Can Noveske .300 FB barrels use 5.56 brass?

[Garrett]

Like the subject says, can you use brass made from .223 / 5.56 in the Noveske .300 Fireball barrels? Or do you have to use .221 FB or neck-turn the 5.56 brass?

I haven't had a chance to put many rounds through my Noveske barrel, but last time out everything seemed to run just fine. The only problems I had appeared to be magazine-related.

Today, I went shooting again. I had several instances where the round wouldn't chamber completely, I had more instances where the next round would not feed ("click" on an empty chamber) and the bolt wouldn't lock back after the last round.

I realized on the way home that last time, I had separated my brass by .221 Fireball and 5.56, using one for the .300 Whisper Contender, and the other for the AR15/300. Today I was using all new-made brass from 5.56. So I'm thinking the neck is going to be too tight for the 5.56 brass, and I'm stuck using the (more expensive) .221 brass.

Anyone else experience this?

I like that my .300 Whisper Contender barrel from SSK can shoot either type of brass with no issues.

[Scalce]

You reference both 223 and 556 at the beginning but then are only talking about 556 brass towards the end of your post.

I assume you just mean non 221 Fireball brass in general.

Are you sure it's the neck and not the shoulder?

I find that LC brass does not form as good a shoulder on the initial case forming compared to other commercial 223 brass.

It gets better after the initial firing though.

Not sure if you are using just surplus 556, 223 commercial, or both.

I don't have a Noveske in 300/221 so I can't comment on your chamber specs.

Try manually chambering some rounds to see if they are tough to extract.

[deervalleygun]

what load are you using, and what is the OAL? It seems like the throat in my noveske barrel was a bit tight. I had to end up reaming it out a little to get a little more length on my handloads. In the end, just that little touch up made all the difference in the world. It functions perfectly, and it is very accurate.

Larry

[Hoser]

Mine runs fine with cut down 223/556 brass.

[Garrett]

Okay folks - here is what I found out. It wasn't the Noveske barrel. It was just certain brands of brass. And these particular rounds would not chamber in my Contender, either.

The ammo I'd had issues with was all new-formed brass, made from mixed .223 and 5.56 brass. These were just to be for plinking ammo, using surplus 147 gr. bullets.

I took some random samples of the different neck ODs of the loaded ammo I still have on hand, and found the following:

.223 brass
Fiocchi: .330 - .334
PMC: .330 - .331
BHA: .328
R-P: .329
S&B: .335 - .336
Win: .330

5.56 brass
LC: .329 - .330
PPU: .334
WCC: .329

From some of my 220 gr. SMK loads, I measured:

PMC: .330 - .331
Rem .221 FB brass: .329 - .334

The PPU and S&B loads would not chamber in my SSK .300 Whisper Contender barrel, any better than they would in my Noveske .300 FB barrel. They were both very consistent, but too thick. I'm thinking either of these would make good "match" brass if you were to turn the necks.

The PMC brass gave good consistency, and these seem to chamber just fine. I might have to see how much more of this brass I have on hand. LC and WCC military brass were also both good and were both very consistent.

.221 Fireball brass seems to be the least consistent. This did not surprise me, though. When you form the cases, the brass does not stretch consistently. You can measure the neck thickness at 4 or 5 points around the case mouth and it can vary .005" from thickest to thinnest.

eta:
I just measured some factory .300 Whisper ammo from CorBon. I have a box from a couple of years ago, with brass headstamped "300 WSPR". I also have a box from 5 or 6 years ago, which uses new LC brass. Both are loaded with 220 gr. SMK bullets. Several measurements on both give a neck OD of .328 - .329

[Scalce]

Good info

Hope it solves one of your issues so you can get shooting.