What about the other US ordinance plants

[PWC]

I know Lake City is prized for competition and for reloading.

What about the other plants? I have batch of mixed US ordinance plant headstamps to reload and just wondered why I've never heard anything about them.

[m1ashooter]

Probably because many of those plants closed at the end of the war or were phased out many decades ago. Here is a list of the current facilities.

http://www.jmc.army.mil/Installations.aspx?id=QCCCF

[fjruple]

I have heard that 1942 & 1943 Denver manufactured M2 .30 Ball was some of the best .30 ammo made. But corrosive priming and the primers were heavily crimped in.

[lyman]

I have used mixed plants (SL, TW Etc) in 30.06 reloaded for Garand Matches with out any issue,

I have also used some TW 5.56 brass for high power, no issues,


but LC is the most common both loaded and as brass, so that is what most use

[Sunray]

It's ORDNANCE. An "ordinance" is a law.
Like m1ashooter says, most of 'em were like all the places making firearms and other military kit. War time production only.

[m1ashooter]

Also remember after the collapse of the Soviet Union the Clinton Administration went on a feeding frenzy and beat a lot of our swords into plowshares. We took down too much production capability in my opinion.

[PWC]

I was given 35 undocumented 30-06 handloads. I pulled the bullets, dumped the powder and checked the cases for separation, which they passed. The head stamps are as follows:
LC 75
TW 42 Twin Cities
DEN 42 Denver
SL 57 Saint Louis - curious as they closed in 45

I still come across old headstamps, so someone still has a quantity that gets used, maybe they are reloads; if so they are well taken care off and no signs of heavy loads, just for rec shooting maybe.
Barring any negative comments, I'll treat them as LC brass.

[lyman]

I was given 35 undocumented 30-06 handloads. I pulled the bullets, dumped the powder and checked the cases for separation, which they passed. The head stamps are as follows:
LC 75
TW 42 Twin Cities
DEN 42 Denver
SL 57 Saint Louis - curious as they closed in 45

I still come across old headstamps, so someone still has a quantity that gets used, maybe they are reloads; if so they are well taken care off and no signs of heavy loads, just for rec shooting maybe.
Barring any negative comments, I'll treat them as LC brass.

sounds like a plan,


I had a bucket given to me years ago,

all 3006, once fired military, dated 1918, (don't remember from what maker)
stuff was hard to decap, but loaded just fine once cleaned up

shot well to , it had not become brittle

[togor]

Without going down the rathole of questions like...is WW2 brass too brittle?...or...did Denver have process problems in '42 that make their brass prone to splits?....it's all the same.

In the Korea era, SL, LC and TW were the big government producers. Winchester and Western Cartridge are the private contract headstamps. To first order all the same, but as always YMMV.

[Darreld Walton]

I know Lake City is prized for competition and for reloading.

What about the other plants? I have batch of mixed US ordinance plant headstamps to reload and just wondered why I've never heard anything about them.

I've been very happy with the results I've had in my 1903A4 and Garands with Frankford Arsenal FA59 NM. Down to my last 10 boxes, and won't pay collector prices to replace it. The cases have been very satisfactory for reloading.