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Bullet Casing

jason4kstate

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
58
Location
Manhattan, KS
I found a large caliber bullet casing in a park today (I know scary). However, I have identified it as a Lake City casing. It has a small emblem in one corner and the number 6 or 8 on the other. I live right next to a army base and it would be really cool if I could put a date on it. Thanks!
 

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Now that is a really weird looking case. 68 would mean 1968, but the shape...it looks like that someone has taken a .308 case and lenghtened the mouth. Some measurements would be nice. Like length of the case and diameter at the base and at the mouth.

Voriax
 
It's about 2 in long and 1/3 in wide. The only markings I can find on the bottom are the letters LC, a 6 or 9, and a small emblem that looks like a circle with 4 dots in it. When I dug it out of the ground I instantly recognized it was military issue. The LC means Lake City Ammunition. They were a huge military ammunition contractor. According to some sites online there should be two numbers but there is none. I tend to lean in Bookers direction about the NATO thing but the casing looks old..the metal is really stained and there are small bumps all over it.
 
Well, it can be a 5,56 Nato round. That circle with 4 dots is actually a Nato symbol.

however the case shape do not match to the standard round as seen in the first pic. If you look at the case mouth, can you see any marks of crimping? I was thinking that it may have been a blank round for firing rifle grenades, they have longer case like in the second pic.

Voriax
 

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I just got done researching a little bit and this is what I found. The emblem indicates that it was a NATO round. However, your right Voriax the bullet casings do look different. I looked around a little bit and it appears that this may have been a tracer round. If you look up m 5.56 on wiki it has a picture of the tracer round. It appears to be the right length and width. There is a decent sized dent on the base of it. However, the bigger question is why this thing (which was probably made in the 80's) is in a park?
 
Souvenir possibly of some kid. I find lots of bullet casings around here and hope they are either souvenirs or just leftover from a weekend hunting trip.
 
To my eye, it looks like a 308 blank. It's the reason the bullet end looks sort of weird. Incidently, I love guns (not a hunter) and reloading also. :)

I was MD'ing at my local Catholic Church the other day (they have a football field) and found an unfired 44 Mag! Now how in Hades did that get there? :)

GRB
 
as usual Voriax is dead on. I recently picked several of these up after a Parade where they shot several blanks.
 
Looks like a "Wildcat" or "Improved" case.

Since it has a double shoulder, my guess is a handloader took a standard "bottle-necked" rifle case and necked it down to a smaller caliber !

The usual reasons for creating Wildcat or Improved ammo rounds are to alter the powder space and resulting velocity and /or to change the caliber. This can be done with rifle or handgun cases and is usually accomplished by starting with a standard case and then using various case reforming dies to create the desired results. There are many standard cartridges today, such as the .22/.250 for example, that started life as a Wildcat and were then picked up by one of the big ammunition companies and standardized. At the same time, new rifles or handguns would go into production for the new
cartridge.

To start with, a gun chamber must be made to fit the reformed case, either as a new barrel from the start, or by reaming the existing barrel chamber, using a special reamer made for the reformed case.

Reforming bottle-necked cases usually involves creating a secondary shoulder
on the neck of the case. The case then headspaces on this secondary shoulder during fire forming, which "blows-out" the case to fit the chamber.
The rifle case in the photo appears to have this secondary shoulder. My guess is that the fire forming powder charge was insufficient to blow out the
case to fit the new shape & dimensions of the chamber and the case was lost in the grass when ejected.

Hope this helps to figure out this strange-looking case.

Todd
 
To my eye, it looks like a 308 blank. It's the reason the bullet end looks sort of weird. Incidently, I love guns (not a hunter) and reloading also. :)

I was MD'ing at my local Catholic Church the other day (they have a football field) and found an unfired 44 Mag! Now how in Hades did that get there? :)

GRB
Looks like a 308 blank to me too. Before my detecting days I found a bunch of those plus the back end of a mortar at an old artillery range.
 
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