Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

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dodpilot
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Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:12 am

Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by dodpilot »

Lake City once-fired brass, 7.62 NATO ... how does this brass compare to Winchester .308 new factory brass on accuracy at 100 yards, assuming I keep all other variables identical (match primer, exact same bullet, same powder type and charge, same brass prep procedures, same rifle, same atmospheric conditions)?

I full length resize, trim OAL, deburr flash holes and chamfer necks. I don't plan on sorting/culling brass by weight, as I've never done this with Winchester factory brass or Hornady factory brass.

My .308 Win Winchester brass handloads with 45.0 gr Varget, Fed 210 Match primer and 175 Sierra HPBT Matchkings print 0.500 inch groups, or tighter, all day long at 100 yards from my collection of Rem 700s with Lothar-Walther barrels.

Thoughts?

- CS
Last edited by dodpilot on Mon Apr 27, 2015 2:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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JAG2955
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Re: Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by JAG2955 »

Welcome!

I believe that in general, military brass is thicker than commercial. Whether that's the case or not with the particular 7.62 brass you have is questionable.

How about a volume test, weighing the case capacity of H2O?

Where ya stationed?
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PawPaw
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Re: Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by PawPaw »

I've always trusted Lake City brass. Historically, it's been very good quality brass. As in all handloading endeavors, when you change one thing, you change everything. Start low, work up, and I think you'll be extremely pleased with the Lake City brass.I have been over the years.
Dennis Dezendorf
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Old Grafton
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Re: Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by Old Grafton »

I've loaded many buckets of LC brass over the years--back when dinosaurs roamed the earth we shot matches at Camp Perry where GI ball and Match ammo was issued by the Army, both '06 and 7.62 NATO. The brass was free for the taking and lots of shooters didn't want it (It was ALWAYS going to be available, right?) so the son and I accepted any and all offered to us. I'm still using LC72 '06 from 30+ years ago and LC88 7.62 and don't believe I'll ever run out. I don't shoot the Garand or the 14's so much any more; those rifles' extractors beat up the rims after about 4-5 firings to the point they wouldn't fit into a shellholder and we scrapped 'em. In bolt guns that's no problem and if you necksize and anneal the necks every 5th firing they last a loooong time.

Deprime, swage primer pockets and cut with a pocket uniformer, uniform and deburr flash holes, resize, trim, deburr case mouths. THEN weight-segregate into lots, discard the light and heavy ends of the Bell curve retaining those in the middle +/-1.5 grains. My experience has been about an 85% yield.

Much goodness from LC brass ensues.
I'm not old--It's too early to be this late.
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Vonz90
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Re: Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by Vonz90 »

It is good brass (and I use it) but 7.62 NATO brass has less internal volume (the walls are thicker) than 308 Win brass so it should be loaded to 7.62 data or you can potentially get much higher pressures than what is published for the 308 data in 308 brass.

I keep my 7.62 and 308 brass separated and loaded them differently.
Last edited by Vonz90 on Mon Apr 27, 2015 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dodpilot
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Re: Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by dodpilot »

Old Grafton, ... what's your technique for annealing 7.62 NATO (or any metallic) caseneck? Do I really need a $500 machine to control caseneck temps?
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Denis
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Re: Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by Denis »

dodpilot wrote:... what's your technique for annealing 7.62 NATO (or any metallic) caseneck? Do I really
need a $500 machine to control caseneck temps?
Welcome! Not OG here, but you can anneal most brass case necks rather simply by holding the head of the case in your fingers and heating the neck with a propane torch until it's just dull red. If your fingers get hot, you heated the case too much. A bit of testing with your resizing die will show you when you have annealed the brass enouch to make it workable. If using your fingers makes you nervous, stand your cases in a shallow pan of water and play the propane torch over the necks, then tip the annealed cases over into the water to stop the heating.

Lots of annealing information here: http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html
Old Grafton
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Re: Lake City 7.62 NATO OFB

Post by Old Grafton »

Dodpilot, first, on re-reading your initial post I realized I had not attempted to answer your initial question but instead ran on about LC brass. I still can't answer the question because I haven't used enough Winchester brass in .308/.30-06 -ever- to have an opinion. LC brass has been IT for seemingly ever. Sorry.

As far as any brass anneal method it is a function of time-temperature-quench rate. It can be done well with that $500 machine which is very controllable giving repeatable results reliably. It can also be done manually either well or badly.

Cartridge brass should be NECK-ANNEALED ONLY and not dead soft, or neck tension will be so low normal handling may dislodge the projectile and pressures may vary giving velocity/pressure swings. Methods describing heating the necks to any particular color will usually give these results. I'm not saying anybody's wrong; their mileage may vary.

The method I use involves a lead pot, a pan of 10W non-detergent motor oil, a clock with a second-hand, and a bucket of water.
I use a 10lb. electric lead pot and approximately pure lead, brought up gradually to 650F, fluxed well, OUTDOORS, a cheap cake pan with 3/4" deep 10W oil in it, both being on a sturdy table, and a 5 gal. bucket of water half-full at floor level. ALL BRASS PREVIOUSLY DEPRIMED, necks brushed inside.
1.) Holding the case by the head dip it into the oil til it touches the bottom, withdraw and flip off any excess oil, then dip just the neck into the lead to the base of the neck while watching the second hand of the clock tick off one-two-three then quickly withdraw and shake off any lead that might be stuck. Drop immediately into the water. Done. Your fingertips will tell you to speed it up if needed.

Tips:OUTDOORS. Lead fumes not good. oil smoke not good. Wear safety glasses, face shield. Long cuffless pants over high top leather shoes. An apron. Shirt with covered pockets. Don't mix water with molten lead--a steam pop in a pot of lead will ruin your and the wife's/cat's/dog's day. No kids present, either. That's why the lead pot is on the table and the water bucket is on the floor. Brass MUST BE DEPRIMED MUST. This protects you from a "Dud" primer going off (see "Steam Pop" above), and it also keeps trapped air from causing bubbles that could burn your fingers.

If this all sounds like a hassle, it is. A small one, but yes. However once you establish a rhythm, just like sex, it doesn't take overly long, and the results are worth it. A half-hard anneal.... :lol:

Added:really small cases like the .22 Hornet, .218 Bee, etc. are 2-seconds MAX or you'll burn yer fingers..... :o
I'm not old--It's too early to be this late.
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