Dear All,

I'm always on the lookout for .223 brass with different headstamps - makes it easier to keep brass separate for the various rifles.

Midway currently sells new Lake City military spec ".223" brass. Does anybody know what the quality of this brass is like?? I'm (halfway) expecting the brass to have lower internal capacity, but I can probably live with that. What about brass consistency, can I expect to be able to use this brass for "accuracy" (as opposed to plinking) loads?? Presumably with new brass, primer pockets would be uncrimped??

Any comments and experience with this brass would be more than welcome.

- mike

If the brass is not 1x or more, it shouldn't be crimped. (how would they put a primer in it??) The LC brass I've used was 1x and it was good stuff. And removing the crimp was just a simple task done whilst watching TV. I have read somewhere that GI .223 brass is not heavier than civilian --like you find in 30-06 and .308-- so I just loaded mine up and shoot it without weighing it or anything.
Do I understand that you are using headstamps to segragate your brass?? I don't know that I like that idea as there is a difference in internal capacity among the various commercial brass and a load worked up in say Remington brass might not be the best in Winchester brass and so forth.

Thanks Stillbeeman.

The virgin state of the brass was what made me assume primer pockets were not crimped. That would be the logical assumption. I once worked with some PMP brass, and to my astonishment, many of the primer pockets were too small for primers to be inserted. Whether this was an indication of crimped pockets, or whether the pockets were simply out of spec is naturally a question of interpretation. In any event, we'll assume no primer pocket crimp for the new Lake City.

quote:

Originally posted by stillbeeman:
Do I understand that you are using headstamps to segragate your brass?? I don't know that I like that idea as there is a difference in internal capacity among the various commercial brass and a load worked up in say Remington brass might not be the best in Winchester brass and so forth.

My preferred method of brass segregation is based on headstamp. In an ideal world, if more rifles are chambered for the same cartridge, each rifle is assigned brass of an easily identifiable set of manufacturers (ideally just one manufacturer, actually). That makes it easy to see into which "bucket" of empty brass the latest crop of fired cases must be emptied, and for what rifle (with what die) they must eventually be reloaded.

Each rifle (in fact each brass type) will have its own load development done. It is kind of rare I share loads between my rifles, although this is not really by design, it just sort of happens that way... In fact, and don't ask me why, most of my rifles sharing calibers seem to end up shooting different bullets. So much for attempts to standardize and cut down on component purchases and storage...

- mike

General Rule ; Military brass is softer less volume than commercial as well as heavier !. I've weighed thousands of cases along with sorting head stamps . Which in my opinion is a VERY GOOD IDEA !. Ask Midway what's up with the brass !.
I'm some what surprised that they are selling it !. Seems to be a shortage of .223 ammo along with primers as of late .

Brass should be loaded differently for military as opposed to commercial brass !!.
military cases hold less and should be loaded down 10-15% to start with .
Other wise you may find case separation or WORSE !!!.

Rifles like primers like projectile weights like twist rates barrel length chambers Etc. On and on . This is why individual rifles and pistols prefer their on loads ( for ultimate accuracy ).

That's just the nature of the beast . Welcome to the world of reloading . Where one can easily spend more on components than the weapon it's self !. ...