Some questions about lake city brass

[ghostwriter247]

Ive gotten into reloading for my 308 Savage 10BA and have been reading a lot of the threads but had some specific questions. They are kind of basic but i couldn't find definitive answers and wanted to check to see if Im thinking this through correctly.

1. The lake city 308 has lower capacity so higher pressure at lower charges. Does this mean it will also produce higher velocities at lower charges?

2. Since the webbing is made stronger would this translate into a higher number of reloads before the accuracy suffers like lapua brass?

3. Accuracy wise if you sort and prep it properly like the hand loading sticky explains would it be accurate like the winchester or higher end commercial brass?

4. or does the interior volume vary too much for good accuracy?

5. Assuming i buy prepped, reamed, trimmed, and sorted once fired lc brass from a reputable broker, and then sort it by stamp, does it matter whether i buy match stamped brass or just any lake city brass? My understanding is the case is the same but the differences are the primer pocket and the stamp so the prep should norm them out.

Lapua brass is outside my budget for the time being but Im going back and forth between well sorted lc or new winchester, or a combination of both, have alot of lake city for trigger time and some winchester for match shooting.


Thanks guys

Josh

 

[Big Z]

1. Relatively speaking, yes; but in the big picture, a 300 WinMag is faster than a 308 because it holds more powder.
2. Annealing and moving as little brass as necessary will win the case life game. FL sizing and running shit extra hot kills it quick.
3. It'll do a fine job sorted, but the sticky doesn't have all the tricks.
4. Weight sorting is your friend here
5. IDK

 

[ghostwriter247]

Thanks Z anyone else shooting lake city?

With regard question one i was wondering about whether a 308 lake city brass would give the same velocity with a lower charge than say winchester 308 brass since the interior volumes were lower and create more case pressure.

 

[Fuzzball]

Ghost, a lot of what you read/hear about reloading and components is well intended BS, it's stuff heard and repeated until it takes on a life of it's own.

Military cases are made on the same type of machines and dies used by commercial makers so there's little predictable difference. Yeah, LC cases vary a little by production lot; ditto commercial cases. And ditto the powder lot, and bullets, and primers, and the weapon it's fired in, they all vary a bit; we deal with it all in proper load development. Any differences in possible peak velocity due to the cases before blowing something up will be trivial down range.

You have good cases. Select and prep them as much and as precisely as it takes to make you happy, then develop your load with your components in your rifle and shoot them. IF you're a newbee it will be a long time before Lapua brass would do a thing for you.

 

[ksthomas]

Ghostwriter247,

LC makes good quality cases. Actually, they make some of the best cases for certain applications. They do vary a bit from commercial stuff, in that they're done to standards that allow their use in full auto weapons, as well as precision semi auto and bolt guns, depending on the type of ammo. LC Match is still something of a gold standard for M14/M1As, and works well in M110s as well as bolt guns. I'm still sitting on tens of thousands of once fired (in match chambered bolt guns) cases, and still use them for my M1As and M110. As an added bonus, no primer crimps to mess with as you would with standard M80 Ball ammo brass.

There's some sorting that will need to be done, and yes, you'll find good lots and bad lots. Depending on the degree to which you're sorting, you'll still be able to get a fairly high percentage of usable cases, not a problem. The case capacity issue is something that needs to be recognized with the old GI 30-06 or 7.62 cases, but that's just a minor adjustment to the load. A bit less velocity at the same pressures due to the reduced capacity, but not likely to be noticeable in the field. It's decent stuff, and in using it for most applications, I wouldn't give it a second thought.

 

[ghostwriter247]

Thanks for the replies!

 

[High Binder]

1. The lake city 308 has lower capacity so higher pressure at lower charges. Does this mean it will also produce higher velocities at lower charges?

There's too many factors such as burn rate/barrel length/etc. to say definitively yes or no but generally speaking yes.

2. Since the webbing is made stronger would this translate into a higher number of reloads before the accuracy suffers like lapua brass?

Yep, LC/LR (match) brass is on par with Lapua. I only use Lapua in some apps but in .308 I have 6,000 pcs of 07 LC/LR brass and it easily gets Lapua like reloads if you anneal. Accuracy shouldn't suffer based on the number of reloads. If it does, its because you're doing something wrong i.e. not annealing/etc.

3. Accuracy wise if you sort and prep it properly like the hand loading sticky explains would it be accurate like the winchester or higher end commercial brass?

Win brass sucks. LC brass is far closer to Lapua brass than Win brass in terms of value. Again accuracy isn't a function the brass. It's a function of how well the brass is prepped and what powder/bullet/etc. you chose.

4. or does the interior volume vary too much for good accuracy?

I've never seen volume variances any higher than Lapua brass when I've CC'd them with water

5. Assuming i buy prepped, reamed, trimmed, and sorted once fired lc brass from a reputable broker, and then sort it by stamp, does it matter whether i buy match stamped brass or just any lake city brass? My understanding is the case is the same but the differences are the primer pocket and the stamp so the prep should norm them out.

The only difference in LC brass is that LC machine gun fired brass will have the primers crimped where as the LC/LR brass doesn't, otherwise it's exactly the same brass (machine gun brass will need more prep).

Lapua brass is outside my budget for the time being but Im going back and forth between well sorted lc or new winchester, or a combination of both, have alot of lake city for trigger time and some winchester for match shooting.

You've got it backwards...

 

[ghostwriter247]

That solves it. Gonna have to go with the lake city. Any recommended sites that sort decrimp trim and polish it for sale?

 

[High Binder]

That solves it. Gonna have to go with the lake city. Any recommended sites that sort decrimp trim and polish it for sale?

I have no idea on that one but honestly you'll save a lot of money if you just do the prep yourself, even if you have to buy the equip it'll eventually save you money if you continue to reload.