I have some old Lake City Brass, most I think was machine gun fired. The necks and the body near the necks have some dings and bumps.
I ran a few thru the relaoding press and they seem fine.
Does anyone out there have any problem with the dings and bumps???

I've had absolutely no problems with the dings and bumps. Lake City brass, in my experience, is pretty good. You have to swage the primer pockets or use a uniformer on them which takes a bit of extra time but the end result is good.

In Lake City 30/06 brass I've found a high percentage of off center flash holes. I discard those though there are some who say off center flash holes make no difference in the accuracy department.

On a related theme, if I have bought NEW (as in "unfired") Lake City brass, I take it I don't have to modify the primer pockets before priming?? Correct??

- mike

MHO,

Often "unfired" brass has been primed ... LC is crimped, so you'll have to swage or ream it.

Dings generally don't bother LC brass.

I bought a 1000 LC 223 brass about 4 years ago before the big run up in prices and some of those cases had some dings in them. After resizing them they looked and functioned just fine.

Thanks guys.

I have a boatload of the brass, so I hate to waste it. I separated all the match brass out of it as well. I'll clean it all and store it away. Thanks for the info keep it coming.

Not all LC brass is crimped... I got my hands on about 5k pieces of LC 223 brass, and all the primers are standard. I re-size, re-prime and go; no swaging of pockets is necessary...

The dings and dents will blow out on the first firing.

I assumed the fella was talking about 7.62mm (.308) brass as he mentioned "machinegun fired." M60s have been known to be somewhat long in the headspace department and that can make a difference in how the fired brass can be used.

Only thing I've found that seems to be a no-no is to alternate firings between an M1A and an M60. Tends to lead to head separations. I used to get "machingun fired" LC and run it once through an M60 and toss it. Gets a little expensive. Runs in a Match M1A pretty much forever.

Have seen no such problem with .223 LC brass fired in AR-15s or an M16.

Even with the 7.62 chambering, not all Lake City brass has crimped primer pockets. Lake City "white box" 7.62 Match brass has uncrimped primer pockets. I have several thousand rounds of it. It is very good brass. Of course, it is hardly ever fired through machine guns...mainly is used by some snipers, and members of the Service rifle teams.

One thing which a person probably should consider doing, is to fill the cases with a ball powder they are already using in other .308 brass, full to the top. Then dump that powder onto their scale and see how much it weighs. Do the same with the other brass they commonly use for their current load, and see how the capacities of the two compare. Odds are the Lake City will hold slightly less. One might or might not want to adjust their starting loads accordingly in the Lake City stuff.

Yep, its all 7.62. It had an occasional British Radway Green brass . And like Doubless said it doesnt' seem to be swaged, and it reloads well. But i was worried about the out of round case mouths and the dings, I have to ensure that I lube the case mouths but so far all seems well,

Good idea about weighing out the volumes of the cases. i'll do that tomorrow!

quote:

The dings and dents will blow out on the first firing.

I've run some hideously dented ones through my guns and they blow out good. I have also run some pretty banged-up ones through my dies, and that straightens 'em up good, too. The brass has to go somewhere when you force all that pressure through it, so it pretty much flows back to where it belongs. What little ding is left gets blown out when you fire it. What you do have to watch for is a buggered-up casemouth, like you'd get if you ran the mouth into the expander ball and crushed it vertically. There will be a "wad" of brass there that will not allow the case to chamber. Those you just trash-- they are toast...

Some of the MG fired LC that I have got had indentions up until I fired it the first time, load it a little lite and fire it and its straight and good to go!

quote:

In Lake City 30/06 brass I've found a high percentage of off center flash holes. I discard those though there are some who say off center flash holes make no difference in the accuracy department.

Off center flash holes do not affect accuracy; don't worry about them.

If the few thousandths of an inch off center can cause a problem, how about that case that is 2/3 to 3/4 full of powder laying at the bottom of the case?

Regards,
hm

I've got one caution regarding reloading fired military brass. Don't expect great accuracy.

None of the service team's rifle smiths squared bolt faces in their M14's or 7.62 NATO converted M1's. The team's reloading shops tried reloading fired match brass back in the 1960's. It didn't work. In fact, it usually shot worse than new match ammo. Those out of square case heads against an out of square bolt face causes too much irregular barreled action whip. Accuracy tain't very good. The teams quit reloading match brass as well as good commercial match ammo cases that shot more accurate as new ammo than LC match ammo did.

Regular service rifles and machine guns probably have more unsquare bolt faces than the match grade ones do.

quote:

Originally posted by Bart B.:
None of the service team's rifle smiths squared bolt faces in their M14's or 7.62 NATO converted M1's.

I really doubt truing the bolt face on a M1/M14 action would have done anything.

The load on the bolt is off center. This is by design. Under load, the back of the bolt is tilted up. This keeps the bolt in place and locked.

Everything about the M1/M14 bolt design is assymetric. Locking lugs offset, different thickness lugs, and off axis load path.

How does one true something that bends and stretches assymetrically?

I would tend to agree. I have seen more than a few folks get wrapped around the axle trying to squeeze what amounts to micrometer sized corrections out of a round that is not a benchrest shot. Shooting service rifle at 300+ yards with wind and heat and worrying about squeezing out a millimeter under perfect conditions is kinda like driving your prized Cadillac at a crash derby........your time is better spent elsewhere

SlamFire and thekauz, you may well be right. Those semiautos have a few wierd things about them that need paid attention to for best accuracy. It's still amazing that the best of both M1 and M14/M1A match rifles chambered for 7.62 NATO will stay under 4 inches at 600 yards with really, really good handloads or factory ammo, both with new cases. I've seen 300 yard test targets from the USN Small Arms Match Conditioning Unit's 7.62 NATO converted Garands clamped in accuracy cradles. Three 8 shot groups (test standard after settling the rifle in the cradle with three shots) from clips into an inch or so happened often with good lots of M118 LC match ammo. Folks on the USMC and Army teams have reported the same with their best M14's. Not too shabby at all considering all those moving parts that have to go back in battery exactly the same for every shot. And none of 'em had their receiver faces trued up perpendicular to their barrel tenon thread axis as a good bolt action competition rifle has.

Bart b. that would make sense. Bolt action are a whole different animal. With bolts it makes sense to true up the action and bed the action and barrel properly. Its a semi easy way to squeeze accuracy out.
I still see alot of shooter who find it easier to spend loads of time doing accuracy reloads when even if the reloads were perfect still couldn't shoot a 12" group at 300 yards. Time better spent learning how to dope the wind or getting a rock solid shooting position.

I use LC brass in .308, necked up to .358 caliber. I use pistol bullets in this lot of brass (published load) and get EXTEMELY good accuracy out of it. I have only lost one case in the neck up process. I covet the LC brass dearly and will add more if I ever get a chance.
I don't use this load on deer, only to plink and shoot coyotes with. Really good giant spider/zombie load, still working out if it will be effective on space aliens and po'ed ancient entities.