Lake City year date 18 5.56 brass

[rebs]

Is there anything bad about this 5.56 brass?
I am reloading it in 223. I did find a few where the shoulder was back too far.
Is there any other issues with it?

 

[762plinker]

the first time you fire it the shoulder issue goes away.

 

[JB10]

I load up exclusively LC brass for my bolt rifles

 

[TheCZKid]

Lake City 5.56 brass is well made. To use it first time you'll need to remove the primer crimp, by swaging or other method, after that, you're good to go.

 

[drop_point]

It is good brass. You must remove the crimp. After that, it is good to go. It will fireform to your chamber in one or two firings. Then bump the shoulder back 0.002" after every firing and you'll be good to go. Sometimes you can get ten, twelve, or even more firings on it.

 

[TheCZKid]

An earlier thread has some good info on Lake City, and talks about various factors which make LC pretty darn good brass to shoot:

Lake City .223 brass vs production date

I've been a varmint (digger squirrel) hunter in Central/Eastern Oregon for 26 years now and have been saving the majority of my .223 brass. This is all Black Hills Blue Box Lake City, approx. 5k+ rounds. I'm just starting to sort it out and a quick inspection shows head stamps from 87-06. I'm...

forum.accurateshooter.com

 

[markm87]

Nothing special/unique about 2018 that I've ever read/heard. Shot plenty of it.

 

[Doug Casner]

Doesnt matter the headstamp its still gotta be in govt. spec. Doug

 

[markm87]

Doesnt matter the headstamp its still gotta be in govt. spec. Doug

Could end up in the XM ammo line though. I've processed lots of that stuff that didn't have good crimps, sealant, etc.

 

[Doug Casner]

Dont know the way they do things anymore. When I worked there you better be in spec. or you wouldnt have that job long. Doug

 

[markm87]

I'd hope they still had that approach. But I've has some of the once fired brass fromt the XM ammo (retail line) where the crimp was so mild, I didn't even have to remove it.

 

[Doug Casner]

They didnt have a retail line when I worked there. I hope they dont pass the lots that failed as xm ammo. When a lot failed when I worked there it went to pull down. That was back in the 80s and 90s Doug

 

[Ray123]

I use LC brass by the thousands at a time, 5.6 LC for all ARs and sometimes in bolts, from 223, 300 BO, 300 Ham'r, 222, in 308LC for AR as nd cut down 8.6 BO, 358 Win, 35 Rem.
So I use LC, Lapua, and Starline... Random picked cases LC and Lapua 5 each loaded with same powder charge same bullet, the LC ave 15 fps faster and the accuracy was .1" difference on the target if .3" fits your needs better than .4" use Lapua...for most of my applications they are interchangeable, and use the same neck bushing.
But for serious target work where the smallest group possible is desired I'd use Lapua, and almost always do for that.

 

[rebs]

Doesnt matter the headstamp its still gotta be in govt. spec. Doug

does this mean you don't gain anything by sorting by head stamp?

 

[beemanjohn]

I doubt that sorting by head stamp really helps much, because they run several presses at one time punching out brass. Each press has it's own die and punch, and each die and punch will have to be changed out every once in a while to be re-chromed or re-built. So each year of head stamps may have been run on a hundred or more die and punch sets, on a bunch of different presses. They will all be slightly different.

 

[Doug Casner]

When I worked there I ran old school case taper. Put the neck taper on 7.62 cases. There were 24 taper machines. They all ran the same headstamp but they all ran a little different. I dont see where you would gain a hell of a lot by sorting headstamps. But, they make em different now. Quality control checked die wear every morning , they told you if your dies were wore out. Doug

 

[JSH]

I sort by headstamps because the voice in my head tells me too.

I have formed thousands into various wildcats. A lot of folks I shot with said it was a futile effort. Made a lot of 6,6.5 and 7TCU out of it. Bigger bullet more powder was often heard years ago when an IHMSA ram stood there and looked at you. I will admit to being pretty hard on LC brass back then, even worse when I had an XP in 7TCU for a short while.

I would suggest annealing once fired if you plan on using it in a specific rig only. Then every other time sure doesn’t hurt a thing.

Buddy is loading a 20 Practical using LC brass. Same load in WW and RP brass, primer pockets got loose, yeah he is stepping on it pretty hard, 30” barrel and is doing equal or above a couple of 204’s I have worked with.
I got lucky some time back and got some virgin LC 5.56 brass, wish I had bought more. Will hurt some ones feelers, but I think it is every bit as good as Lapua 223 I have had in the past, all of it the coveted Gold Box stuff to boot.