Can Anyone Identify this Headstamp?

[elChupacabra!]

Here is a picture of a fun little piece of brass that gave me quite the time...

I batch my ammo by headstamp, but when I pick up range brass or have brass that I don't have at least 20 or 50 pieces of, I throw it together into "mixed" batches that get loaded up for plinking at low(er) pressures with little accuracy expectation. Since this mixed brass often has crimped primers, I run it through a Lee Decapper die first to avoid damaging my Forster FL resizing die. Well, this piece apparrently has an undersized flash hole - SO undersized, it almost pulled the decapping stem out of the die when I raised the handle! So I went through all my batched mixed brass and culled all of this stuff out, since I don't have a flash hole uniformer and it's not worth it to me to spend that much effort on range brass anyways.

I went ahead and decapped a few more of them, and yes, they all have the same problem... the flash hole is off-center for some, too. In preparation for taking the picture, I ran a primer pocket cleaner in there for a few seconds, and you can see where it actually polished a ridge that the decapper pushed up, the hole is so small (the shiny ring right around the hole itself).

So, first, I was wondering if anyone could identify this headstamp for me... and second, I want to issue a warning to those of you who (like me) pick up range brass - you may want to stay away from this stuff unless you want to deal with uniforming the flash hole and possibly damaging your die.

 

[Griz44]

I think that's a .223.
(sorry, no clue)

 

[elChupacabra!]

Thanks Griz, it's all clear now

 

[dstark]

I have some Bosnian SS-109 with the same heapstamp.

 

[Remo-99]

elChupacabra! - If it were me, i'd throwing those few odd cases, with that headstamp, straight into the scrap brass bucket. Otherwise it's prolly gonna end up costing you a de-capping pin. Theres plenty of good quality once fired .223rem brass out there, it ain't worth messing with the dodgy stuff.

 

[elChupacabra!]

Remo-99 - you better believe it, I spend about 30 minutes sorting through about 300 pieces of mixed brass to find EVERY LAST PIECE of this junk, throwing it all out. 24 pieces of questionable range brass isn't worth ruining a nice die, that's for sure!

 

[bullseye308]

It's good brass and I have used it a lot in the past with no problems. Buy a Lee decapper and base and chuck the decapper in a drill. Reduce the diameter of the pin with emery cloth or sandpaper and it will work with all brass that has tight holes. I have a few dacappers and have done it with all of them. There is some tight 308 brass out there too and this solves it cheaper than anything else.

 

[SamG.]

Buying something extra just for those crappers doesn't seem worth it. I'd throw em away.

 

[d'Artagnan]

Igman

It's Igman headstamped. From some part that used to be Yugoslavia. See www.igman.com. I've seen it but never used it nor tried to reload it.

 

[elChupacabra!]

I've heard of Igman - Cheaper Than Dirt advertises cases of 600 rounds of Igman SS109 that was rejected by NATO because it's 12 FPS too slow for $379... well, apparrently it's more than just undercharged - it seems to be cheaply made, too. I'm glad I never bought any, and at $0.63 / round, I'm REALLY glad I got into reloading!