.223 Remington

Loading for Accuracy, Efficiency and Versatility

- Brian Pearce

Development of the .223 Remington began in 1957, and it became commercially available in January 1964, about a month prior to U.S. military adoption of its twin cartridge – Cartridge, 5.56mm Ball, M193 – for the AR-15/ M16 rifle. The case was based on a lengthened .222 Remington that offered powder capacity and velocity increases. It quickly outsold the .222 Remington and the rather new .222 Remington Magnum, causing those two cartridges to quickly fall from popularity. In spite of stiff competition, the .223 is easily the most widely used centerfire varmint cartridge in the world.

The history of the .223 Remington really began in 1950, when Remington introduced the .222 Remington in the company’s Model 722 bolt-action rifle. It was based on a new rimless case and filled an obvious void between the .22 Hornet and .220 Swift. It pushed a 50-grain bullet at a claimed 3,230 fps (reduced to 3,140 fps today) and quickly became popular with varmint and predator hunters. It offered long barrel life, low recoil and accuracy, all of which helped it establish a remarkable record of benchrest wins. It was the “go-to” benchrest cartridge for decades, and even produced a near-perfect five-shot group officially measured at .009 inch by M.P. “Mac” McMillan in 1973.

In 1957, the Armalite AR-15 rifle was in development, and the .222 Remington case was lengthened, its shoulder moved forward and its neck shortened to create a new experimental cartridge that would offer greater performance and properly function in the gas-operated action. For several reasons, this cartridge was not accepted by the military, but Remington chose to introduce it commercially as the .222 Remington Magnum in 1957-1958.