About 6 weeks ago at our local range just a few miles from a military base here in southern AZ, a couple of guys showed up and shot a couple hundred rounds out of an M4 carbine. They fired it semi auto So my best guess it is civilian gun.

They were dressed in civilian clothing and military/LEO in apperance/ carriage/demeanor IE" Clean, neat and physically fit, civilian haircuts no high & tight.

I was a RSO on the range at the time and they left their brass telling me I could have it if I wanted so. So I jumped on it.


I was sorting the brass by headstamp. and i found that:

The cases are marked or unmarked with the following information.

6 O'clock ------------5.56
9 O'clock-------------is the NATO mark of a + inside a circle.
3 O'clock------------- 09

The case neck in annealed (discolored) Typical of the military brass i normally see.
The primer is silver colored and is crimped in place with a full circle crimp.

I used a lupe to see if it had been reloaded and there were no signs of it being a reloaded cartridge and you could see the crimp was still over the stuck primer.

This is the first brass I have seen without a headstamp noting the maker since the Vietnam war era.

But the date stamp 09 indicated it is of recent manufacture.

Anyone have any ideas on the origin of the brass.

The Lake City 5.56 brass that I picked up a the same time had a brass colored primer.

__________________
Semper FI

You'd better send that brass to me for testing.

Interesting.

Hobie

__________________
Laissez les bons temps roulez!

You already answered your own question. It's military 5.56 ammo distributed to NATO instead of a US military contract.

__________________
Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

IIRC the Mil Spec brass has a crimped primer pocket. That requires swaging or reaming. The Mil Spec is also thicker and that can result in a lower case volume. With those thoughts is mind and in light of the high brass prices, Ya still done good!

My experience with 7.62 X 54 Mil Surp was not so good. Apparently it had been shot out of an M60 and even after two runs through a 308 SB sizer die, it was a question mark if the bolt would close. I think I sent ~350 rounds to the dumpster. Definitely not worth the hassle.

Keep on the lookout for "freebies"! The price is right!

Check the priming system... Boxer or Berdan? I found a bunch of discarded once-fired Berdan-primed brass, and collected it, before having the presence of mind to examine the charge holes with a high-intensity flashlight, to find that my effort was wasted...

Don't forget that the price payed for scrap brass is quite high. Save all brass that is of no use to you. Toss it into a 5 gal. bucket until the bucket is full. Take it to the scrap metal dealer and he will give you money for it. Use this money to buy brand new brass. I even sweep up the 22 RF brass at the range and toss it into the brass bucket. Often there is 40 cal brass or military 9mm left at the range. Both go in the scrap bucket as I don't load unknown 40 brass and I won't fool with crimped in primers as there is to much commercial brass around to make it worth my time. I keep a magnetized screw driver in the shooting box to check for steel cases that are brass plated. Those go in the trash.

MDaly