I don't mind getting ganged up on.
The point I was trying to make (unsuccessfully), is 223 Wylde gives a handloader a whole new world of options.
The longer freebore, with standard length ammunition, puts you in to the same territory as Weatherby did for shooters. He started making new cartridges, and rifles with longer freebore, as a way of "cheating" the pressure curve. And he was rewarded with the ability to pack even more powder in to the case, yet still not have case ruptures.
Why?
Because longer freebore = lower pressure curves. The bullet can jump a little out of the case, unimpeded, increasing effective case volume, which lowers the burn rate curve.
With AR-15's, which are already pushing the very limits of what brass can stand, on the higher end loadings, this is a good thing.
But when you are shooting *factory* ammunition which is charged by volume, the inconsistent weights of the charge, PLUS freebore, equals less consistency.
Given two barrels; one in 223 Wylde, and one in 5.56 NATO, of the same length, materials, and rifling, shooting the same ammunition, the one in 223 Wylde will post lower velocities because the pressure that builds is slightly less. If you shoot it over a chrono, you'll also notice that ammunition will also develop a wider velocity standard deviation.
At 100 yards, this effect is hardly measurable; time of flight is so incredibly short, it really doesn't matter in the overall scheme of things.
But as you reach out to 200, 300, 400+ yards, you'll notice vertical stringing with factory ammo (or, for any progressive reloads with charges dumped by volume), because with time of flight, every "problem" with your load is more pronounced (wind drift, drop, spin drift, etc all will change more, over time, with a wider starting velocity range).
The 223 wylde chamber will exacerbate those inconsistencies even MORE than a tighter chambered rifle with less freebore.
Now, with handloads using measured / weighed powder charges, you gain some advantages with 223 wylde.
First, because of the small amount of additional freebore, you'll find your "max load" ceiling is lifted.
Second, you will not have as much pressure on primers; so you can go further with thinner cup primers before you start to blow them out / crater / flatten / rupture them. For a comparison of primer cup thickness; (
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/primers-and-pressure-analysis/)
Third, you have a greater range of seating depth to play with, on the "longer" bullets (69, 75, 77, 80 gr). That's a HUGE advantage because if you seat those bullets to magazine-capable length, you lose a LOT of powder capacity (except 80 gr, it really can't be loaded to magazine length safely, period). When you lose that powder capacity, you ALSO lose a lot of your "range" of powder choices.
Meaning, you may not FIND an accuracy node with 69 or 75 grain bullets in a tighter chambered AR-15 barrel, because you can only go "so long" before your projectile hits the lands when chambered, and spikes pressures. You may find that nothing you try in the acceptable range, loaded to magazine length, will work, because you have such a narrow range of powder charges to play with.
Remember when handloading we're trying to A - get a consistent velocity deviation (within a few FPS), and B - get the projectiles to exit the muzzle at a period of harmonic "silence". Barrel steel vibrates like crazy when that ignition happens and if the barrel is vibrating when the projectiles leave, it opens groups up. If the barrel is BETWEEN harmonic vibrations, it shrinks groups down. (In the 22LR world, people have to use tensioners or harmonic balancers to tune the gun to the ammo, since we can't tune the ammo to the gun... in the centerfire world, we tune the ammo to the barrel/gun via reloading...)
Anyway.
Yes, you can plink & shoot factory ammo all day out of a 223 Wylde.
Yes, you can find 55, 62, etc grain loads that'll work good.
But... if you handload, and know your business... you can make those longer throated guns really sing.