Federal Lake City reloading brass 223

I received a 1000 rounds of new reloading brass as a Christmas present this week for the 223.

When it was ordered from Midway USA it was listed as Federal Lake City 223 new brass with all the hipe about Lake City brass and it’s uses.

When I opened up the Christmas gift the brass was from American Eagle all packed in 250 round bags in a box labeled 1000 rounds Federal American Eagle. there was nothing mentioned about Lake City.

If you want to see the Midway link google – Federal Lake City Reloading brass 223 and click on the Midway 223 link.

Any info from folks that would know if it’s really Lake City

JH

Lake City makes Federal, American Eagle, LC (Lake City), and a few other’s brass. I don’t know for fact all the differences in the brass specs as its branded for other companies. Step 1 – is all the head stamping the same, and if so – what is it?

Here is a link to the most complete head stamping list that I am aware of:
http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=headstampcodes

Thanks Randy I will take a look at it when I get a chance and give some feed back.

JH

IMO a lot of guys have a man crush on Lake City brass because they perceive that since it’s for the military it must be bigger, badder, stronger, more powerful, etc. This is somewhat akin to the belief that somehow 5.56 ammo is “more powerful”, etc, etc, than .223.

I have had excellent service from Federal, Lake City, and Am Eagle brass. I don’t bother trying to keep my brass headstamps separate and if there were any significant difference between brass as far as neck cracks or service issues, I’d think I (and many others) would have noticed.

The only thing I have noticed is that for some reason even when de-crimped, the Federal primer pockets seem very tight to me. Even tighter than Lake City. I have had to re-circulate an entire bin of Federal brass back through the crimp removal process a second time to open up the pockets just a little bit more. Not sure why this was, but they were extremely hard to prime using a hand primer until I did this.

Grouse

Grouse, I think the biggest man crush with lake city brass is the NM Brass. Not so much with the general public , but competition Shooters. The NM is true match grade and factory annealed. I know the 5.56 NATO brass is heavier and the primer port is beefed up.

For the general public, the draw to the LC stamped brass is probably not a nescesity. For guys desiring to eliminate as many variables and improve consistency with brass it’s probably a great buy. I have about 5 different brands of Lake city brass. The OEM spec for the branded company is the defining diffence.

@thefamousgrouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I don’t bother trying to keep my brass headstamps separate and if there were any significant difference between brass as far as neck cracks or service issues, I’d think I (and many others) would have noticed.

Grouse

Grouse, I was thinking about this more and I’m surprised you haven’t noticed a difference. Not in the physical sense of cracks or worn neck. But actual pressure differences between the different brass. I see this amongst my 22-250 brass which I shoot most often. Different brass (as indicated by the head stamp) will have different capacities. As we know, capacity of brass is measured in liquid grains. 223 brass can easily range from 29 to 31 gr of capacity. Hypotheticly, if your loading a charge of 25.5gr, your percentage of fill will change with the capacity level of your brass; resulting in different pressure. Now I realize that the percentage of change in a .223 is not as dramatic as it could be in a 7mm RUM, however, it still is a change and can explain those few rounds that are just a bit outside the group that you may not call a flyer…. Anyways, just was thinking this through a little more today

Randy Wieland wrote:

@thefamousgrouse

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
I don’t bother trying to keep my brass headstamps separate and if there were any significant difference between brass as far as neck cracks or service issues, I’d think I (and many others) would have noticed.

Grouse

Grouse, I was thinking about this more and I’m surprised you haven’t noticed a difference.

I was speaking in terms of a difference in the brass lifespan, Randy.

I certainly HAVE noticed that different brands have different weights, thicknesses, and therefore capacities. In a .22-250, this is not very noticeable as with most modern powders, you’re only filling roughly 60-80% of the case at most.

With a .223 it’s painfully obvious because even middle of the road loadings are compressed loadings and with some cases you can’t get near the max loading because the powder is falling out of the case.

I’m sure it all matters, but how MUCH it matters is a question for the individual shooter. I reload to achieve a certain level of accuracy over/above factory ammo and for volume/cost reasons. I’m not trying to break world records.

In the dog town, there are so many things that contribute to me missing that the inconsistencies imparted by mixed brass don’t even register on the scale, for me at least. All of my go to loads and rifles shoot sub MOA as a real 5 shot average over at least 5 consecutive groups. It might only be .95 MOA, but sub is sub.

Now what that means out in the dog town at 95 degrees with a variable wind blowing, heat mirage, moving dogs, bugs landing on my face, sweat running in your eyes, an imperfect field rest, etc is that the ammo is now one of the lower factors on the totem pole for me.

Grouse

Dang now I’m going to have to do this someday.

“Grouse”
Now what that means out in the dog town at 95 degrees with a variable wind blowing, heat mirage, moving dogs, bugs landing on my face, sweat running in your eyes, an imperfect field rest, etc is that the ammo is now one of the lower factors on the totem pole for me.

Dam, that really gets me all warm and excited, never had the chance to experience a dog town sit down yet. Thanks for throwing it out there the way you did, makes one want to try it.

JH

It’s all the little things that one can clean up that pay off when under pressure.

Jeff Heeg wrote:

Dang now I’m going to have to do this someday.

“Grouse”
Now what that means out in the dog town at 95 degrees with a variable wind blowing, heat mirage, moving dogs, bugs landing on my face, sweat running in your eyes, an imperfect field rest,

Between 98 and 105 degrees while we were on this ranch. The “wind” is actually the heat rising. I have no idea how hot it was laying in the dirt shooting. Temp was the truck parked in the shade of a polebarn.
This shoot was about everything Grouse described. Good memories until you remember the stench on the ride back

Nice