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GunCritic

.223 Remington (5.56x45mm NATO) VS .38 Super

Head to Head Comparison

.223 Remington (5.56x45mm NATO)

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50%

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50%

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.38 Super

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50%

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0 Reviews

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0 Reviews

MSRP:

$7.64

Used Price:

$7.64

New Price:

$8.49

MSRP:

$4.85

Used Price:

$4.85

New Price:

$5.39

Gun Specifications

Specifications

.223 Remington (5.56x45mm NATO)

.38 Super

Height

1.76

0.00

Average FPS

3148

Average Grain

57

Average Energy

1254

Recoil

0.80

0.00

Gun Stats

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.223 Remington (5.56x45mm NATO)

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.38 Super

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$5.39

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$28.28

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$3.89

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Gun Descriptions

About The .223 Remington Ammo is bottlenecked and rimless cartridge, developed in 1957 for the United States Army when the need for a small-caliber cartridge capable of delivering a high velocity arose. Even to this day, the .223 Remington Ammo is considered one of the most popular bullets and is used by various manual action and semiautomatic handguns. The .223 Remington Ammo offers better accuracy in NATO barrel chamberings than the 5.56x45mm Ammo. Even though these two bullets are pretty similar, they require significantly different chambers to be used properly. A longer barrel of the gun typically offers a greater muzzle velocity. When it comes to the .223 Remington Ammo, the muzzle velocity decreases or increases about 25.7 feet per second for an inch on barrel length. The overall length of this bullet is 57mm, and the bullet diameter measures 5.7mm. Velocity offered by the .223 Remington Ammo is 3,750 feet per second while producing an energy level of 959 ft. lbf.  Manufacturer In the year 1962, Remington Arms designed the .223 Remington Ammo, and in the coming year of 1964, Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries developed this bullet.  Uses The .223 Remington Ammo has proven to be the most popular cartridge in its category and is widely used in a manual action, semiautomatic rifles, and even handguns. The .223 Remington Ammo is used for hunting small to medium-sized game and self-defense.  

The .38 Super has traveled a rather rocky road during its 121-year history. Due to its ballistic performance, accuracy in modern guns, wide selection of components and ease with which top-notch handloads can be assembled, it has become popular for action pistol competition, defense and field use. The addition of the “Automatic +P” designation in 1974 helped differentiate it from the old .38 Automatic Colt. The history of the .38 Super starts around 1897 with the development of the .38 Automatic Colt cartridge (.38 Rimless Smokeless) designed for the Colt Model 1900 Automatic Pistol. Early advertising listed a 130-grain FMJ bullet at around 1,040 fps, which was later increased to 1,070 fps. This cartridge was designed at least five years prior to the 9mm Luger. During the 1920s there was growing demand for handgun cartridges that could better penetrate car bodies, so in 1928 Colt responded with the .38 Super Automatic in its Model 1911. Essentially, the Super was dimensionally the same as the .38 Automatic Colt, including bullet weight and profile. However, being chambered in the notably stronger Model 1911 pistol, it could be loaded to much greater pressures, with velocities pushing 130-grain bullets to 1,300 fps by 1933. Pressures were increased from 23,000 CUP to 33,000 CUP. For clarification, the .38 Super should never be fired in comparatively weak Model 1900 pistols, which can be disastrous. The Super had another significant problem: It produced poor to mediocre accuracy at best. There were several contributing factors that included a bullet diameter specified at .356 inch while barrel groove diameters were known to measure .355, .356 and .357 inch. Period Colt Government Model pistols were not built with proper tolerances to achieve top accuracy. However, the largest single obstacle was Colt’s chamber specifications that resulted in poor headspace control. The .38 Super originally fired a 130-grain bullet at 1,215 fps, but by 1933 velocity was bumped to 1,300 fps before it was eventually standardized at 1,280 fps. Remington and Winchester list 130-grain FMJ loads at the original 1,215 fps while Federal offers the same bullet weight at 1,200 fps. Several smaller companies such as Buffalo Bore offer loads containing 115-grain and 124-grain JHP bullets at 1,415 fps and 1,350 fps, respectively.

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