Sorting brass

[Mags]

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Actually the Lake City arsenal head stamp was the perplexing part. A lookup showed that it was initially run by Remington, later others and currently Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. My head scratcher was 'why would Federal market someone else's military grade ammo instead of their own?' More lookup since; Federal doesn't appear to manage any of the arsenals, I guess that means to sell legit military grade ammo they have to acquire it from one of the arsenals, run by someone else.

I brought up the OAL to see what responses would come of it. You might remember from older posts that I was having bolt seizure troubles with my Long Ranger (ammo wouldn't fully seat in the chamber). HenryCS took care of that with a bolt lockup adjustment, but in seeing this ammo like this, got me to thinking if maybe it was part of the seize up issue. Still have some boxes of this ammo. I got it for a good price. Mostly now shoot Federal Black (bulk).

no caliber stamp. Which is somewhat perplexing

I don't know about the 'perplexing' part and Like I said this is typical for military brass.

Worst OAL 2.267 and best 2.247.

Again not untypical for military ammo.
It ain't match grade stuff.

[Mistered]

My head scratcher was 'why would Federal market someone else's military grade ammo instead of their own?'

They probably got it dirt cheap - cheaper than they could produce it for.

but in seeing this ammo like this, got me to thinking if maybe it was part of the seize up issue.

Could have been.
While 'technically' dimensionally the same as .223 Rem variations do exist and military brass is typically thicker than non-Military brass and some rifle Mfgs. will specify to shoot only .223 Rem (non-military) in their guns. Rim thickness and diameter variances are a reality as well.
If you look on your Federal ammo box it has the abbreviation 'MSR' in the upper right corner (over the 'obvious' rifle) which stands for "modern sporting rifle' which kinda sorta tells me they are 'suggesting' what this ammo should be used for.

I would not shoot military brass out of your LR. It deserves better.
Quality factory .223 or good reloads.

[Mags]

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In my previous line of work, building some of our products to military spec, meant meeting tighter tolerances and the higher mil spec quality control. I had assumed that would be the case with military grade ammo. I'm reading that isn't the case.

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[Mistered]

I had assumed that would be the case with military grade ammo.

Maybe with some specific Military ammo (sniper, special unit use etc.) but not with high capacity, field grade infantry ammo.

[Mags]

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Thanks for the education on this. Appreciate it truly!

[clovishound]

Well, milspec 1911s are generally the base models. The higher end models have better triggers, adjustable sights, match grade barrels etc etc. They are not going to go the expensive to equip all the troops with the high end pistols. They just want them to be fairly durable and easy to work on.

[tarbe]

As has been stated earlier, in so many words...your loading practices are dictated somewhat by the use the ammo will be put to.

When I was loading my ammo for my Cape Buffalo hunt, you better believe each case had exactly the same prep and provenance.

Practice ammo, not so much.

Low pressure plinking ammo, just make sure there are no splits and the primers don't fall out!

[JEBar]

Low pressure plinking ammo, just make sure there are no splits and the primers don't fall out!

well said ....

[ponchik]

I don't worry too much about pistol cases or 223 that was unloaded through the AR, just like the others said, I just visually inspect each case before sizing. My 308 brass though, I'm a bit more anal about and keep track of that.