I need to figure out which headstamps are military and which aren't. I don't really feel like unnecessarily swaging primer pockets. I know most military brass has dates but I've found some crimped primers in brass without dates.

 

Is there a good list of which is which?

A recently learned tip to aid your situation:

 

Using the RCBS swager button (the piece that goes in the shellholder slot on the ram) go through your deprimed brass and see if it fits into the primer pocket.

Goes in all the way - you're good to go

Doesn't go all the way in - swage it

 

You have to handle each piece of brass anyway, so you may as well definitively know where it goes next

I'll give that a try after sorting by head stamp.

 

Thanks.

If it was made at Lake City, by any manufacturer, it will say "LC" and if it's been loaded they will have crimped primers since that's the mil-spec. If you buy unfired Lake City brass it won't have been primed yet so there's no need to be uncrimped.

 

I assume any commercial manufacturer can crimp if they want to

I've read where mil spec brass is thicker thus case volume is lower. I'm not sure how noticeable this is as I filled an LC piece of brass with water, poured it out and measured it and did the same with a non-mil brass and they came out the same.

 

Anyone have any experience with this?

I got a lot of range pickup LC brass today and after inspecting the headstamps I'm left scratching my head. Some of it does not seem to have a crimp ring (these usually have silver primers) and some does (with gold primers). So does the presence/absence of the crimp ring and/or the color of the primer all depend on which manufacturer produced the loaded ammo, presumably using LC brass that they outsourced instead of making brass in-house? Or are these someones handloads using unprimed LC brass?

Could be new unprimed brass loaded by someone, or it could be reloaded once fired with the crimp removed. You'd have to post pics for anyone to tell.

In looking at them closely again it seems that the primer pockets have been reamed, so it's probably commercially reloaded rounds from once fired brass as you said. That would make the most sense since I doubt any handloader who would bother to decrimp primer pockets would just abandon such brass at the range...

since I doubt any handloader who would bother to decrimp primer pockets would just abandon such brass at the range...

 

That's a very good point.

They do................Brass they feel has been reloaded enough. Usually about 5 times on 5.56 full loads. They have found out that reloading that brass any more times lead to more problems. I have seen this many times at ranges. To lazy to pick up and discard. Overused brass is a potential problem. Milsurp brass with crimp still in OK. Milsurp Brass without crimp ring and silver primers left on range needs special looking at. I myself avoid them on ranges and never in 25+ years have had a problem with brass.

They do................Brass they feel has been reloaded enough. Usually about 5 times on 5.56 full loads. They have found out that reloading that brass any more times lead to more problems. I have seen this many times at ranges. To lazy to pick up and discard. Overused brass is a potential problem. Milsurp brass with crimp still in OK. Milsurp Brass without crimp ring and silver primers left on range needs special looking at. I myself avoid them on ranges and never in 25+ years have had a problem with brass.

My thoughts exactly. I know when my brass hits the end of the road I shoot without the brass deflector or catcher. I sweep them up but I dont always get them all (not intentionally). Picking up brass you didnt shoot can be fairly risky.

 

Ken

In looking at them closely again it seems that the primer pockets have been reamed, so it's probably commercially reloaded rounds from once fired brass as you said. That would make the most sense since I doubt any handloader who would bother to decrimp primer pockets would just abandon such brass at the range...

 

Eh, I ream my primer pockets, all my lc brass is 08, and I use federal match primers. I don't get every one back. All you know about them is that odds are they have been shot at least twice.

Hmm, very good points made on all sides. In looking at this brass it doesn't seem to have been overworked, and in total about 90ish pieces have been decrimped/primed with silver primers (out of 123 total of LC brass that I collected yesterday). But better safe than sorry, so I think I'll save that 'reloaded' brass for the SHTF bucket