How good is LC-LR brass ? ( once fired )

M

Metal god

New member
I shoot a lot of LC once fired brass and it works pretty good but I do quite a bit of case prep first . I have one 100+ lot of LC-12-LR brass the seems to be better then the standard stuff .

I'm asking because I have the opportunity to buy a rather large lot of LC-11-LR brass , 900 pieces for $270 . That's over double what I pay for the standard LC brass . Is/should it be twice as good ? My choices are buy 300ct for $100 or the whole 900ct lot for $270 .

My issue is $270 is a lot of money to spend on brass I don't really need . It would need to be pretty good stuff to put that much of the budget there rather then on projectiles that I really need more . How ever I should be able to get bullets any time but a good deal on brass maybe not .

What say you ?
 
if this is 223/5.56 rounds than that persons out of their mind on price.

I got 100% LC 2 year lots 500pc swaged, deprimed and wet cleaned for $55 shipped. Brassbombers.com or check out brass bank on Facebook.

brassbombers also sells LC 300win mag too if this is what your referring too.
 
I'm pretty much exclusive to lake city brass. Works great in my 308 and I have several that I've loaded 15-20 times. I found a man that shoots it in competition and only uses once and won't use it again. He's in the 6.5 craze. He charges me $0.30 cents a round which is cheaper than new but it's held up well for me. Better head spacing than I can get on my other brands. I tried some Norma from Midway and after 2 firings at mid range loads my primer pockets won't hold them anymore. The lake. It's match is like priming a new one still. Just my opinion but I'm still new to a lot of this. FYI it is just as good in my AR 15 other than having to get crimp out first time.
 
Thanks Wendy and that's been my experience with the standard LC brass as well . What I'm trying to get clarification on . Is LC-LR brass better then standard LC brass . If you all are not familiar with the LC-LR . It's the military's long rang round loaded with the 175gr SMK and does not have crimped primers . Likely do to the fact it's designed for snipers using bolt guns and semi auto sniper rifles . Therefore blowing primers out and them falling into the action locking up the gun is not likely so they don't need the primers crimped .

Now I've heard over the net that the LR brass is a more consistent brass then the standard LC stuff . On the whole the LR once fired brass should be better just by the fact it was almost surely not fired from the large chambered machine guns . That alone is not enough to spend double on the brass though .

Interesting read and if true answers my question

From link below said:
The M118 Special Ball Long Range, more commonly known as M118LR, also went back to utilizing match cases and a press fit, not staked, primer No. 43.
Click to expand...
http://www.snipercentral.com/history-m118-ammunition/

Well it appears the LR is match grade brass but as the article states they made one last adjustment and Federal started using a special match brass for the Mk316 Mod 0 round . Federal commercial brass is known for being softer with primer pockets loosening up quicker then others . I wonder if they are just using there GMM brass or did they actually produce a new case for the Mk316 Mod 0 .

Does anyone know when the Mk316 Mod 0 went into production ? My question really is . The cases in question are LC-11-LR . Are those from the new Mk316 Mod 0 rounds or the older M118LR stuff ?
 
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Lake City brass: @ $270.00 for 900 cases. The last opportunity I had to purchase LC Match 30/06 cases I paid $90.00 a thousand for unfired cases. The LC Match 30/06 cases covered me on 308 W cases. While at Pat's in Ohio I called a friend he was not interested. When I got home he came over and wanted me to sell him 1,000 of my cases, I made him a better deal, we called Pat and he made us the same deal for 3,000 more unfired 30/06 LC Match cases with an additional $10.00 for shipping.

F. Guffey
 
Forget the head stamp, after the case is fired it is once fired. Except for me, when NM or match is added to the head stamp I have another way to sort cases by head stamp.

F. Guffey
 
Talking about LR brass is going to drive the price up.
Click to expand...

Is that a good price in your book ? I just checked a few of my LC-12-LR cases and they had very consistent H2O volume but the neck wall thickness was in the .0025 . That seemed like a lot to me for "match" brass . I don't have any Lapua or Norma brass to compare . Do they also have a .002+ swing in neck wall thickness ?? Anyone have any Lapua match brass they want to mic and post the results ?

FWIW my LC-12-LR has now been fired three times and FL sized using Redding bushing dies twice . Those are the cases I mic the necks on . Maybe I extruded some brass into the new necks after FL sizing and that is the reason for the variance now ?????
 
The LC/LR brass has very close tolerance wall thickness brass. I only measure a max of .001" at the necks. This adds to a more consistent neck tension. Great value as well, i'm seeing upwards of 8 reloadings if you load mild velocities.
 
FWIW not long ago I picked up some LC 12 brass from Weidners. They were primed pulls and were only $100 for 500. Just neck sized them and good to go. I've shot about 100 so far and not a single misfire from a bad primer.
 
IMHO... LR brass should be worth the added cost.

While it appears the difference between LC and LC LR is just the crimp... I doubt it.

Necks are usually more concentric, and I'd bet the annealing of the case is different. ( The primers are typically of higher quality as well )

A perfect example is 168gr FGMM and Fed. 168gr American Eagle OTM.

Both those look the same.... but... I have yet to see the OTM out shoot the FGMM.... therefore, there is more then meets the eye.

And that leaves the case.
 
223%2035%20gr%20vmax%2015%20gr%20Blue%20Dot%20Ruger%201V%206-2016%20shot%20at%20prairie%20dogs.jpg


I just got back from shooting prairie dogs.
I fired 69 rounds, 14 had problems.
I had no eye protection, and some junk was getting in my shooting eye, so I quit.
 
That's not good there Clark , any idea what was going on there other then the obvious ?

Oh FWIW the guy I was to buy the brass from sold it .
 
This happened on the same ranch with the same ammo 4 years ago.
But it was with a Rem 700. One shot and the guy was off to the doctor with junk in his eye.

I had a Ruger #1V 223, and so my eye was better protected. That is 15 gr Blue Dot 35 gr Vmax moly ~ 35kpsi 3500 fps ground squirrel load good to 180 yards.

I am going to dump all associated suspect ammo and brass in the garbage.
That may cut short the cross section analysis time.
Those guys out there are using 40 and 50 gr bullets with H335 for longer range on prairie dogs. I will not be shooting thousands of shots at ground squirrels any more. I could switch to 6mmBR just as easily.
 
Lake City brass is my favorite.

I'm curious, what does the LR stand for?

I have tens of thousands of pieces of LC brass, 308 and 223. Eight cents a piece, so the price of $250 for 900 pieces of 308 LC brass is very high.

LC brass is often shot out of military open bolt belt fed guns. Belt fed guns have larger chambers than nonbelt fed guns. This is to help the feeding process in case there is a little pebble or piece of grime in the chamber.

This larger chamber results in brass that gets stretched larger than usual, thereby weakening the brass more than usual. I get lots of breakage, silicate to Clarks pics, when shooting my reloaded LC brass out of my belt feds. A broken shell extractor is a must-have, in that case.
 
The LR stands for Long Range ( LR ) and the head stamps read LC-what ever year-LR . They are the military sniper round loaded with 175gr SMK bullets . See link in post #5 .
 
I fired 69 rounds, 14 had problems.
Click to expand...

I could ask: 'How does that work?”. One of my older brothers went to the river to test his reloads; the first round shot 10' high and locked the bolt. He had to hammer the bolt open and literally dig the case out of his rifle, and then he fired it again with the same results.

I had to ask: "The first round shot 10' height and locked up your rifle; and then you shot it again?" and he said no: "I shot it 4 more times?

It was not long after that Bruce Hodgdon was setting in front of the house.

F. Guffey
 
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Clark, ive loaded about 800 rounds using lclr brass and zero case separation issues. Do you know for sure your rifle is headspaced correctly?
 
Road_Clam, I scrolled up to check what rifle he was using. Not all of my rifles are alike and the difference between them can cause unique problems. I had words with Winchester, they were not happy with me. About the only nice thing I can say about them is 'the box' they returned the rifle in a new box. Had I managed to fire the rifle in the returned condition I would have had case head separation.

F. Guffey
 
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