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Quentin, the barrel is actually stamped 5.56NATO and will be better served with firing 5.56 ammunition. There is a slight throat difference in a .223 and 5.56 chamber where the bullet will seat better for the 5.56 rounds although .223 can be fired without issue. Cheers and stay safe!

Best cartridge? Depends on what your using the rifle for. As for .223 vs .556? Really doesn't matter except that .223 comes in alot more varieties ( hunting rounds, self deffense, plinking, etc) while .556 has a limited number of options. Your barrel can take either, but .556 is a higher pressure round and will cause increased barrel wear as opposed to a lower pressure round like a .223, but honestly most civilians will never shoot an AR15 enough to wear out a barrel ( even most competition shooters) so it really goes back to purpose of the rifle. If your using it for home deffense, I like the Federal Barnes TSX .223 it has a huge energy dump when shooting water jugs, and Balistics gel and will be an instant fight stopper, Hornady (critical deffense), Speer (Gold dot), and Federal (HST), are all amazing deffensive rounds that I've used in my pistols and just recently found out they also make deffensive .223 ammo as well (though I've not yet tried them out, the Balistics tests I've see

In times like these...whatever you can find!