lake city 5.56 brass question

[Silver-z28]

Im going threw another 1000 round box I bought from profire last time I they had it. I was going to start sizing (223) but noticed some have no primer holes (noticed after I had broke my depriming pin). I have gone threw some more and several are like this anyone heard of this?

 

[Josh Ward]

With virgin bulk brass like that you should expect up to a 10% failure rate ...

 

[gregkl]

With virgin bulk brass like that you should expect up to a 10% failure rate ...

Really, 10%? That is a high defect rate in today's manufacturing. Scrap rates should be less than 2% and defects around that or less. 10% defect rates should cripple a manufacturer...

 

[O'Shark]

I don't quite know what to think of that. LC is my preferred brass when I buy new. I've never had any trouble with it other than some slightly dented case mouths. I'd do a 100% sort and take a picture of the ones without flash holes. That picture would go straight to LC product engineering and copied to customer service. I'm just sitting here trying to imagine what would happen if one of the bad ones somehow got loaded and fired with nowhere for the primer explosion to go.

 

[Leo]

I have seen a couple pieces of new brass with no primer hole. That is a pretty small amount considering I have been fooling around with reloading for 43 years. I cannot remember what brand they were, but I think they we all pistol brass. I really do not think it would cause any damage, other than a blown primer, maybe a little firing pin damage. Anything can happen in manufactuing, especially when you are rapidly producing an item that is primarily throw away. I know that we veiw brass as something sacred, but in it's intended use, it is essentially a disposible container for a system that becomes a throw away gasket at the moment of ignition.

I am sure that the reject rate is no where near 10% for all the LC product. Being as they have not ever got caught up with production since Bill Clinton was in office a person would have to wonder why they are selling brass to commercial outlets. I would not have to stretch my imagination to believe what the wholesale, commercial surplus sources were buying salvage product that had failed to pass Mil Spec but was still within commercial quality. I have bought seconds from Sierra bullet before, and most were good, but you had to sort out the poorly swaged, or out of weight tolerance ones. It is cheaper for them to sell the bad run than to pay someone to hand sort each bullet.

The original poster did himself a favor catching it before he wasted the other components that would have produced a dud anyway.

 

[maverick5990]

Could these be Berdan primers? I have broken a couple of pistol de-capping pins on them.

 

[Leo]

Could these be Berdan primers? I have broken a couple of pistol de-capping pins on them.

I do not think that would be the case. A berdan would need to have a dimple (anvil) swaged into the center of the primer pocket. There is also a sight diameter difference.

 

[dagibson1507]

the brass was factory seconds. you should of received closer to 1100 pieces of bras per 1000 you bought to allow for the defects. i ran around 5k pieces of that brass but always ended up with more than i paid for in good brass.

 

[Silver-z28]

Oh please don't take it as a rant against the company or Profire for the price and service I'm happy just being new to reloading I haven't seen this before so was just a general question. I've went threw 100 rounds and have 38 so far with no whole. Thanks for all the replies

 

[Broom_jm]

Man, 38 out of 100? That's crazy. I've never heard or read about drilling out a primer vent, but I'm sure it can be done?

 

[Silver-z28]

well broom thats kind of what i was thinking but wasnt shure about it myself

 

[netsecurity]

the brass was factory seconds. you should of received closer to 1100 pieces of bras per 1000 you bought to allow for the defects. i ran around 5k pieces of that brass but always ended up with more than i paid for in good brass.

I bought 500 from Profire, and they included extras. I had about 10% with bad rims, and about 10% totally defective. Never saw a missing flash hole for sure though. All of mine are primed already. I wish I would've had the foresight to trim them all to the same size before priming them. On the other hand, that would've been a pain in the arse to do by hand.

Anyways, the point is that they are a pretty good value. You just have to check them over. Too bad about breaking a pin.

 

[pdg45acp]

Oh please don't take it as a rant against the company or Profire for the price and service I'm happy just being new to reloading I haven't seen this before so was just a general question. I've went threw 100 rounds and have 38 so far with no whole. Thanks for all the replies

If the defect rate for no holes is 38% you need to think about what else could be wrong with that brass.

Given the pressure that .223 runs at I wouldn't use that brass for fear of finding out what other defects there were in that lot of brass.

 

[Rick45Colt]

Go back to ProFire and rent their Giraud trimmer they have and you can trim, chamfer and de-burr all in one step. I am not positive but I don't think would it matter if they were already primed. Even though it would be preferable to size and then trim.

 

[ViperJock]

Within a month I've had used brass in 223 and 9mm with insufficient holes to decap. They had both been fired successfully at some though.

 

[Sling10mm]

Silver,

That is definitely not right and I would contact Profire and Federal (LC) to have it made right. I would agree that a 10% defective rate is totally unreasonable, but things do happen in manufacturing, and a bad lot may have gotten through.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Sling

 

[indyjohn]

You had a bad stroke of luck with the box you got from Profire. I took home thousands of that LC virgin brass from two seperate shipments that Profire brought in, my failure rate was 3%.

Take the brass back to Profire. Andrew will make good on it. I wouldn't bother contacting Lake City, I think their response would be something like "which billion batch did you say that came out of?"

 

[j706]

I have had a few LC casing minus the flash hole. I do not inspect mine as it adds to training for malfunction drills. I pull them down later and reuse what I can during the winter months.

 

[j706]

I have had a few LC casing minus the flash hole. I do not inspect mine as it adds to training for malfunction drills. I pull them down later and reuse what I can during the winter months.

BTW LC brass is my preferred brass. I have been working to get 2500 rounds loaded up using range brass. Mostly LC but a fair amount of LE Federal. That Federal brass is a PITA IMO.

 

[LarryC]

I have seen a couple pieces of new brass with no primer hole. That is a pretty small amount considering I have been fooling around with reloading for 43 years. I cannot remember what brand they were, but I think they we all pistol brass. I really do not think it would cause any damage, other than a blown primer, maybe a little firing pin damage. Anything can happen in manufactuing, especially when you are rapidly producing an item that is primarily throw away. I know that we veiw brass as something sacred, but in it's intended use, it is essentially a disposible container for a system that becomes a throw away gasket at the moment of ignition.

I am sure that the reject rate is no where near 10% for all the LC product. Being as they have not ever got caught up with production since Bill Clinton was in office a person would have to wonder why they are selling brass to commercial outlets. I would not have to stretch my imagination to believe what the wholesale, commercial surplus sources were buying salvage product that had failed to pass Mil Spec but was still within commercial quality. I have bought seconds from Sierra bullet before, and most were good, but you had to sort out the poorly swaged, or out of weight tolerance ones. It is cheaper for them to sell the bad run than to pay someone to hand sort each bullet.

The original poster did himself a favor catching it before he wasted the other components that would have produced a dud anyway.

There was an article in either Guns and Ammo or Shotgun news in the last couple of months regarding the sale of components and ammo from the military production to the commercial market. In the article it stated the ammo or components usually did not meet the military specifications but was perfectly fine for normal use and did in fact meet commercial specs. The military specs may involve many things we do not care about in civilian use. Such as water seal test, penetration specs - powder temperature range vs pressure, velocity (military has a far narrower range) - they listed some of the specs. I would doubt LC would knowingly release any brass that had a 10% defect rate. I feel certain this just got by their QC.