Lake City 7.62 brass***Forming to 260?***

R

Rock Knocker

Well-known member
I was wondering how this Lake City 7.62 brass is. Found some for pretty cheap. But my plans were to form it to 260AI.

I can buy some Lapua brass but dang, I can get 1K LC for less than 100 Lapua. Even if LC is less consistent I can weigh separate into different lots. 1K 260AI may last the rest of my life, certainly longer than my barrels life.

I picked up 100 Winchester 7-08 when I put the gun together, and I think I have somewhere around 700 rounds through the barrel and I have half the brass left but I'm going to need more soon or a later.
 
Last edited:
LC is tough brass. It's much thicker than Winchester brass and last much longer. If you sort and prep the cases properly IMO you'll have much better brass than Winchester.

Be sure you have a quality crimp remover if it's brass that has run through a 240B you might get a few that won't size. Get a case gauge to save time and headache.
 
Where did you find it cheap? It's been out of stock for a while. I am thinking you were talking about "New" LC 7.62 not used range brass.
 
Last edited:
No, this is once fired brass.

http://valhalladistributing.com/?page_id=5

Accuracy is the name of the game with this gun so I'm trying to make up my mind, but I'm in no hurry.

I'm not sure if I could get the same accuracy from culled LC or if I should just go with Lapua.

I've been happy with this Winchester brass(7-08), it's lasted so long I've had it long before Lapua was offering 260. I run some hot loads because I figure a 5.5 pound Savage target action can take it and a new bolt head is a few bucks and a few minutes to replace. I lost about half my brass to loose primer pockets at around 6 reloads but the other half have stuck around like an annoying girlfriend and at 9 reloads looks no worse off than at 6. I anneal often and from memory only recently lost one to a very small split in the neck.

I'm thinking I will probably go Lapua because with the brass I still have and as long as the Lapua holds up like the Winchester 100 will last the rest of the life of the barrel. When this barrel is cooked I was planning on swapping the barrel to a heavy duty 7mm, 28 Nosler or similar.
 
Rock Knocker, you may be in deep trouble if you try and use once fired LC brass in your custom rifle. The first firing was probably in a M60 machine gun, huge chamber. Even if it was fired in an AR10 you can be in trouble. The dia of the original chamber will have developed a "memory" in the once fired brass, and it will want to expand back to that dia after you size it down.

So, spend the money and get new Lake City brass, it can be hard to find and disappear quickly when you do find it.

I make all kinds of wild cats out of it. IN my experience, New Lake City brass is about 10% tougher than Lapua, and I have small flock of Lapua 308 brass to work with.

Curently, I am making 6 XC brass out of the new Lake City, STRONG BRASS!!
 
Originally Posted By: ackleymanRock Knocker, you may be in deep trouble if you try and use once fired LC brass in your custom rifle. The first firing was probably in a M60 machine gun, huge chamber. Even if it was fired in an AR10 you can be in trouble. The dia of the original chamber will have developed a "memory" in the once fired brass, and it will want to expand back to that dia after you size it down.

So, spend the money and get new Lake City brass, it can be hard to find and disappear quickly when you do find it.

I make all kinds of wild cats out of it. IN my experience, New Lake City brass is about 10% tougher than Lapua, and I have small flock of Lapua 308 brass to work with.

Curently, I am making 6 XC brass out of the new Lake City, STRONG BRASS!!



ackleyman, would you make the same claim/recommendation re: once-fired 5.56 LC brass?
 
i bought 3500 once fired, LC primed brass many years ago. It was military surplus, could have been fired in any number of machine guns.

I am still running that brass today, in tight chamber bolt rifles, and tight chamber auto rifles, never had any problem with any of it.
 
Many years ago you had a far better chance of getting LC 7.62 brass that was fired in M14's. Odds are much greater today that they were fired in a MG resulting in stretched brass Ackleyman refers to.

Regards,
hm
 
I like the sound of the LC pull down brass as well. I would probably pop out the primers included, ream the crimp then put some BR2s in there.
 
I've seen on youtube(must be true. cough cough) that a guy was able to run LC 7.62 brass through a FL 260 die and voila, had some 260 brass.

I don't have bushing dies, if I needed more dies to accomplish the transformation I would try to get my hands on a dirt cheap 7-08 FL die.

I already planned on trimming if need be and was going to turn necks regardless, I was just wondering if other guys are having that easy of a time with one step 30cal to 26.
 
Originally Posted By: MatlockOriginally Posted By: ackleymanRock Knocker, you may be in deep trouble if you try and use once fired LC brass in your custom rifle. The first firing was probably in a M60 machine gun, huge chamber. Even if it was fired in an AR10 you can be in trouble. The dia of the original chamber will have developed a "memory" in the once fired brass, and it will want to expand back to that dia after you size it down.

So, spend the money and get new Lake City brass, it can be hard to find and disappear quickly when you do find it.

I make all kinds of wild cats out of it. IN my experience, New Lake City brass is about 10% tougher than Lapua, and I have small flock of Lapua 308 brass to work with.

Curently, I am making 6 XC brass out of the new Lake City, STRONG BRASS!!



ackleyman, would you make the same claim/recommendation re: once-fired 5.56 LC brass?

There is a lot of LC 223 brass that is "SAW" brass, the chambers are huge. I have had good luck firing SAW brass in factory chambers, but not in custom rifle chambers. I would always use a Small base sizer on once fired brass in either 308 or 223 if I was firing it in a factory rifle. If a guy wants no problems, then buy the New Lake City brass. Brass "Spring Back" is the issue on Brass fired in large chambers. You sized it down, and it Normalizes over time, and springs back toward the original chamber dimension that it was fired in, how much is any body's guess. I have had this also happen in brass that was fired in 7 Mag BAR's then loaded for a Rem 700. Two years later, the BAR brass would not chamber in the 700. This is a tough lesson to learn when you have climbed 30' up a tree, waiting for dawn to break to deer hunt, then realize that you have to cycle your ammo through the gun to hopefully find a case that will chamber. Seems like you wake up the dead no matter how carefully and slowly you try and cycle the ammo through the gun.

In cases were your ammo was loaded in purchased once fired brass, it is a safe bet to keep your ammo fresh.

PTG has a 308 Win Reamer designed by Mid Tompkins for use with once fired lake city brass. The reamer is .0015 larger in the web than a normal 308 reamer.

LC brass is some wonderful brass in that it is stronger than Lapua. In the 308, the necks are thicker than normal Lapua brass and will create a tad more grip on the bullet if you don't up your bushing size. Yesterday, I was shooting a custom model 70 with a 26" Shilen barrel shooting the 155 palma at 3000 fps. With Lapua brass, it had to be full length resized, but not so with the Lake City, but they did take different powder charges because of how much thicker the Lake City brass is. Accuracy was fantastic with both Lapua and Lake City brass.

In summary, once fired LC brass is ok in factory chambers when sized with a small base sizer. Once fired LC brass in custom chambers MAY cause problems in custom rifles, depending on their chamber dimensions.

Until the last few years, SAW brass was not very prevalent in once fired LC 223 brass, and did not give a lot of issues. SAW brass is larger than brass fired in an M4.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the thorough explanation, ackleyman! I was not familiar with SAW brass. I just bought 1000 pieces of once-fired LC to use in my AR and likely to purchase a factory bolt .223. I'll keep the small base sizer in mind for when I finally get to reloading.
 
Originally Posted By: ackleymanI can get saw brass for $40 per thousand.

keep the small base sizer in mind, best insurance!

WOW! Now that seems like a good deal. I bought 1000 pc. once-fired LC from Brass Bombers for more than double that price, and it was on sale. I'm not sure if it is SAW or not.
 
Thanks for the input, I am currently on my last 100-200 pieces from a bag of 1000 primed once fired LC 556 brass, besides a couple odd case head separations I haven't had a problem. I have resized a couple dozen of them after firing them once but the other 800+ have come straight out of the bag and loaded up. Run through my AR no problems.

I'm most curious about the one step resizing from 30cal to 26cal, I assumed it would be a two step process but some guys are saying it can be a one step deal. I will be turning necks so I'm not worried about that.

I'm not sure how worried I am about over sized brass, obviously a problem if I can't fit it in but I have never full length sized a case that has gone into my 260AI, 8+ firings. Just the fire forming itself would be expanding the case quite a bit.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Rock KnockerI've seen on youtube(must be true. cough cough) that a guy was able to run LC 7.62 brass through a FL 260 die and voila, had some 260 brass.

I don't have bushing dies, if I needed more dies to accomplish the transformation I would try to get my hands on a dirt cheap 7-08 FL die.

I already planned on trimming if need be and was going to turn necks regardless, I was just wondering if other guys are having that easy of a time with one step 30cal to 26.

If you put a very heavy chamfer on the outside of the neck, lube well with Imperial sizing wax, ease the case into your 260 die, thing should go well.

The pull down process often produces a few culls in the brass.

I got Pull Down brass from another source, not one cull at all, all from '09. I am making 6 XC brass out of it, and will fire form tomorrow with Bullseye and work up accuracy loads this weekend. IN the 308, this brass is much stronger than new Lapua and gold box Lapua.
 
I fire formed 6 XC brass without one single split using 14g of Bullseye and cream of wheat, perfect cases. This Lc '09 brass is real tough to say the least!!!

Now to make some 6.5x 47 Lapua, 6 Creed, 6.5 Creed from this LC brass.

Paul Bikes form dies makes forming brass easy, and the K & M neck turner, expander mandrel used with a variable speed 1/2" drill takes the neck turning to the .0001 a snap in one neck turning!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top