I'm looking to buy about 1000 rounds of 223 brass. There are some good deals on ebay. Should I stick with one headstamp or care if it is mixed? I usually use winchester brass, but I was thinking about trying something else considering the price. What about military brass, Lake city?

Thanks.

Justin, I have used quite a bit of the lake city brass and have been quite happy with it, two things. Military brass is thicker than commercial brass so reduce your loads by ten percent starting out and you will have to remove the primer pocket crimp also. Just mt own opinion, I hate to mix lots of brass.

If you go with lake city brass, it is available out of Cabelas for $36.00 plus shipping for 1000 rounds.

It has already been cleaned and tumbled and also most importantly..... Has had the primer crimp removed. Big time savings and is worth that alone.

I also just bought a 1000 rounds of Winchester headstamp brass from Southern Belle brass. It is police range brass. It had to be cleaned and sized.
Price after shipping was $44.00 on the doorstep.
I am use to the Lake City brass, and the Winchester is a nicer brass. However as a high volume shooter in bolt action rifles, I'd say one still will not suffer with Lake City brass at all. I have reloaded some of these things 15 times. It is so cheap, when I get a neck split, who cares? Some of this stuff has date stamps from the 1960s and 70s.

Lake City is far superior to WCC brass for surplus. PMC brass sucks, period!!!!

Good luck,
cheers and good shooting
seafire

Hello,
Right On Seafire/B17G, could not have said it better myself. That LC 223 brass is a tremendous bargain for those of us who shoot a lot and like you mentioned, I have shot some of those cases a bunch of times and still no signs of breaking up on me. I use the neck deburr tool in a power screw driver to take the "edge" off the military primer pocket.
Favor Center!!
dsiteman

I'd recommend the Midway USA Grade 1 Brass.

This brass has not been re-sized and must be full-length sized and trimmed before loading it for the first time. Grade 1 Brass has been cleaned, polished, deprimed and the military primer crimp removed.

Midway currently has them on sale for $35.99 per 1,000.

DaMan

Another vote for Lake City.

I use a countersink tool to remove the military crimp.

I did test the water capacity of Lake City 223 vs. some FC brass I had, and was astonished to find that the LC actually had slightly MORE case capacity. You should probably do your own test on case capacity. Watch your MV, too.

But it is good, cheap, and plentiful brass.

Let me add a word of caution: I bought some fully processed brass (mostly Lake City) that was sized (roller-type sizer, I understand), deprimed, decrimped, polished, ready to load, and very economical. Unfortunately, a number of cases "blew out" just about a quarter-inch in front of the rim. This was with mild loads and it occured in three different rifles, one auto and two bolts. I have no idea how the cases might have been treated to have caused this weakness, but I chose to discard the entire remainder of a lot of a thousand (complete with the primers I had so lovingly inserted ) The next lot I bought were once-fired R-P purchase off of eBay (likely police range pick-ups), and they have been completely satisfactory and worth the price (despite having to go through the resizing process myself). At least they don't have a primer crimp to worry with.

I am very happy with the LC 223 brass from Scharch. They offer 75% processed [you resize] for $38/1000 with free shipping.
http://secure.cartsvr.net/catalogs/catalog.asp?prodid=2317386&showprevnext=1

I think I will watch for some police pick-ups or order some lake city brass. At that price, who cares if you can load it more than a couple of times.