Question on LC 7.62 brass

[Smokerroller]

I have an opportunity to get some LC 66 and newer LC brass with modern year stamps. I am told the LC66 is extra heavy and real primo brass. I will be using it for precision reloads in my LR 308. What is everyone's opinion on it for this application? I would prefer some Winchester but if the LC is good for accurate reloads I will be every happy to get some. I don't have enough quality brass of the same head stamp so I can't get a load worked up with enough brass to keep me going for a while.
Thanks

 

[Rprecision]

LC brass works fine, of one lot works even better.

I think LC brass in a semi auto makes perfect sense.

Be cautious of anything that came out a machine gun it can be a bugger to get back to size.

Do good prep and sort and you should be good to go, remeber lower case capacity thich LC needs a bit less powder to stay in a node

 

[leid]

OP,
Almost 10 years back while working up loads to help accurized a standard U.S. M14 rifle, I decided to get a better idea of just how good or bad standard LC brass was as compared to LC LR brass & off course LAPUA. The most obvious criteria was weight of the brass itself. To even things up: all LC brass was once-fired, FL sized, trimmed to uniform length, flash holes deburred, & primer crimp swaged (not cut) where necessary then pockets cut to uniform depth. The LAPUA brass was virgin straight from the box. Then I grabbed 5 cases from each lot at random for weighing (results below). The LC LR brass & LAPUA brass were much more consistent by weight than the standard LC brass used. So for use in an accurized bolt rifle, I would go with LC LR brass or LAPUA. But standard LC brass is sufficiently consistent for use in a standard M14 or other autoloader IMO. HTH

LC 87: 175.2/176.5/177.5/176.2/177.6: average 176.6gr. with ES of 2.4gr.
LC 88: 178.7/175.3/177.6/176.7/177.1: average 177.1gr. with ES of 3.4gr.
LR 04: 177.3/177.0/177.3/176.9/177.2: average 177.1gr. with ES of 0.4gr. (Must have been a very good year for LR brass)
LAPUA:172.4/172.4/171.5/171.9/172.2: average 172.1gr. with ES of 0.9gr.

 

[Smokerroller]

How can LC LR brass be I identified? Is it just an LR added to the head stamp and it is heavier/ thicker? This brass is FL sized, swaged, trimmed, and stainless media tumbled. I will run it through my fl sizing die first for consistency. Since these pieces have already been sized prior to running through my die will my first round of a ladder test be squed compaired to their second time through MY rifle?

 

[leid]

The M118LR cartridge uses LC LR headstamped brass. LC LR brass from 2004 will be headstamped "LC 04 LR". As seen from the weights I posted above, the LC 04 LR brass weighs virtually the same as the standard LC 88 with NATO cross M80 BALL brass on average. But it shows to be quite a bit more uniform in its weight. Some shooters think that the interior dimensions of LC LR brass were slightly changed as compared to standard LC brass. I don't know. What I do know is that LC LR is very consistent brass more than well suited for autoloader use. Perhaps one of the ammunition industry experts will chime in on your question. As far as buying fired brass, I prefer to use brass I have fired in my rifle especially if using a bolt rifle. If I do buy once-fired LC LR brass, I want it completely un-processed/un-polished so I can verify that it is, in fact, once fired. The good new is that M118LR ammo is not normally fired in MGs. I assume that all modern standard LC brass has been fired in a belt-fed MG; probably not worth the time & effort to uniform. So I just pick up & reuse my own casings when I shoot LC M80/M118SB/M118LR ammunition. I expect slightly better groups in accurized bolt rifles on the second loadings forward but I full-length size all the brass for M14/autoloader rifle use so no real difference in group size expected or noted.

 

[George63]

OP,
Almost 10 years back while working up loads to help accurized a standard U.S. M14 rifle, I decided to get a better idea of just how good or bad standard LC brass was as compared to LC LR brass & off course LAPUA. The most obvious criteria was weight of the brass itself. To even things up: all LC brass was once-fired, FL sized, trimmed to uniform length, flash holes deburred, & primer crimp swaged (not cut) where necessary then pockets cut to uniform depth. The LAPUA brass was virgin straight from the box. Then I grabbed 5 cases from each lot at random for weighing (below). The LC LR brass & LAPUA brass were much more consistent by weight than the standard LC brass used. So for use in an accurized bolt rifle, I would go with LC LR brass or LAPUA. But standard LC brass is sufficiently consistent for use in a standard M14 or other autoloader IMO. HTH

LC 87: 175.2/176.5/177.5/176.2/177.6: average 176.6gr. with ES of 2.4gr.
LC 88: 178.7/175.3/177.6/176.7/177.1: average 177.1gr. with ES of 3.4gr.
LR 04: 177.3/177.0/177.3/176.9/177.2: average 177.1gr. with ES of 0.4gr. (Must have been a very good year for LR brass)
LAPUA:172.4/172.4/171.5/171.9/172.2: average 172.1gr. with ES of 0.9gr.

those sample sizes are too small to mean much

after weighing 500 lapua from the same lot the extreme spread was 4 gr, but 90 % fell into 1 gr so the SD was low

I recently weigh sorted 15,000 LC (mostly 11 ) with ES over 7 gr and 80 % going into 2 gr

of course what everyone is trying to get at by weighing is consistent interior volume and any one who has put enough effort with a large enough sample size has found there is not a correlation between water volume and case weight until you get to around 3 gr weight variation

so regardless of the brand/ headstamp of the brass chosen, logically you will still weigh and either sort or cull the outliers, but if you think that sorting to less than 2gr batches means anything you are fooling yourself - if you really want to closely control interior volume, you have to water test

In the end almost any brass that is well prepped / sorted can do well - it just may not last as many cycles as say lapua

 

[leid]

George,
I certainly hope it was worth your time & effort to weight sort 15K LC casings.

 

[George63]

George,
I certainly hope it was worth your time & effort to weight sort 15K LC casings.

to get good results you have to get rid of the outliers in the brass, whether you are dealing with a 100 or thousands - now I have a lifetime of matched set brass