The head stamp thread

[SWThomas]

I'm curious about a few head stamps I came across sorting brass today. I figured I would make a thread and maybe we can all offer info about certain head stamps. Like who makes them and if there are any known issues with a particular head stamp. I know there's a list decoding head stamps out there but it doesn't offer first hand insight from someone who has used them.

Here's what I got. These are all 223 and 5.56 cases.

- FC 223 REM (I've read multiple times that Federal brass sucks)
- RP 223 REM
- MAL 5.56 12-84
- L C 7 6
- PSD 13
- PMC 223 REM
- WCC 12

Any input on the quality of these cases would be great. Any other info, like if they're crimped, would be good too.

Feel free to list anything I didn't post and give your experience with it. This isn't 223 specific.

 

[JB02]

FC 223 REM (I've read multiple times that Federal brass sucks)

I've reloaded with this brass a few times and had good results. They all weighed within a grain of each other and gave great results downrange. They were range pickup pieces too; some dude left over a hundred of them in the bucket.

 

[Silverbullet2]

I run PMC both crimped and non crimped in my 5.56, as well as LC. Lake City is nice and durable, as well as WCC which is Winchester Mil-spec 5.56, and is crimped. 5.56 is not fussy with brass, what ever headstamp you have the most of, start with prepping a 100 at a time. Use highpower service rifle load data, and your set. My KAC LPR shoots 3/4" groups with my LC brass and 69 SMK's with no load development. What more can you ask for? Best of luck, J

 

[lte82]

RP is great brass, and not crimped either. Just size and load. My uncle, who got high master shooting an ar service rifle, used it a lot.

Pmc works pretty well to be honest. My dad loaded pmcs for me when I was a kid since we had a ton of it.

LC is my favorite because its plentiful, cheap, durable and accurate.

Never tried federal.

Wcc is supposed to be good but I can lc all day long so I dont shoot it. I guess I would try it if lc brass dried up.

 

[SWThomas]

I scored a bunch of range brass today. A lot of 223. Anyone have experience with these head stamps???

- Tulammo 223 Rem

- GFL 223 Rem

 

[turbo54]

I scored a bunch of range brass today. A lot of 223. Anyone have experience with these head stamps???

- Tulammo 223 Rem

- GFL 223 Rem

Tulammo is brass?

GFL is Fiocci. I've used it a bunch and its good. Mine wasn't "crimped" per se, but it still needed to be swaged to nice take a primer.

 

[High Binder]

- Tulammo 223 Rem

Isn't all Tula steal?

LC XX brass is awesome in .308/.223
I've had good luck with WCC and RP
Bad luck with Fed.
I have a huge stack of once fire PMC (range pickups and friends who don't reload) but haven't ever gotten around to reloading with it (too much other stuff).

 

[SWThomas]

These Tulammo cases are definitely brass.

 

[Pinecone]

Tula does both brass and steel cases.

Many report off center primer holes in GFL brass.

 

[MarinePMI]

The PMC brass may change drastically from lot to lot. Unless things have changed in the past few years, PMC wasn't making their own ammo; they sub-contracted it out. Crying shame seeing all those machines in their US factory covered with tarps, and the work force down to a hand full of folks, stripping OEM boxes off ammo, and slipping PMC labeled boxes onto them...

I had heard a rumor they were going to fire those machines up and restart their own in house production, but I never heard (definitively) that they ever did. Just tossing that out...

 

[Foul Mike]

Tulammo brass is made in Italy or so the box says. I shot 50 rds. and reloaded it twice. I did not anneal it but wish I had.
A lot of the flash holes are off center and the primers are crimped. The crimp removed fairly easy.
On the second firing I got several split necks with one going into the shoulder a ways.
I'm not going to mess with it except maybe a one time thing where you don't worry about where he brass goes or feel you won't be able to recover it.
I shot it in an AR so it might be better with a bolt rifle. Regards, FM

 

[Foul Mike]

PRVI is showing up in my area now in 20 rd. boxes.
Is that brass any good? Made in Bosnia Herzo.
I wonder if it is not from S&B. FM

 

[mallrat]

Got a tour of a small company called Velocity Manufacturing in Fort Scott, Ks. on Friday. Mostly turning copper rods down to .223 & .308 bullets on computer operated lathes, but we also saw some early work on turning brass rod into pistol cartridge cases. I'm not sure how economically feasible it is, but it looks cool as hell. .223 cases would be handy about now, but they seemed to think their order for conventional brass would be filled shortly, reducing the need for fancy lathe work. The prototype brass I saw didn't have any headstamp, I'm guessing it'd be their trademark, VMC, if available.

 

[Foul Mike]

This AM I watched a prepper shoot 10 rds. of 308 Win Lapua ammo checking the zero on his scope.
He is a good business man in the town and had a hunting rifle with good glass that a friend had helped him zero it. I helped him and made an adjustment or two and he was shooting right in there. He was happy and so was I.
He is much too busy to reload and gave me the brass. He also had two other boxes from previous trips zeroing and he gave me those also.
One of those boxes had 18 rds. in it. As he was giving me these boxes he said,"I shot over at that bench over east last time and couldn't find the 2 that are missing."

We went over to that bench and looked around and picked up the brass we found and put it in a sack. I later sorted it and there they were, the 2 missing pieces of brass.
They had been out there for at least 3 weeks, but due to headstamps they were found.
I paid him for the brass as he didn't know what they were worth. He thought a penny or 2 apiece was their worth.
A good morning on the range. Regards, FM