38sp Casehead Marking

[jonp]

Ran across one in a batch that has L C 6 7 on it and a crimped primer.

Lake City military?

[nicholst55]

Sounds like it. Most of it that I ever saw was made by WCC. FWIW, that brass is thicker than commercial brass, but it will last just about forever unless you load them so hot that the primers fall out upon firing.

[Char-Gar]

Yes, Lake City 1967

[ReloaderFred]

As noted, Lake City, manufactured in 1967. I've loaded tons of military .38 Spl. brass, since I used to live next to an Air Force Base and knew a bunch of the Security Police and shot on their range. Some GI .38 brass has crimped primers, and some doesn't. It's above average quality, and as Nicholst55 says, it will last almost forever.

There is one batch that can cause problems with priming, which is FC 57. The primer pockets were formed differently for some reason and some primers have an issue when trying to seat, due to the sharp edge of the primer pocket, and the seemingly shallower primer pocket. I haven't measured any to see if there's an actual difference in the depth of the pocket, though.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[jonp]

1967? Looks like its still good brass with much life left. I did notice that the rim was thinner than other brass

[Rich/WIS]

Never knew that Lake City or FA loaded 38 spcl for the military. All the mil brass I have seen was either WCC or RA. Learn something new every day.

[Char-Gar]

About 25 years ago, I visited an ammo remanufacturer in San Antonio. The guy reloaded bulk fired brass for various police departments included some in Mexico. He liked showing me his operation. He was cussing some military 38 Special brass that was jamming up his machine. I told him, I liked the stuff to reload so he gave me a 5 gallon bucket full culled from his other brass. It was mixed WCC, LC, FC and RA. I only have reloaded the the WCC and LC, not favoring the Federal and Remington. They are indeed quite a bit thicker and do reload well and give very good case life. I trim them all to uniform length.

[MT Gianni]

In the 80's and early 90's if you ordered 10,000 pieces you could get what ever head stamp you wanted. I have seen a few odd ball that turned out to be someones initials.

[Outpost75]

The hot-loaded PGU/12B ammunition assembled for the USAF was nearly all loaded at Lake City after initial load development was done at FA, whereas the milder Ball M41 US Army load was made by just about all of the commercial manufacturers at one time or another.

[nicholst55]

The hot-loaded PGU/12B ammunition assembled for the USAF was nearly all loaded at Lake City after initial load development was done at FA, whereas the milder Ball M41 US Army load was made by just about all of the commercial manufacturers at one time or another.

That M41 Ball was some pretty poor ammo - at least all of it that I ever shot. Low power and, at best, mediocre accuracy.

[ReloaderFred]

[QUOTE=nicholst55;5408234]That M41 Ball was some pretty poor ammo - at least all of it that I ever shot. Low power and, at best, mediocre accuracy.[/QUOTE

Yep, 130 gr. FMJ RN, loaded light. I had a box of military .38 Special tracers. When fired into the sky at night in the desert, they made big corkscrew traces.

Fred

[gwpercle]

Ran across one in a batch that has L C 6 7 on it and a crimped primer.

Lake City military?

Yes-sir-ree-bob ...Military , circa 1967 ... issued for Viet Nam probably .
I have several hundred , bought cheap as fired brass and reamed every primer pocket crimp out with a little Lyman hand tool ... but the cases are pretty good , you will get many loadings from them .
Gary