lake city brass

schroeder

schroeder

New member
I'm getting ready to jump into the AR game and was wondering how Lake City Brass is for reloading. I know you have to remove the primer crimp, but how good is it? Thanks for any input.

Jason
 
It won't matter what chamber your rifle has, once it's resized it's resized. The old wives tail of it being thicker is for the most part false also, brass thickness can be determined by weight and having checked Lake City against Winchester over the years I haven't found any discernable difference. Lake City is very good brass for the price and I have loaded several thousand rounds of it over the years.
 
I have recently started using Lake City. Seems to be good brass. Sizes just fine in a set of .223 dies. I would suggest that you sort by date codes if possible for the best consistency.

Not sure what the comment above about 5.56 is referring to. I also use milsurp brass that is marked 5.56 and it works fine. It is usually heavier and requires a little less powder due to a little less volume and thicker cases but it works fine. Just don't mix it in with your commercial brass and you'll be OK.

I have found that milsurp brass often takes a lot of extra prep work that kind of offsets the lower price. Removing crimps, drilling out flash holes (not required for LC), etc... can add a lot of time to brass prep but the stuff seems to last a long time.
 
My lake city brass weighs less than the Winchester cases I have. I would have guessed it was the same or heavier. I am in the middle of processing 2,000 pieces of LC. Can't wait to be done!
 

I guess I haven't compared the weight of LC to RP or Win.
brass, but it is pretty obvious when loading at case
capacity, that LC has less volume in the case. 25.8 grains
of VV-N133 pretty well fills the case, with just enough
space to seat a bullet, with mildly compressing the load.
In a RP, case there is plenty of space left for seating with
no compressing the powder charge. As I recall WCC/Win.
brass has volume similar to RP brass.

As for LC brass, it is my favorite to load. The brass lasts
for many re-loads, and it seems, by date code, to be very
consistent volume wise. I typically use RP, and WCC/Win.,
brass for the case slingers(AR-15's), since I don't feel
bad when I loose them in the field. I get pretty depressed
when some '97 LC brass disappears in the grass. I look
pretty stupid out there with my wife's metal detector,
searching for it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Squeeze
 
Quote:
It won't matter what chamber your rifle has, once it's resized it's resized. The old wives tail of it being thicker is for the most part false also, brass thickness can be determined by weight and having checked Lake City against Winchester over the years I haven't found any discernable difference. Lake City is very good brass for the price and I have loaded several thousand rounds of it over the years.



http://www.fulton-armory.com/556-vs-223-Chambers.htm

http://www.thegunzone.com/556v223.html

This is what I was refering to...I re-read these pages after seeing the references to my original post(shoulda done it first,guess it had been a while since I read them originally)...being no kind of reloading expert by any stretch, my confusion was with using milsurp ammo as opposed to milsurp brass /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif. I never said it wasn't quality brass,I just may have offered some well intended advice out of ignorance...at least it wasn't dangerous advice...please forgive the eroneous info. Personally, I wouldn't own an AR that was chambered in .223 instead of 5.56,as I can only afford to have one AR, but that's just my opinion.
 
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If you get the LC brass that is virgin, you will have some really good stuff without the mil-spec crimp to deal with. Cheaper than Dirt has been selling some lately.
 
Quote:
If you get the LC brass that is virgin, you will have some really good stuff without the mil-spec crimp to deal with. Cheaper than Dirt has been selling some lately.



This post reminded me of something. The newer LC brass (maybe marked 05 or newer, not exactly sure) is now made by Federal since they took over the Lake City contract. There is also some Federal brass with a date on it (FC 0x) that is made in the same plant and supposed to be the equivalent of LC. My past experience with Federal keeps me from buying any of the new stuff but it may be OK. I have not tried it since I have plenty of 01, 02, and 04 LC.
 
Kelbro, would you share your experinces with federal? I shoot a lot of it since it was cheap and easy to get, was is the key word here, i have noticed a difference in the diffrent batches though. The groupings aren't the same. blue
 
Sure.

I have a few lots of Federal that came from American Eagle factory loads that has been through 5 loads before and 1 load after annealing. They have performed very well and still have decent primer pockets. FWIW, it has the small type headstamp.

I had several lots that had the larger type headstamp that had really loose primer pockets after only one reload. Based on this observation, I thought that as long as I stuck with the small type headstamp I would be OK. My mistake.

I have another batch with the small type that also got loose after the second reload. These are all shooting the same basic load. Not a hot load or even approaching hot.

My problem with FC has been the inconsistency between lots. Some good, some bad. I still have several hundred on hand but they have been relegated to 'blasting' loads for my son's AR where I plan to leave the empties at the range.

I have read that the Federal brass goes through one less drawing operation in the manufacturing process and that was stated as the reason that they are softer than other types of brass. I don't know about that but their brass does trim a WHOLE lot easier than Winchester, LC, or Lapua.

I want brass that I can get several loads out of. One reason is that the costs keep climbing. The other is that it's a lot of work to fully prep a batch of 500-1000 pieces of brass for the first load and I would like to avoid that as much as possible.
 
Thanks kelbro, i have noticed a difference in the grouping of shots between batchs. I don't load but have sent out a 1000 to be loaded, he has yet to do them so i don't know how they will turn out yet. Since all federal ammo has disappeared from this area, (except shotgun) i guess i donn't have to worry about buying more. blue
 
Federal is like Rem in that is it soft. LC is the best going. Have shot more of it than I can count. I would not worry much about this .223/5.56 thing. I have shot 100's of thousands of rounds in both chambers and never saw a problem yet.
 
kelbro,

I also came across the small print FC brass and the large print FC brass. The small print FC came from the Federal American Eagle cartridges as you said. The Large print FC brass came from a box of Fereral Premium loads that I got from a dealer when I bought a rifle from him.

Dave
 
I went halves on 500 rounds of LC with a guy. Between the both of us, we have had cases get stuck in sizing dies, and split and get stuck in the chamber. I just found one the other day while loading an AR magazine, cracked all the way around about 1/2" up from the base.
 
Quote:
I went halves on 500 rounds of LC with a guy. Between the both of us, we have had cases get stuck in sizing dies, and split and get stuck in the chamber. I just found one the other day while loading an AR magazine, cracked all the way around about 1/2" up from the base.



Do you have the date codes? It's on the headstamp. Example: LC 04 was made in 2004.

Was it new manufacture or so-called 'once-fired'?

Milsurp brass does need to be lubed. I have sized a bunch through my RCBS smallbase dies and never had a problem. It does require a little more effort but slow and easy gets it done.
 
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