Among the mil '06 cases I reload I have a small lot headstamped CN 9 40 and BN 3 40, both having lines from the primer to the rim at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions. I know the meaning of the numbers and the lines but I cannot find BN & CN in my list of mfrs & arsenals. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Bud W

Probably Lake City Ammunition Plant, Lake City,Mo.however North China(Norinco) and an unidentified French plant also used CN.

WC

quote:

Originally posted by Wildcat Crazy:
Probably Lake City Ammunition Plant, Lake City,Mo.however North China(Norinco) and an unidentified French plant also used CN.

WC

I believe Lake city is LC .Denver is DEN 42 or 43 which I have,was supposed to be the best brass for reloading.

LC is the most common Lake City Arsenal headstamp but I believe that Crazy is correct. They have used the others.

DEN may well be some of the better brass from WW II production, but it's a far cry from being the best today, given all the high quality stuff that is out there.

JMHO

Ray

Bud, these are post war "sterile" loads made for the CIA in 1953. Not truly sterile, but at least deniable. They began moving into commercial channels in the mid 1960s and "conventional wisdom" at the time was that they had been produced for the Bay of Pigs invasion attempt. The true story emerged much later. According to a former CIA field officer I knew (now dead), these were in the field long before Castro took power - in SE Asia and Africa with various groups friendly to the US if not actually a clandestine CIA-recruited force.

Code "BN" was the St. Louis Arsenal and "CN" came from Lake City. Twin Cities was also involved and theirs are marked "AN." Normal arsenal codes for these arsenals are SL, LC and TW respectively.

.

Thanks, Iconoclast! That means, despite the date code, the cases were loaded with non-corrosive primers and were reloaded that way as well. They seem to be on a par with all the TW cases I use.

Bud W