I recently purchased a bag of 1,000 pieces of LC Brass...I've been sorting thru it and there looks like there is a wide variety of headstamps with different years made... Its my undrstanding that some of the years were very high quality (as in Match Quality) while other years were just ho hum....It looks like about 25% of the brass I got has the headstamp LC 02 ....Does anyone out there have any information about the different years and the quality of Lake City Brass from year to year?? Any help would be appreciated....

I run thru a lot of Cabelas Lake City brass.....

And I shoot most of the cases about 10 times....
I also give away a lot of it to charity cases I know of.. shooting buddies with champagne tastes and beer budgets....

It has always served me well....
cheers
seafire

Have been a serious user of Lake City brass for almost 40 years (OMG, am I that old??) and in my experience the Lake City brass, be it .30-06 or .308, basic GI or Match headstamped, is just plain out and out tops!! Any brass that can give me 10 reloads when fired thru an H&K 91 is damned good brass!!!!!!
LLS

Use LC in both my M1's and M1a's...as above, with my X dies and std USGI loads for service rifle, a combo that is hard to beat.

For over 20 years I've used LC brass and only have good things to say about it. It is top quality, and it has kept my M1 and M1A very happy. Some of my best varmit loads in .30 calibre were developed with LC NM brass.

The last batch I got from Black Hills looked like it had been tumbled in gravel, but it cleaned up nicely and shot great. Wish I had ordered more...

Black Hills uses it in their 52gr HP Match loadings. I see mostly 01 and 02 headstamps in my box. I ran into an old devil at the dry lake several months ago; he said all he used was LC brass. It must be good stuff...

Oh, Lordie, I'm still using FA 60 brass! It's good brass, sort it by head stamps, then by weight, that's of course if you want to turn a fun hobby into a lot of hard work!

Not only has Lake City brass given me good service over the years, ALL makes of U.S. G.I. brass have done so.

In 1959 I bought 2,000 rounds of mixed make, fired, G.I. '06 brass. I immdiately sorted it all into "batches" by make and year, then removed the primer crimps where necessary. Over the last 55 years I have loaded much of it many times, carrying it with me to several countries of residence, used Some as '06 rounds, some as .270. some as .25-06, some as 7x57, some as .280 Rem and/or 7x64, some as .318 WR, some as 8m/m-06 AI, and the list goes on and on.

Am still using somewhere between 500 & 1,000 of that original 2,000 cases, and still have a few hundred I have never loaded at all (yet). Have had VERY few rounds "wear out" over the years. Most of what is gone went to purchasers of various and sundry of my rifles over the years, as loaded ammo.

Dont use it!!!

don't you know, it was tumbled and then fired..
cant be safe



it's excellent stuff, but if you are switching from commerical brass, back of a couple grains, as milsurp is a little thicker brass.. and you'll need to swage the primer pockets

jeffe

I am a retired Toolmaker and live just a short distance from the plant at Lake City, Ive been involved in the fabrication of the multi stage draw dies and the billet sorting process as well as making the Machinery that links the 762, 556 and 50BMG ammo. the brass used is quality and the Quality control is above reproach, it has to be our boys lives depend on it, this isn't hunting ammo.

I use lake city in my 223. I too would like to know if there are much differences in the years. Most of mine are lc 02, 03, and 04 from Scharchs. It could be fluke, but this past weekend, I sorted the brass by year before shooting my groups and my fliers were gone.

quote:

Originally posted by Justin B:
I use lake city in my 223. I too would like to know if there are much differences in the years. Most of mine are lc 02, 03, and 04 from Scharchs. It could be fluke, but this past weekend, I sorted the brass by year before shooting my groups and my fliers were gone.

Bingo!

I just finished processing almost 1,000 LC 92 from a bunch of brass I acquired several years ago. Looks like good stuff. Mine has what looks like a circle with crosshairs in it as part of the headstamp. Does that mean it was originally match ammo or is it just part of the headstamp? Thanks.

No, that mark is a NATO standardization mark, thus assuring the user of interchangeability. One can't use different bullet/pressure combinations and expect a weapon to have consistency.

Thanks, buckshot. That's good to know.

Does anyone else separate LC brass by year besides me?

quote:

Originally posted by Justin B:
Does anyone else separate LC brass by year besides me?

Justin - I had about 1500 once-fired mil. brass and that's where I sorted the (almost) 1,000 LC '92 out of. I still have some other years of LC brass as well as a few WCC brass. So, yeah, I'm sorting mine by year.

I have acquired about 1200 rounds of LC 67-69 30.06 brass. Seems like good, thick well made cases.

Does LC brass have a higher copper content than commercial brass?

All the hi-power shooters I've talked to say that LC 65 is the best 308 brass that was ever produced. I've turned a bunch into 308 AI and it's like the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going. Jim