223 LC Brass

[Scrumbag]

Hi Folks,

I have come into a fair bit of LC 223 Rem brass with the "blue seal" around the primer. (Came from 62 gr Federal Fusion)

Noticed the primers are quite stiff to remove. Do I need to do anything to resize the primer pockets for reloading?

Best wishes,

Scrummy

 

[Metal God]

Well I’ve never heard it put that way but technically yes they likely have a primer crimp on them and it needs to be removed . I will add that to date I don’t think I’ve ever seen any Lake City 223 brass . Does it actually say LC 223 ?

To remove the crimp you can either cut it out with a crimp remover tool or you can swage it out with a crimp removal swaging tool . You should be able to Google that “223/5.56 crimp remover” and you’ll find all kinds to choose from . I like to cut mine out rather than swaging but many people prefer swaging so that’s really up to you which you try first .

Can you post a picture of the head of the case so we can see if it’s crimped or not

 

[Cap'n]

Careful, as I bought some 45ACP with an LC headstamp. Turns out it was made by Måtravidèki Fèmmüvek, H-3332 Sirok, Hungary, for: Armscorp USA Inc., Baltimore, MD. It was pretty poor stuff.

 

[dolek]

The Lake City .223 ammo I have has no crimp .
Is yours stamped .223 ?

 

[avidflyer]

Federal GMM uses a primer sealer with NO crimp could be the same

 

[Scrumbag]

Hi folks,

Pictures are here:

Brass came from this factory round, Federal Fusion 62gr

Base of loaded round

Deprimed "LC" round (Note cross in circle mark)

Deprimed "FC" round

All brass came from Federal Fusion 62gr. (It's the only Federal ammunition my Dad and I shoot)

Any advice on how to prep appreciated.

Scrummy

 

[outasite`08]

Hi folks,

Pictures are here:

Brass came from this factory round, Federal Fusion 62gr

Base of loaded round

Deprimed "LC" round (Note cross in circle mark)

Deprimed "FC" round

All brass came from Federal Fusion 62gr. (It's the only Federal ammunition my Dad and I shoot)

Any advice on how to prep appreciated.

Scrummy

Hey Sbag, Try running a couple using a pocket uniformer. I think that blue stuff is something on the lines of an epoxy. I`ve had that on some Federal Tactical ammo and it cleaned up. No crimp in the ones I had. Give it a try. Jeff

 

[jepp2]

Noticed the primers are quite stiff to remove. Do I need to do anything to resize the primer pockets for reloading?

Yes, you have Lake City Nato brass 5.56. Both the LC and the FC are crimped primers. Makes removing the original primer "quite stiff" as you say. You must deal with removing the crimp before you can successfully prime them. I always swage the primer pockets to eliminate the crimp and leave a nice rounded edge.

I scrounge brass at the range. Almost all the brass I find that someone has reamed the brass to remove the crimp, it has been WAY overdone. Sometimes half the depth to the bottom of the pocket. Not saying everyone does it this way, but if you are going to ream them, pay attention to what you are doing and use the correct reamer. Here is what mine look like after swaging.

 

[Bill K]

Scummy, after you de-prime that brass, run it through a primer swager tool, from one of the major brand makers, one I use is the RCBS decrimping die set up. That should uniform the primer pocket, clean them up and solve you hard seating issue.

 

[CaptainMal]

Ended up with a bunch of that stuff also. It was Federal that I picked up at the range. That little ring around the primer pocket is miserable to deal with. Uniformed the pockets with a K&N tool but still could not easily prime the things. Had to take a pocket reamer and grind down a tapered edge on that ring or the primers would just crush going in.

PIA but you can get them to take primers.

 

[MGYSGT]

I cut the primer crimp out with a 5/8" counterbore chucked up in my drill. It takes about the count of 2 (1-2) to remove it. So much quicker than swaging or using the primer pocket reamer station on the RCBS or others. I bought the reamer at Lowes, but I am sure any will do. Don't even have to press hard.

 

[divingin]

I think that blue stuff is something on the lines of an epoxy.

More like a lacquer or shellac, I think. Meant to sort of weatherproof the primer pocket. Federal seems to love the stuff.

Pretty easy to tell if you need to deal with the crimp: try to seat a new primer (or, given primer prices now, try to reseat a spent one.) If it doesn't go in without deforming, you need to remove the crimp.

 

[Uncle Ed]

Hi folks,

Pictures are here:

Brass came from this factory round, Federal Fusion 62gr

All brass came from Federal Fusion 62gr. (It's the only Federal ammunition my Dad and I shoot)

Any advice on how to prep appreciated.

Scrummy

Are you 100% sure the mixed Lake City 5.56 brass and the Federal .223 brass were from a new box of Federal ammunition?????

 

[Metal God]

Yep they have a crimp .

 

[Bill K]

They are crimped and need de-crimped and the blue is a sealer to keep moisture out, for long derations of storage and various weather conditions in battle zones.

 

[Scrumbag]

Are you 100% sure the mixed Lake City 5.56 brass and the Federal .223 brass were from a new box of Federal ammunition?????

Yes, only .223 Rem Federal myself and my Dad have ever bought.

 

[wkdickinson]

I have an RCBS Primer Pocket Swagger that I gave up using years ago when I was shooting LC cases in my 308. I found after swaging I still needed to use a case mouth chamfering tool on at least 40% of them in order to get the primer started. Maybe it was my tool or maybe it was how I had it set up, but "cutting" the crimp is way faster and more reliable in my experience.

I have since stopped doing any of it - I bought 1,000 pieces of new, "un-primed" LC brass on sale a few years ago. Much better solution!

 

[jelenko]

I have since stopped doing any of it - I bought 1,000 pieces of new, "un-primed" LC brass on sale a few years ago. Much better solution!

And, you know what is was fired in and how many times it's been fired.

I've come to believe that 'once fired brass' means just that. It doesn't say 'one time fired brass'.

 

[USMCDOC]

what i always used to remove the crimp

 

[Burnt Powder]

Federal ran the Lake City armory for some recent years, they indeed load their loads in LC headstamp brass. Regarding the deeply chamfered primer pockets, there Is a remanufacturing/loading outfit up in South Dakota that prep all their military cases that way, I suspect on a high volume very fast auto machine. I’ve used a lot of it over the years and have to say, I’ve seen NO ill effect from it! I don’t do mine that way, but........