Rifle Ammo

Rifle ammunition is where the gap between a cheap round and a good one shows up on paper. Bulk 5.56 and .223 exists to make training affordable and does that job well. Match ammunition uses consistently weighed powder charges and better bullets, and it is the difference between a rifle that groups and a rifle that patterns.

Two specifications decide whether a given load will work in your rifle. Chamber marking comes first — a 5.56 NATO chamber safely fires .223 Remington, but the reverse is not true and the same asymmetry exists between .308 Winchester and 7.62x51 NATO. Then barrel twist rate, which decides what bullet weight will stabilise: a 1:9 twist may shoot 55 grain beautifully and scatter 77 grain badly.