Lake City brass

Nwcid

Hi all, I am kinda new to the reload thing, although I have pretty much got the basics down. I recently bought some LC brass at our local gun show and my stanard large rifle primers will not fit the pockets. Are they small rifle primers for this case?

Thanks in advance

Nwcid

I have the ability to obtain some lake city nickel brass,Can anybody
say if this nickle brass any good for reloading.

Thank's For Any Info.

Nwcid

I have a bunch (5000 ++) of Lake City 87 brass in .308. I have been using it to load for my M60 and Fal and it works great. I also have a Remington 700 PPS that I need to do some more loading for. I have about 200 rd of Winchester brass that is now twice fired. I am wanting to load a lot of arround 500rds for my target gun. I want to use good components so this would meen buying all the stuff including new brass. If I did that it is going to cost me a ton. Do you think if I was to go through and weigh, trim and check the LC brass to get 500rds that matched it would be good or would I be wasting my time?

John

ContacFront

John,

I bought about 500 pieces of LC brass and after trying to work with it I just dumped it. Case capacity on that stuff is off big time compared to Winchester, Lapua, or Federal.

If you want good once fired stuff. Contact John at Brassman.com for some once fired Federal Gold Medal brass. I use that for my gun in 308 and it works pretty good. I think 500 pieces will cost around 60.00 or so. Fair price for good brass. Now if you had Lake City Match brass, thats a different story.

Nwcid

No it is all once fired stuff from an M60. Price was right ~8000rds for $125, I just couldnt pass it up. Unless someone else has some good ideas I will check out your link.

John

Iconoclast

The military brass is good quality. You have to tailor your loads specifically to the cases because the military issue tends to be a bit heavier / lower capacity. JME, but I've found it lasts a bit longer than the civilian brass. This, however, is for relatively casual shooting. For serious match applications, you need the match brass. From all the same lot is best, civilian or military. If you're going to jump through the various hoops to produce a large number of uniform cases, best to start with better raw material before investing the effort. My $0.02 and not likely worth much more.

"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the french." (Mark Twain)

plains scout

contacafront points out something important. Case capacity. I have not tested my brass with for it but it is another factor in working up VERY accurate loads. If you are reloading for semi auto it will not make much difference for spraying bullets however


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Pinhead

Military brass has thicker case walls than civilian brass. That is the reason that most reloading manuals caution you to drop your powder charge by about 10 percent and work your way back up when using military brass. It is usually very good, tough brass. Just be careful when you buy it that you are not getting brass that has been shot in a machine gun. This usually expands the case quite a bit more than normal because of the loose tolerances used in machine guns. Even civilian brass has slightly different wall thicknesses by manufacturer; i.e. Winchester, Remington, Federal, etc. Also be advised that most of the military brass that I have used down over the years have had more off-center flash holes than civilian brass. This is not important for military accuracy but it sure is if you are trying to load for accuracy such as match load or varmint rounds.

Nwcid

Well I think I am going to have to break down and buy new brass for my target gun. I just thought that since I had so much of this stuff arround I would put it to use. I have loaded over 1500 rds now and it shoots good in my FAL and M-60. Well it looks like it will be a while before I need more semi auto brass.


John

heavyiron

Nwcid,

JMO, but I think that Lake City is really good, tough, brass and being military is thicker in dimension than its commercial counterpart. I think Pinhead's comment about it being stretched because it was fired from a machine gun is valid so full-length sizing the first time is a necessity. Usually machine gun brass takes a beating during extraction and ejection also.

But, what is to stop you from sorting out and loading up 100 or so rounds and see how it shoots from your rifle. Its not like you are going to become financially insolvent if it doesn't shoot 0.5 MOA groups, especially if you are not shooting in serious match competition. Even if it shoots a 1 or 2 inch group, what difference does it make unless you are a serious competitor. You may waste more money buying match brass for your rifle.

I would want to experiment and see if my rifle even knows the difference.

Regards,

Heavyiron[8D]


"If I don't see you nomore on this world, I'll meet you on the next one, and don't be late!" - Jimi Hendrix

snowtigger

Why not check the various auction sites, and try to find some LC Match brass. It don't come any better. True, it is thicker but, you save money by using less powder. Try it, you'll like it!!

It ain't what you shoot, it's what you hit.

JustC

weigh the fired cases with the primer still installed then fill them with water to the top of the neck. Subtract the water filled weight from the empty weight and you have internal capacity measurements. Sort them into no more than 5% variance lots,..and you will be more than happy.

why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
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