Is the new Lake City brass sold by Natchez LC or Federal stamp?

Last week I bought one of the 420 round ammo cans of 223, 62 grain with the steel core.

The sticker on the side of the can said Federal.

The brass was stamped "LC 11" with the NATO circle/cross on it.

I see, now that I've typed this, that you were asking about brass, not ammo, but since I've typed it anyway, I'm going to go ahead and offer my information.

I got some from Natchez a few months ago and it's all LC

Federal operates the Lake City arsenal under contract with the DoD. Pretty much everything that comes out of there is going to have "Federal" on it in some way.

I just got 2000 from natches last week.
they all say LC

As far as I'm concerned, Lake City brass is ALL marked LC. Anything else is NOT LC brass. If I received anything except LC marked brass I'd be returning it.

If the brass was not as advertised, I would put the return costs on the seller. Just my opinion.

Eazmo: I just got 2000 from natches last week.
they all say LC

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received 1000 piece order from midway and they also say LC 11 the only difference is the midway is loose in box bulk packed the natches were all in 100 round packs.
midway had a better deal by like 10 bucks i believe

Midway was cheaper when they had it on sale. Got 1k, should have gotten 2.

I load both and shoot both in mixed boxes. When I weigh the brass they are the same and I haven't noticed any difference with my groups. I tried separating the brass to make sure point of impact was not affected and sure enough it was not. So now I don't even bother separating the LC and FC brass.

I got LC headstamp. CDD

IMtheNRA said:

You would not have that option with Natchez. The rep said that if I order LC, but if Natchez ships Federal instead, I'll have to pay for shipping both ways - for my order and for my return.

I understand that Midway would not even take back the Federal brass they sold as "Lake City" earlier this year.

So that's why I wanted to be sure before ordering.

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Unless it's stated in the add or on the site they can not advertize LC brass and send you anything else without running into legal problems. It doesn't matter Federal is operating the plant, if they sell LC brass it has to be LC brass, not Federal brass. (in my non-lawyer opinion)

Why is Lake city brass so desirable? I have read that military brass is thicker and has less case capacity than domestic brass. please explain to an old reloader that is interested.

I have also heard that of all the domestic brass winchester is best? is there an hierarchy of domestic brass such Win, then fed then rem or what??

Bull

LC can be had for $105 per 1k brand new right now. Last batch of Winchester I received had too many culls. Federal is rubbish.

A bit down the page it has a comparison of capacity.
http://www.6mmbr.com/223Rem.html

Why is Lake city brass so desirable? I have read that military brass is thicker and has less case capacity than domestic brass.

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LC historically has been very consistent and stands up to repeated reloadings. Federal had a habit of developing loose primer pockets and also had a thinner web - visible if you section a case. Those problems seem to have been left behind with the small lettering FC headstamp. If you google around you can find pics of the large vs small headstamp lettering. The lg ones usually loosened in the primer pocket after 3 firings max. I haven't seen any new production large headstamp in several years but, I've not exactly been out looking for it.

Contrary to many rumornet opinions, LC tends to be on the light side, hence not thicker, than many commercial brands. In 308 and '06, the mil cases are usually heavier but not so in 223. See the chart halfway down this link.
http://www.6mmbr.com/223rem.html

/Bryan

Federal had a habit of developing loose primer pockets

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I had a few hundred Federal 30-06 cases from 2006 till 2010 reloaded countless times with NO loose pockets....same with other calibers.

FYI - I forgot to mention in the previous post I bought 1000 rounds from NatchezSS and all are stamped LC.

Federal had an issue for a while with thin webs that was well documented online. I haven't seen anything more on that for several years or heard any complaints from anyone actually using FC brass made in the last 4 years or so. All I've heard is the same guys that swore it off when there was a documented problem talking about the probelm bakc then. I've got FC .204 cases that have been loaded at least 6x, some of the loads were pretty hot, and the primer pockets are still nice and tight. Same with .243 and .308.

All the Fed 223 range pickups i sorted through the last 5 years were significantly shorter than all other brands.

My son gets all the FC brass in 243 I pulled out 40 that get used over & over more then 20 times & I use FC in 30-06 which I'm sure have over 10 fireings.

Federal has the LC contract so anything coming out of that plant should be the same thing. I would use ether but I would be bothered if I had a bait & switch pulled on me. If I didn't want to keep it & they didn't pick up the whole tab I would call the bank & have the charge reversed.

zeke said:

All the Fed 223 range pickups i sorted through the last 5 years were significantly shorter than all other brands.

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Yep. Usually about 1.743" for what I've found. I just trim it to 1.740" for uniformity and call it good.