ah141nj Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Hello All, Just got a delivery of FC Crimped brass that I ordered. Its all Federal, but with different headstamps. Can anyone tell me the difference in the markings? I know the numbers mean the year of production, but what would be the difference between FC 223 Rem & FC 08? Are there any years better than others? It seems that I have from 05 - 08 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gm iprod Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Federal use a number of different case stamps to denote likely use and sometimes what type of ammunition. e.g. Military, Domestic Bulk Target (American Eagle perhaps), Commercial Sporting (Power Shok) and sometimes Premium Target. The numbers "usually" relate to date of manufacture. "05" = 005 etc etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calishootr Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 the federal cases that have '223 rem' stamped are federals commercial loading, the non crimped ones that say fc on top and 2 numbers underneath are federal's american eagle brand, andthe crimped ones aretheir military brass line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gm iprod Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 I have a heap of American Eagle that is crimped and some batches (about 50%) of the commercial stuff lately has been crimped as well. I wonder what the deal is there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiggerJJ Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Most (if not all) FC headstamped 223 cases do have crimped primer pockets. Trouble is, FC 223 brass (once-fired and beyond) seems to have trouble holding primers. They work great in bolt action guns, but when used in auto loaders like AR15s the FC 223 brass had a tendenacy to spit primers during the action, sometimes dropping the primer down into the trigger group causing all kinds of problems (ask me how I know). Its kinda strange that even once-fired FC 223 brass does this. Check your fired brass if you are using FC, I'll bet you will see a missing primer on occasion... I give all the FC I find when sorting to my bolt gun buddies... jj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el pres Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Most (if not all) FC headstamped 223 cases do have crimped primer pockets. Trouble is, FC 223 brass (once-fired and beyond) seems to have trouble holding primers. They work great in bolt action guns, but when used in auto loaders like AR15s the FC 223 brass had a tendenacy to spit primers during the action, sometimes dropping the primer down into the trigger group causing all kinds of problems (ask me how I know). Its kinda strange that even once-fired FC 223 brass does this. Check your fired brass if you are using FC, I'll bet you will see a missing primer on occasion... I give all the FC I find when sorting to my bolt gun buddies... jj +1 fc - OK FC - Bad, use only for recreational and practice, not for match use. Ask me how "I" know (locked up trigger).. The FC brass is just too soft for any serious reloading, you'll notice loading when an FC case comes up as you'll suddenly feel that there is "no" primer insertion resistance.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Freeman Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 I take Federal 223 brass to lost brass matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmurch Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 When my daughter was little and helped me reload LC cases she called FC "Fake City". Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rr4406pak Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 +1 fc - OK FC - Bad, use only for recreational and practice, not for match use. Ask me how "I" know (locked up trigger).. Is fc actually written in lower case on the headstamp where FC in upper case are the undesirable ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH45 Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Most (if not all) FC headstamped 223 cases do have crimped primer pockets. Trouble is, FC 223 brass (once-fired and beyond) seems to have trouble holding primers. They work great in bolt action guns, but when used in auto loaders like AR15s the FC 223 brass had a tendenacy to spit primers during the action, sometimes dropping the primer down into the trigger group causing all kinds of problems (ask me how I know). Its kinda strange that even once-fired FC 223 brass does this. Check your fired brass if you are using FC, I'll bet you will see a missing primer on occasion... I give all the FC I find when sorting to my bolt gun buddies... jj Been there! I refuse to use any more Federal, rifle brass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MustangGreg66 Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 That's great to know. I had seen these in a batch of brass I have and was wondering if they were any good. One question is: Are the FC marked brass with the crimped primer pockets (military) 5.56 or .223 Rem? I understand there's a case wall thickness variation between the two and am trying to keep them separate in my sorting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gm iprod Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Just been told that a whole pile of FC stamped stuff is coming out of Lake City Arsenal, I am trying to verify that. I would have thought right now that LC would be a little busy cracking ammo out for the Military. I have some black box American Eagle just come in the shop. I will pop a pack open and see what is what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wide45 Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Just been told that a whole pile of FC stamped stuff is coming out of Lake City Arsenal, I am trying to verify that. I would have thought right now that LC would be a little busy cracking ammo out for the Military. I have some black box American Eagle just come in the shop. I will pop a pack open and see what is what. I believe Federal now has the contract to operate Lake City Arsenal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gm iprod Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 I thought that ATK was doing it, but seeing as Federal is now under their unbrella that makes sense. I do know that ATK has a fair size facility just down the road from LCA, look up Google Maps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 Just been told that a whole pile of FC stamped stuff is coming out of Lake City Arsenal, I am trying to verify that. I would have thought right now that LC would be a little busy cracking ammo out for the Military. I have some black box American Eagle just come in the shop. I will pop a pack open and see what is what. I've had American Eagle ammo with LC stamped brass as well as XM193 with FC stamped brass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakshow10mm Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 ATK has the contract to run Lake City. ATK sends Federal Ammunition employees to operate it. That's the connection. That being said Federal brass sucks big time. I absolutely hate it. I got 45,000 pieces of their .223 brass and it ruined my 1050 and made me lose thousands of dollars in revenue. I'd rather make out with Nancy Pelosi than run Federal brass. Anything Federal brand goes right in the scrap bucket for the recycle pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rr4406pak Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 How did the brass ruin your 1050? ATK has the contract to run Lake City. ATK sends Federal Ammunition employees to operate it. That's the connection. That being said Federal brass sucks big time. I absolutely hate it. I got 45,000 pieces of their .223 brass and it ruined my 1050 and made me lose thousands of dollars in revenue. I'd rather make out with Nancy Pelosi than run Federal brass. Anything Federal brand goes right in the scrap bucket for the recycle pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Freeman Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 I cant wait to hear this... How did the brass ruin your 1050? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakshow10mm Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 Broke 1 swage rod, broke the auto index linkage, with crappy out of spec primer pockets it was responsible for 3 yes THREE primer chain detonations. Smallest of which was 70 primers of which also broke two overhead lights resulting in raining glass shards all over the bench. I owe a few wiener punches to the asshat that released that brass out of quality control/assurance department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millisec Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Broke 1 swage rod, broke the auto index linkage, with crappy out of spec primer pockets it was responsible for 3 yes THREE primer chain detonations. Smallest of which was 70 primers of which also broke two overhead lights resulting in raining glass shards all over the bench. I owe a few wiener punches to the asshat that released that brass out of quality control/assurance department. Might I ask if those were also Federal primers that went bang? Stories of soft Federals blowing up got me to stick to CCI or Remington. Pretty interesting thread... I was under the impression that Federal brass was likely to cause loose primer pockets for those that reamed vs. swaging which preserves the metal. Seeing a couple people swaging with 1050's and having issues kinda blows that theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakshow10mm Posted August 29, 2010 Share Posted August 29, 2010 No the primers were Wolf SRM and CCI SR. Sorry I didn't see the response for some time. I've only used Federal LP primers in the .45 ACP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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