Help me ID this casing

[kd7nqb]

I feel dumb but maybe I should not. My grandfather recently died after a long battle with multiple health issues. He served his country in 2 wars and was a fireman for 32yrs. The only request he had was that be buried with Military honors.

We discovered it was really easy to notify the VA to get the honor guards presence I was quite impressed, for once government was easy to work with. At the burial they performed an honor guard including a 21gun salute (although it was actually 3rifles 3 times instead of 7 rifles) all very nice. At my request the color guard gave us the casings from the rounds that were fired. I am awful at ID'ing rifle cartriges since I rarely shoot them and I expected a head stamp like "Remington 30-06". So I need your help IDing the caliber and if you happen to be able to tell me brand of ammo that would be awesome too.

Pictures are below and BTW the head stamp reads L C 0 3

 

[fletcher]

Looks like it could be a plain old 30-06 blank to me, couldn't tell you brand.

 

[50 Shooter]

LC is Lake City ammunition plant, 03 is the year it was made 2003.

 

[kd7nqb]

Hmm, thanks for the help. I was happy to confirm that it was 30-06 so I am not a complete dunce. I have never heard of lake city ammo. Are they a name brand? Also any guess on how many times these things must have been reloaded assuming that they continue to reload them for these gun salutes and if the casings were made in '03?

 

[50 Shooter]

Lake City ammunition plant makes almost all the ammunition that our troops use. So yes, I would say they're a major manufacturer of ammunition.

I doubt the blanks were reloaded, they can crank them out by the thousands when they need them. Yes, the numbers on the headstamp of U.S. made ammo usually refers to the year it was made.

For more info look at the Cartridge Collectors web page. http://cartridgecollectors.org/

 

[Mr White]

That casing was fired from a Garand. You can tell by that little dent in the middle. That's a typical ding from the casing being flipped around and hitting the receiver when being ejected from a Garand. You'll see similar dents in 7.62x51 casings fired from an M14.

My kids each got an '06 casing from my dad's honor guard and there is one wrapped in his flag as well.