Gandalf 0 Posted December 1, 2003 Report Share Posted December 1, 2003 Is it safe to use 5.56 Nato military ammunition in the Saiga rifle? Has anyone here used this ammunition. I'm interested in getting some and trying it out, but I don't want a catastrophic malfunction either. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
VacuumReactor 0 Posted December 1, 2003 Report Share Posted December 1, 2003 You're in luck! 5.56 NATO and .223 are the same thing... I've used tons of military surplus stuff. It all worked great. The only bad experience I had was this South African 7.62x54R crap from the 60's. I was shooting it in my Mosin and it was really hard to open the action. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sheik Yerbouti 0 Posted December 1, 2003 Report Share Posted December 1, 2003 VR is right. The difference between 5.56 NATO and .223 Rem is in the headspace spec. Milspec cases are slightly thicker in the web area, but the pressures are very, very close. After all, if a 60 grain pill leaves an 18 inch muzzle at 2750 fps, the mean pressures are the same regardless of whether it is 223 or 5.56. That's simple physics. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gandalf 0 Posted December 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2003 Thank you, that was just the type of answer I was hoping for! I asked because I've heard how some AR rifles can have serious problems using the milspec ammo when they're strictly chambered for .223. I figured that an AK type rifle wouldn't be nearly as picky, but I wanted to ask just to make sure. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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