"New" Lake City 30-06 ammo???

taperloc

A few years ago, a private company took over the government Lake City Ammunition Facility. The new company started producing 30-06 ammo, supposedly made to "gov't spec's". At the time, USGI, surplus 30-06 ammo was in short supply.
When it first became available at gun shows, I purchased a quantity of the new LC stuff, but I have never fired any of it.

3 questions.
Is the new Lake City ammo any good?
Was it really made to "gov't spec"? (Usable in a M1 Garand").
Is the new private Lake City facility still in business?

Don McManus

Federal / American Eagle manufactures Lake City Ammo in Anoka, MN. Quite a bit of their XM193 is available in 200 round packs, and if I remember correctly, it is LC Headstamped.

I just bought a bunch of Lake City .50 BMG that arrived in Federal / American Eagle boxes from Anoka, headstamped LC 08.

Doesn't help with the 30-06, obviously, but if you are feeding a Garand, you ought to look at the CMP. They still show boxed Greek surplus at under $ .28 per round, and 192 round spam cans in enblocs for $ .31 per round. I have shot a couple of thousand rounds of this through the Garands and three other semi-auto 30-06's with zero ammo related problems.

nononsense

taperloc,

I'm on the way to a meeting but I couldn't resist.

ATK is a conglomerate that owns several firearms related companies such as Federal and RCBS. They DO NOT own Lake City, the Feds still do. ATK was hired to clean it up, bring it into the 21st century and run it for the Federal gubment.

This was started several years ago after the Feds closed many of the U.S. ammunition manufacturing facilities. These closures and the two battle fronts we're engaged in are responsible for the ammunition shortages in the battle fronts and here at home.

Lake City ammunition has generally been good quality. It's being made on the same or improved machinery in the same facility using the same process and recipes as before. If you have specific questions, call ATK.

Lake City is not private but it's being run by a private management company, ATK.

Best.

ammo guy

There has been NO Lake City Arsenal .30-06 ammo loaded since 1976. ( note almost all of it produced after 1969 was linked for the 1919 MG) This was the last year it was produced. As noted above the Lake City plant is the only GOCO(government owned - Contactor operated) plant left. At this time it is operated by the parent company of Federal so this explains all the federal XM ammo out there. In the past is has been operated by both Remington and Olin Corp.

heavyiron

Taperloc,

The last 30 caliber rounds loaded at Lake City were match rounds with the headstamp LC 78 NM. I have one in my collection that I obtained from a fellow collector -Tailgunner- who is a member of this forum.

Regards,

Heavyiron

Radar

If i remember right LC has not loaded any 30-06 ammo ( M2 ball,M72 match,ect ) for quite a few years,but they still load blanks.

taperloc

Thank you all for responding to my post.
I just went to the "ammo dump" and dug out a box of the ammo.
It has no manufactures name on it. The box is white with a green label and large yellow lettering
It seems rather large for 20 rds.
It measures 6 11/16" X 3 3/8" tall X 1 5/8" thick. The lettering reads
20 Cartridges
30-06 FMJ BALL
150 GRAIN LEAD CORE BULLET
NON-CORROSIVE, BOXER PRIMED
NEW, UNFIRED U.S. MILITART BRASS
MANUFACTURED IN THE U.S.A.
The cartridges are stamped L C 72.

Would this be the ammo made by ATK?

1911 Gunslinger

The ammo that you have is made from demilled govt. ammo. They pull the bullets, dump the powder reload the round with new commercial powder and reinstall the bullet. I bought some of it years ago for my M1's, accuracy was ok but nothing great. It is put together by a private company who didn't even bother to put their name on the boxes, I suspect that they were hoping that people would be fooled into thinking it was real usgi surplus ammo.

flyingtorpedo

The ammo was remanufactured by Talon.