I found a source where I can get Lake City 68 Match brass. The stuff seems to be pretty reasonably priced. Does this stuff have quality comparible to commecial brass? I also saw some LC72 brass that was cheaper yet, does anyone know the difference between the Match and standard brass?

As far as reloading goes, I' ve heard that I need a special tool to remove the primer crimp, are there any other brass prep or reloading considerations that I need to be aware of that isn' t common with commercial brass?

Military brass is usually a bit thicker which reduces case capacity by a little therefore increasing pressure. It can also be a bit more brittle than commercial brass. Personally I don' t think it is worth the time and effort to mess with at any price. Commercial brass is so cheap and available now that there is no real reason to risk the military junk.

When comparing case capacity of PMC brass with the crimp ring to Remington and S&B there was a difference of only 1/10' th to 3/10' ths of a grain. Then again this is new production PMC ammo. Haven' t had any of the Lake City to compare although the standard belief is that the surplus has thicker case walls reducing internal capacity. Now on some of the 223 brass I have there is as much as 4 grains of difference. I would just buy the Winchester from Midway and know that your getting uniform capacities.

Thanks for the help. I guess I' ll just stick with the 200 pieces of Winchester brass that I' ve emptied so far.

Briman,

Military Match cases is very good brass. Match brass also doesn' t have crimp primers and doesn' t require special effort or tools. The non-match military cases have the crimp primers. The difference between match and non-match brass, if I recall correctly, is the location and uniformity of the flash holes and thickness of the brass. As already stated, GI cases are heavier than civilian brass. This results in a reduction of case capacity. What this boils down to is that the same pressures and velocities are usually reached with less powder. A max powder charge in a civilian case may well be an unsafe load in a military case. I hope that this is of some help. Good luck.[&:]

Briman:

Would you reveal your source for the match grade brass? Thanks.

http://www.gibrass.com/brass.html

these comments now for the .30-06 and .308.....not the .223 military brass.....

It is fine brass....very fine. It will require reduced powder consumption because it tends to have heavier thicknesses. You MUST work up loads.and that' s not hard to do.

Removing the crimp is easy....there' s tools available to do it.....you can use a simple deburring tool if you wish.

It' s a matter of how much free time you have to devote to this. Given the committment on your part, you can have a lot of cheap beass of high quality.....but you pay for it in time.....there' s no right answer.

Q?:

How much powder would I need to reduce in loads for military brass?

Currently the only load I tried was what I think is a standard match load- 47.5 gr 4064 with 168 SMK bullet though in commercial winchester brass. I shot a match last weekend with this laod and did pretty well with my 03 springfield. After thematch, I benched the rifle and found the load to shoot very tight.

I' m thinking the standard match load is for use with military brass? It was very mild in the commercial stuff, and toward the low-middle range in the powder charge spectrum. For military brass would this be too much powder, or within reasonable limits? I' m considering ordering some of the LC 68 brass and duplicating this load, as I now need more brass because someone else I know wants to try shooting high power and I' m willing to lend the equipment and ammo.

10% below manual loads is a good rule of thumb. I doubt you would bust anything if you used the loads right out of a manual though. I have found a few suggested starting loads to be just about max in military brass.