Is Fed and LC brass the same?

[Jicko]

So far, I have only been shooting Federal AE223 and Federal XM193.... I believed all my Federal brass is from my commerical AE223.... and my LC brass is from either my XM193 or AE223 (I've got some that is loaded with LC brass)

So, my question is, are they the same? I may have heard somewhere that LC brass is better than Federal brass.... is that true?

Also, my AE223, ie Fed 223 stamped brass, they should be "non-crimped" right?

THANKS for any info.

[Gunsrruss]

I'm just guesing Rick, but....

Fed is civilian and LC is military side. Federal shouldn't be crimped, and LC should. Federal took over the LC plant. That doesn't mean the brass is the same.

[Technical Ted]

Military brass like Lake City has thicker case walls than commercial. This will decrease the powder capacity noticeably. It will also affect performance. That's why it's best to rework your loads with different bullet/case/powder/charge weight/primer combination.

[Jicko]

Military brass like Lake City has thicker case walls than commercial. This will decrease the powder capacity noticeably. It will also affect performance. That's why it's best to rework your loads with different bullet/case/powder/charge weight/primer combination.

Then my question is........ why are some of my AE223s are loaded with Fed223 cases, and some of them are loaded with LC cases..... aren't they the same AE223 then? Or did they actually put more/less powder in one than the others?

[gose]

Fed is civilian and LC is military side. Federal shouldn't be crimped, and LC should. Federal took over the LC plant. That doesn't mean the brass is the same.

Federal AE223 seems to come with either LC or Federal stamped brass.

The Federal brass weighs 95.4gr (average over 5) and the LC weighs 96.4 (average over 5), so the difference is just over 1%... I guess the dimensions might still be different though.

[Technical Ted]

Then my question is........ why are some of my AE223s are loaded with Fed223 cases, and some of them are loaded with LC cases..... aren't they the same AE223 then? Or did they actually put more/less powder in one than the others?

Federal could have had an excess of LC stamped brass and decided to use it on one of their American Eagle production runs. If that's the case, then the primers may not be crimped even if the cases are stamped LC. I'd be curious to see how a lot with Federal cases compared against a lot with Lake City cases in performance.

Check case capacity. Use fired cases with the primer still in them. Fill a Federal case to the base of the neck with black pepper (or gun powder if you don't mind wasting some). Pour the contents of the Federal case into a Lake City case. If they hold the same amount, then they are close to the same.

I know for certain that 25.9 grs of Varget will fill a Winchester case to the base of the neck, while the same charge weight will overflow in a Lake City case.

Personally, I prefer Winchester brass because I'd heard that Federal brass was too soft. When I buy commercial ammo I buy Winchester by the case and reload the brass. Even Winchester can have variations of headstamps between lots within their brand lines. With one case of USA223R1 55 gr FMJ ammo made in the US the cases were stamped Winchester. Another case of USA223R1 made in Israel had cases stamped WCC.

Note that I have never seen a case of commercial ammo with mixed headstamps.

[Jicko]

Interesting, maybe I will do some experiments and report back here later... ;-)

[grammaton76]

The info re: case walls, etc, is why it's generally a good idea to segregate your loads by headstamp if you're using the Dillon powder-level safety. The height of 24.0gr of powder will be higher or lower dependent upon the capacity of the case, and the Dillon powder check will only evaluate how high the powder level is within the case. When I first started out, I thought all 223 brass would be equivalent, and was wondering why I kept getting false positives on cartridges which had the correct powder weight in them...

[dw1784]

american eagle brand is their "inexpensive" line and I would agree with Ted it is made with LC brass as that's what I have too. However, their premium ammo is made at the civilian/LE ammo plant in Anoke, Minnesota. The brass will be different. I'm not sure though, if those brass is with crimped primers.

With regards to LC brass, I think Ocabj posted something about the year to year variations with pre Y2K having higher capacity. I've read something in the mags where the authour weighed the cases for an article regarding ES/SD spreads and he too, found LC case variations in year to year.

regarding softer brass, I've found it varies with caliber too. I have some Win 308 that's softer than FC and Win45 that's harder than Rem or FC. My toughest and most consistant brass is IMI, but it's mil brass and about 1.5gr less than FC.

have fun weighing and sorting them out