LC 223 Rem brass?

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hardheart

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Of the brass I collected at the range today, ten pieces had "LC 223 REM" headstamps. I tried searching online for the headstamp, but only got results for regular Lake City brass. Anyone know what this is? Only asking out of curiosity, ten pieces of brass isn't a big deal. Did almost throw me off twice while separating the typical LC headstamps.
 
I saw LC ..... Did not read the .223 part ....my bad.

Well looks like my thoughts were right after all ...

It is good brass ....
 
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Phantom 309 said:
But it's .223 Remington, not 5.56. As far as I know Lake City is all the NATO flavor, that's what had the OP and now myself curious...
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I do not know what you mean by "all the NATO flavor." You mean it has a crimped primer pocket? It is made to NATO specs?

And yes it is 223.
 
Remember, Federal ran LC for many years... I've seen some nutty stuff come out of there, including crimped primers on .223 REM Federal ammo that was very likely run on the same machines that manufactured LC stamped brass. I would agree... LC stamped '.223 REM' brass would be an anomaly, but not really surprising given what I consider some pretty poor QC at LC by Federal.
 
In this instance I was referring to it as "NATO flavor" only to indicate a caliber marking on the case of 5.56 and not .223 REM.

We haven't seen a photo of the OP's headstamps so it is unknown if there are NATO crosses, date codes, SCAMP dots, or crimped pockets present.

@Charlie98 just made a good point, and it may well have come from the Lake City plant under Federal's control. I was just saying that it could have been manufactured by Måtravidèki Fèmmüvek in Sirok, Hungary for Armscorp USA Inc. and sold as. 223 Remington ammunition. Since that manufacturer also used an "LC" on their headstamp.
 
gifbohane said:
I do not know what you mean by "all the NATO flavor." You mean it has a crimped primer pocket? It is made to NATO specs?

And yes it is 223.
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It's not Lake City brass. It's a copy made somewhere, maybe by Federal, maybe in Hungary, but it's not the issue Lake City brass. All LC currently made for issue will have " LC xx (last two digits of the year) and the Nato stamp (circle with cross inside, and all those dang dots in the base. )" It definitely will not say .223, nor 5.56. Were I Federal, if it's coming from other than them, I'd be thinking lawsuit. (To quote a well-known member of another forum I'm on.)
 
entropy said:
Were I Federal, if it's coming from other than them, I'd be thinking lawsuit.
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I would think not. There have been instances of other headstamp duplication, and it's not like a copyrighted logo or anything. Further, depending on what's actually on the OP's cases, if it doesn't have the NATO compass... it's not LC, etc, etc.
 
It was kind of a joke. There are some other members of that forum on this one; if they see it, they might get a giggle. I'd imagine NATO might be interested if there was ammo they didn't approve being made with the NATO compass.
 
The Lake City brass that I am finding has a NATO cross, dates and Stamps. I have not seen any with Rem 223...yet.

Guess that I learned something today.
 
hardheart said:
yes, that's the same brass. The LC is oriented "upside down" compared to mil brass, no scamp markings, no cross, no year. All of my pieces are like the one on the left, one dot on each side of the LC.
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The SCAMP markings are the dots.

I found this on another forum posted by NVhntr, dated /02/27/ 2020, with a response from Federal:

In reference to .223/5.56 brass.
On the 24HC Black Rifle Challenge Thread there was a recent discussion about FC brass being softer than other brands. It seems several people found this to be the case in the past.
It was also brought up whether the newer FC brass with the case head that has the SCAMP dots is the same as LC brass, also with the SCAMP dots, IE are both made to the same spec.
I sent an email to Federal yesterday asking specifically about this to resolve the question. I have a lot FC brass on hand and I'd like to know the answer.

My question to Federal:
Is Federal .223/5.56 brass with the SCAMP dots on the case head the same (mil spec) brass as Lake City? I have seen several comments that FC brass is softer than LC, but I was wondering if the newer FC brass with the SCAMP dots was the same as LC.
Thanks

Federals response:
It is the same.
Thank you
Federal Ammunition Tech Services
Click to expand...

Now we all learned something.
 
Guessing Phantom is right, since I can't see fathom why any business with the Lake City contract would want to mark LC 223 Remington brass, radically change the lettering format on the bunter punch while still calling it Lake City, or to depart from the spec for SCAMP markings on something made where SCAMP has been the program for decades. Federal even uses the bog standard LC headstamp brass in Federal branded ammo (same trip another shooter asked about getting started in reloading and showed me his Federal ammo he was shooting, which was all LC 20 stamped brass) The dots look more like Israeli headstamps to me, like IMI or the older TZZ headstamps, but maybe the Hungarians use a similar punch design spec as well. Who knows, but it certainly is something. Not much of something, but something nonetheless.
 
Take a look in the trash can at the range. I bet you'll be able to match some empty boxes to that brass.
 
hardheart said:
Federal even uses the bog standard LC headstamp brass in Federal branded ammo (same trip another shooter asked about getting started in reloading and showed me his Federal ammo he was shooting, which was all LC 20 stamped brass)
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Well... then he doesn't have Federal LC brass, he has Winchester LC brass. Winchester took over Lake City last year.

As far as LC and FC .223/5.56mm brass being the same, yes it most likely is, and run on the same machines. The caveat to that may be some specialty (hunting, nickle plated) ammo run on their own machines outside of the LC plant.
 
Not to get off topic, but I will throw this out there since I just ran into it. I found some LC 52 headstamped 30 carbine brass recently. Turns out it was Berdan primed. I googled it, turns out it was Chinese counterfeit. :eek:
 
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