Why is the 5.56/.223 still so popular?

I'd love an AR in 6.5 Grendel. I need brass and bullets. Impossible to find and expensive. .223 brass and bullets are neither.

I tell my soldiers to never pooh-pooh the 5.56. It does what is supposed to do very well. The green-tip stuff will shred any car, everything except the axles, engine block and bell housing. It does DEVASTATING wound trauma. You do NOT want to get hit with one. When you are fighting, you are going to try to get repeated hits. This cartridge allows you to do that. The cartridge is so inferior to the 7.62x39, that ....the Soviets saw the damage it does and immediately re-chambered the AK to a similar cartridge. When I was deployed, I never once wished I had a better cartridge. When I was training petite female soldiers to shoot, I never wished I had a cartridge with more recoil.

Running one for home defense, (I don't anymore, I use a VR80 shotgun,) you can run pretty much any varmint bullet and it will be HIGHLY effective against human targets and LESS likely to penetrate multiple walls than a handgun bullet. It is common, cheap, and plentiful. I shoot the steel-cased Tula stuff all the time, I have NEVER had a malfunction. If you want to use it for varmint hunting, I tell people; "If you prefer a bolt rifle, run a 22-250. If you already have an AR, go ahead and use it, it will work just fine."

For what it is MEANT TO DO, there is nothing wrong with it at all.

Military issue trickle down.

The same question was probably asked about the 30-06 after WW1.

-Stan

How about versatility. You can load from 40gn varmint bullets up to 90gn target bullets

I can punch holes in paper at 300yds just as easy with the 223 at about 1/3 the cost of my friends 6mm BR.

Current issue military rounds will always be more popular choices. Especially in the host country. I do not think 556 is going away for quite sometime. For what it's worth, it is more effective then most folks seem to think. I sure would not want to get hit w one.

Nope! I can guarantee that’d about mess one’s day up in a hurry!

Being a military and law enforcement round makes the 223 Rem/5.56 popular. Cheap shooting ithe surplus ammunition.

222 Rem, 222 Rem Mag, and 223 Rem have been quite accurate in bolt rifles from the get go.

And then it was found the AR-15 platform can be made very accurate which increases its interest.

I really was not much interested in an AR-15 until I got involved in Service Rifle competition in the 1990’s to qualify to buy a CMP Garand. The accuracy of the AR-15’s were much better than about any other civilian military version rifle at the time and I got interested.

The AR-15 is a great platform and I have several in various ones in different calibers and cartridges. My CMP Compass Lake service rifle match rifle in 223 Rem is the most accurate of the bunch.

Why is the 223 still so popular? Other than shooting 22lr's, it's just plain fun to shoot'em!
I've got 6 gun's chambered in 223, and over a dozen in 22lr. Add suppressor's on them, and shooting doesn't get much more fun!

A major factor is probably because .308 has always cost more than .223 ammo.

The other reasons are quite familiar to most rifle owners.

It’s an interesting question to me. I can make rather lengthy list of “why” it’s popular. I also can’t understand why it’s so popular.

Because when I list all of the good reasons it still doesn’t overcome the mediocrity of the cartridge.

Basically their is a lot of stuff on the positive side of the scale, understandably. But on the other side is still a cartridge that is so-so on its best day.

But that’s just me, and my opinion.

DeepSouth said:

It’s an interesting question to me. I can make rather lengthy list of “why” it’s popular. I also can’t understand why it’s so popular.

Because when I list all of the good reasons it still doesn’t overcome the mediocrity of the cartridge.

Basically their is a lot of stuff on the positive side of the scale, understandably. But on the other side is still a cartridge that is so-so on its best day.

But that’s just me, and my opinion.

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Again, it's because of the breathless infatuation with the AR platform, which has led to a like infatuation of the cartridge, and of course cheap ammunition. (One poster here states that the wound track in game of a bullet fired from a 5.56 is indistinguishable from that of a 30-06 )

And you are correct regarding the plusses and minuses of the cartridge. Change the conversation to bolt rifles and in all reality, it's just another ho-hum medium range varmint cartridge.

35W

DeepSouth said:

It’s an interesting question to me. I can make rather lengthy list of “why” it’s popular. I also can’t understand why it’s so popular.

Because when I list all of the good reasons it still doesn’t overcome the mediocrity of the cartridge.

Basically their is a lot of stuff on the positive side of the scale, understandably. But on the other side is still a cartridge that is so-so on its best day.

But that’s just me, and my opinion.

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I daresay the amount of plinking and paper punching far outweighs the amount of, say, hunting.

5.56/.223 is pretty good in the military role. It’s excellent in a plinking and target shooting role because it’s cheap and low recoil and although it’s not long range it does great at most folks’ realistic shooting distances. It’s adequate for hunting in many parts of the country with specialized ammo. So, in the real world it answers well for about 99% of the time a trigger is pulled.

Because it is a handy little carbine round that can also be used in light rifles and stabilized pistols.

Mosin77 said:

I daresay the amount of plinking and paper punching far outweighs the amount of, say, hunting.

5.56/.223 is pretty good in the military role. It’s excellent in a plinking and target shooting role because it’s cheap and low recoil and although it’s not long range it does great at most folks’ realistic shooting distances. It’s adequate for hunting in many parts of the country with specialized ammo. So, in the real world it answers well for about 99% of the time a trigger is pulled.

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Really glad a .223 bolt gun was my very first rifle, later in life at 73. Always been a shotgun shooter, except for my time with 16s and 14s while working for Uncle Sam. Lots of fun to shoot at the range, accurate, and although it`ll kill mostly paper, perfectly capable for a coyote or pig with the proper load should the opportunity present itself.

Short answer: you're looking at it pretty exclusively through the lense of a traditional hunter.

I'd say because of most reasons people listed here;
Available
Common
Low recoil
Can take up to deer sized game(not my first choice, but doable with proper ammo)
Accurate
Flat shooting(relatively)
Easy to reload(components are everywhere)


Another reason I'd say the 5.56 is a great option is the ability to use a. 22lr Adapter.
Is a dedicated .22LR "better" perhaps but the adapter makes the rifle infinitely more useful. Small to medium sized game.

Owning a 5.56 lent me into investing into .300BO because I had so much brass/can find more, and I can shoot cast bullets.


I don't really think there are any "bad" cartridges. They all do something better or worse than one another.

I was thinking about this and it occurred to me that the vast majority of the new cartridges that we're all thinking about here are designed to extend the range of the 5.56 mm cartridge past 300-500 yards. Some of these cartridges are designed to extend the effective range of a 5.56 sized rifle to a thousand yards like the 6mm ARC for example. That's all great but the problem is, the vast majority of the population lives in the eastern half of the country and in areas where thousand yard ranges are typically a day's drive away if you're lucky. 500 yard ranges are, in fact, uncommon and if you find one, you're gonna pay for the privilege of using it. So, most of the people in the United States aren't able to enjoy the benefits of the latest and greatest long range cartridges and so, why would they spend the extra money on a niche cartridge when they can't use that rifle in that niche?

The solution is clear and it has been for some time. This country needs more public long range rifle ranges in the eastern states. There should be several in every state. They should be publicly available and they should be funded with Pittman-Robertson funds. Hunting license fees don't need to be diverted but rifle ammunition? Why not?

redcon1 said:

The solution is clear and it has been for some time. This country needs more public long range rifle ranges in the eastern states. There should be several in every state. They should be publicly available and they should be funded with Pittman-Robertson funds. Hunting license fees don't need to be diverted but rifle ammunition? Why not?

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I work PT at a public range here in Wisconsin that is privately manages but owned by the state, is actually in a State Forest. This range is limited to 300 yards and is actually the only Public daily fee outdoor range for hundreds of miles in all directions. We have people traveling 2.5 to 3hrs here from Illinois.

Now scuttlebutt is that over next winter they will be tearing down the range houses on the 25yd and 100yd ranges and replacing them with new. to include new benched and out-houses in each range house. Then also it was found that there is a native to Wisconsin cactus that is endangered on the trap hill so they will be closing that down and relocating that range along with the heated 5 Stand. In it's place they are supposed to also be removing the LE range and then pushing that berm back to 1k yds!

All being done with DNR and Pittman-Robertson funds. Now I just hope it to all be true! Then I will upgrade my Savage 223.

citizenconn said:

Opinions vary. And while working for Uncle Sugar, I found the 55 grain projectiles to be pretty unimpressive. For back in the day, in the jungle, (before my time serving) it was effective enough at wounding lightly clad combatants at relatively close range, with the idea being to make the enemy expend as many resources saving their buddy as possible. But a couple decades later, shooting at armored up fanatics jacked to the gills on khat and worse, I found it to be severely lacking. Especially when their weapons had me beat on effective killing range.
Nowadays I just shoot at steel targets from as long away as possible so that's why I prefer heavier .223 projectiles, if I have to use a .223/5.56.
I think the STG 44 was a good example of better ballistic efficacy with a larger caliber.

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I suppose so. Also they sped up the twist rate and shorted the barrel making the 5.56 NATO less effective since my days. What works against one enemy doesn't always work as well against another. Too bad they don't issue what is needed in the specific battle theater.

I don’t get the guys preaching how much better the 223/5.56 is over 7.63x39, then tells you how much better the 300 BLK is over the 223/556.

citizenconn said:

Opinions vary. And while working for Uncle Sugar, I found the 55 grain projectiles to be pretty unimpressive. For back in the day, in the jungle, (before my time serving) it was effective enough at wounding lightly clad combatants at relatively close range, with the idea being to make the enemy expend as many resources saving their buddy as possible. But a couple decades later, shooting at armored up fanatics jacked to the gills on khat and worse, I found it to be severely lacking. Especially when their weapons had me beat on effective killing range.
Nowadays I just shoot at steel targets from as long away as possible so that's why I prefer heavier .223 projectiles, if I have to use a .223/5.56.
I think the STG 44 was a good example of better ballistic efficacy with a larger caliber.

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What unit were you with that was still using 55 grain ammo? What were they shooting at you with that you couldn't hit with your rifle?

twarr1 said:

I don’t get the guys preaching how much better the 223/5.56 is over 7.63x39, then tells you how much better the 300 BLK is over the 223/556.

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300 Blk is a fantastic PDW round and is great at what it was designed for. As a general issue service round I find it's trajectory and velocity to be lacking. For a general fighting gun, Id take the 5.56 any day of the week.

The fact that .223 rifles generally come with faster twist barrels allow the use of heavier bullets than can be effectively used in other .224 bore rifles. AR's are 1:9 and faster, most .223 bolt guns are 1:9 nowadays. 22-250 and .220 Swift (and the like) post impressive muzzle velocities with their 50's gr. projectiles but once you get out to 500 yds. or so get blown all over the paper if there is any wind at all.

.223 checks a lot of boxes. Hence the popularity.