Why is lake city brass so popular?

[adanymous]

I have TONNAGE of LC brass in 556 and 308 and I find the primer pockets to be nothing but a giant PITA. I have the C4HD or whatever swager and I dont think it helps a lick. I have to cut out each pocket with a debur tool and then hope it takes a primer and I dont have to work on it again. I think the LC brass adds a couple of steps of brass prep. Why do people want them?

[Mica_Hiebert]

Thicker = maybe last longer, plentiful = cheaper... maybe, military approved = warm fuzzies

[Cherokee]

Quality and life at less than half a buck each case. Only have to do the primer pocket once...oh, get a Dillon PP swager.

[dragon813gt]

Get a proper swager and your problems will go away. I had the one from CH4D but sent it down the road a long time ago. I got tired of ripping off case heads and improperly swaged pockets. Should have bought the Dillon super swage from the beginning.

Cost is a big factor for me. The brass is also very consistent. I convert it into a lot of other cartridges which is why cost is a factor. I'm trying to save money over buying brass w/ the proper head stamp.

[Hick]

I have no trouble with LC brass. I use a Lyman hand primer pocket cleaner/reamer. Drop the casing in my electric drill (head sticking out)-stick the primer pocket tool in the pocket and run the drill a few slow turns and they come out perfect. Very quick and easy.

[Scharfschuetze]

I've been loading LC brass in 30/06, M1 Carbine, 7.62 NATO and 5.56 for over 40 years with complete satisfaction. Shot a great deal of "as issued Lake City" in various parts of the world.

I use both an RCBS swaging tool and sometimes a Lyman cutting tool on a power tool to de-crimp them. It's only done once and then the brass lasts a long time. Thanks to Uncle Sam and the US Army I have a life time supplies of all the above calibres out in the garage.

It's also my favorite brass to form 7.65 Argentine, 7.7 Jap, 35 Whelen, 358 Winchester and 45 ACP shot shells.

[5Shot]

I'll pay for the flat rate shipping and you can send it all to me :)

[retread]

I'll pay for the flat rate shipping and you can send it all to me :)

I'll take seconds on that! :???:

[toallmy]

Take a look at some of the commercial brass that cost a lot more , I find with a little work LC brass can hold it's own or beat most commercial brass until you get to the fancy stuff .

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Cheap, available, works well, durable, no worse than Winchester, Remington, Federal for case prep.

[GRUMPA]

Why is LC brass so popular?

LC brass is used predominately for the military. Making anything for military use requires the manufacturer to make it according to what's called "Mil Spec" (Military Specifications). In order to get the contract this MUST be done, no 2 ways about it.

The brass has to be made a certain way, with certified materials, and everything certified along the way. And things like S.P.C. (Statistical Process Control) and I.S.O. (Industrial Organisation of Standards) must be used.

There's a lot more to making something for the military than folks know about, and they are very fussy about what they get.

The LC brass by nature has been meticulously made, not so with commercial brass cases.

[country gent]

One reason for Lake Cities popularity is the military brass factor. Its desighned for the more violent extraction ejection of the semi and full autos. Its annealed and correct for alot of applications. Its a slightly heavier case thats very useable. Most are sold of very reasonable also. I have done 1000s on my super Swage with no issues once its set up.

[s mac]

And don't forget, with thicker brass use a slightly smaller powder charge weight for the frugal at heart.

[dragon813gt]

And don't forget, with thicker brass use a slightly smaller powder charge weight for the frugal at heart.

This isn't necessarily the case(pun intended). You need to measure the volume of the cases. Not all LC cases have a smaller capacity.

[lightman]

What everyone else has already said. Crimped primers can be a PITA. I'm surprised that you are having trouble with the CH-4D tool as it has a good reputation. I use the Dillon tool and once its adjusted it works fine. LC brass usually is very consistent and it holds up better that most other stuff if fired in a semi auto. Its also very affordable.

[243winxb]

LC brass, sold cheap. Gov sells as scrap. Scrap may be unsafe if used for the chemical ageing test. Or the firearm was run till it failed with excessive headspace.

Roll sizing may weaken brass when remanufactured.

3 reasons = brass i dont want. ty.

[tazman]

We have a military rifle manufacturer in the area that uses the local range for test firing the weapons they make(mostly AR15 style rifles). They sweep up their fired brass except for the stuff that goes out into the grass.
Lots of 5.56 and some 7.62 just laying there if you time your range trip right. Yesterday I picked up 120 pieces of 5.56 in just a couple of minutes. All LC brass. Often there are as many as 300 or more there.
I use the RCBS swager and have little trouble with primers. The brass shoots accurately for me and lasts forever since I neck size for my bolt action rifles after an initial full length resize.

[NoAngel]

I hate the stuff. Too much work involved. Ya'll can have it all.

[mdi]

I guess I'm just a confirmed tinkerer. I don't mind all the backbreaking, tedious, irritating, exhausting drudgery to remove all those bothersome, distressing primer pocket crimps. Being a lifelong machinist/mechanic the first thought that came to me when I first encountered crimped primer pockets was a countersink. And yes, every case must be handled (oh, the pain and struggle!) and it takes sooo long to process (yep, mebbe 1 1/2 seconds) that I don't know how I get through it all. And the cost. I'm soooo lucky I have a good pension or I wouldn't be able to afford such an expensive, dedicated to one use tool (yep, prolly $10.00 for a good one). :roll:

I have a bunch Of LC brass in 3-06 and 7.62x51 and 5.56 and other military "once fired" brass in 45 ACP and 9mm. I got mine from online vendors as "once fired", quite inexpensively, and have been able to produce some very accurate ammo for my Garand and 308 bolt gun. I have not "worn out" and LC brass in the 17 years I've been reloading with it. I'll continue using LC brass, mainly 'cause it jes plain works...

[country gent]

One thing I always found interesting when I was competeing was In my NM M1As ( lugged, tuned triggers, Heavy stocks and krieger Heavy SS barrels) the M 852 NM load shot as good as my handloads and slightly better than Federal gold medal match ammo. The fired brass was very consistan when measured out. Neck wall thickness. wall thickness and weight. I dont think they ran for this consistancy but sorted for it.

[fatelvis]

According to Glen Zediker, LC brass is a good candidate for use in a M1A and Garand because the brass is slightly harder than commercial brass, and deals with the violent extraction better.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Why is LC Brass so popular?

Because it is laying around on every range in the US? And that's because it is the most common factory ammo there is. IE; Surplus.

The fact that you have to swage or chamfer the primer pocket is simply what you have to do with nearly any Military Based Ammunition cuz all of it has crimped in and sealed primers, and the bullets are sealed as well. Thus the case is sealed and will probably fire if put in a gun. The Military is really big on their guns going bang everytime.

This is why Military Ammunition has a virtually Unlimited Shelf Life as long as it is not subjected to high temps.

Randy

[waco]

This is the way I roll with military brass.....One and done.
https://www.dillonprecision.com/super-swage-600_8_8_25263.html

[Shiloh]

Very consistent from lot to lot and year to year.

SHiloh

[samari46]

7.62x51 was also made in national match and match and the '06 was made in match version and no crimped in primers. Still very good brass. Frank

[Scharfschuetze]

7.62x51 was also made in national match and match and the '06 was made in match version and no crimped in primers. Still very good brass. Frank

Correct. In the 30/06 it's nomenclature was M72. In the 7.62 NATO, the first "White Box" loads were M118. These two loads do not have crimped in primers and the case head is marked LC Match. A 173 grain FMJ topped of both of these loads.

In the early 80s, the 7.62 load was changed to a brown box with a crimped in primer along with ball powder for the charge, but it still used the 173 grain FMJ which evolved from the M1 Ball bullet of the 1920s. The brown box was never as accurate or consistent as the previous White Box ammo.

In the early 90s up to through much of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), we were issued the excellent M852 Match load (again in a white box) which had stick powder again, match cases without the crimp, and the 168 grain SMK HP bullet. I think that the Ordnance Corps must have been seriously embarrassed at how bad the brown box was and they went out of their way to make M852 as accurate as possible.

The current match and sniper load for several years now is the M118LR and it uses the 175 grain SMK bullet. This ammo is really the best 7.62 NATO ammo the military has ever issued.

[Greg S]

As alot of folks have already stated, durability. See how many reloads you get in 30-06 and 308 in a semiauto using soft commercial brass. Due to the nature of operation, these rifles beat the snot out of the brass, denting it, smashing it etc.

[375RUGER]

Because with the bit of extra work involved you have brass that is quality second to none except for Lapua. At least that has been my experience with 308.

[adanymous]

The current match and sniper load for several years now is the M118LR and it uses the 175 grain SMK bullet. This ammo is really the best 7.62 NATO ammo the military has ever issued.

Kind of a funny story, lets call it fiction. A buddy of mine ran an Air Force arms room, they had an inspection coming and he had an ammo overage, which I guess is a bad thing. Anyhow, he brought me 4 crates (not ammo cans, CRATES) of 5.56 green tips and THOUSANDS of rounds of M118LR to get his inventory to be what his books said it was. Ive not loaded 308 or 223 in years. Still have a ton of that stuff. That .308 shoots 10.5 inches at 1000 yd through my 110BA, good stuff!

Same buddy ran the range, he said that he had brass that was supposed to be trashed and I know a guy who owns a company that sells commercial reloads. The reloader said he would be interested in some brass so I told the AF guy that Id buy whatever brass he was supposed to throw away, in hopes of selling it to the reloader. So my AF buddy brought me 20 2x2x3.5 foot toughboxes full of LC 5.56, 9mm and 308. And the reloader bought all of it except for what I stashed. I couldnt believe he would need that much brass, thats 280 cubic feet of brass and I guarantee it felt like every bit of that much when I moved it. Again, this was a fictitious story, any similarity between the characters involved and real individuals is purely coincidental.

[samari46]

I really like the 30-06. So naturally I have a bunch of lake city brass and once prepped like primer crimp removed, primer pockets uniformed and flash holes uniformed and trimmed it's well worth my time and effort to prep the brass and then shoot it. My dwindling supply of M72 or lack city match dates to 1967 and has proven to be of excellent accuracy in just about any '06 I have except for my Garand. I just don't want to mess up the op rod. I load 165 grain nosler ballistic tips out of my Sako 75 hunter and they chronograph at 2800 feet per second. The lake city match with the 172 grain bullet actually shoots to the same point of impact with no change in scope settings. And very good accuracy which I really like and not bad at all for match ammo nearing it's 50th anniversary. And while this may sound like heresy to some, I have found it easier to get excellent accuracy with the '06 than the 308 or 7.62x51. Frank

[beagle]

Lake City Match brass came into being through military channels when there was an abundance of war era military brass as the only cheap loading alternative. Those of us who started loading back in those days gravitated to the LC NM brass in both the .30 and 7.62mm as it was far superior to the brass from ball ammo that was readily available. Used for consistency the NM brass was far better than run of the mill ball brass and in a lot of cases, civilian produced brass. If you ever luck up on any, the old FA NM .30 brass is the ultimate military case to load. 1959 in particular. On the 5.56mm side, the prototype 5.56mm loaded in cases head stamped REM-UMC .223 are about as good as you can get. Loaded with IMR8028, this was the stuff that caused the M-16 hoopla in Viet Nam. They discontinued it's use in the M-16 but relinked it and stuck the Marine Corps with it for use in the Stoner. Have a few of each vintage of each type in my stash right now./beagle