Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

My friend just purchased 1000 rounds of Federal, Lake City 62 gr Green tip 5.56 ammo from Natches. When the ammo arrived it was sealed in a large box that contained the smaller American Eagle 20 boxes of ammo. When he opened the boxes to inspect the rounds he found almost all of the brass to be discolored. The discoloration starts about half way up the cartridge and continues to the bullet. He is new to AR-15 shooting and was questioning as to whether these could be "Factory" reloads or if they are new ammo. The ammo was not sold as reloads but with the discoloring he wasn't sure. I have not personally purchased any Lake City ammo so I could not tell him if that is how it normally comes or not.

Does anyone have experience with purchasing Federal Lake City ammo and can you tell if it is new or Factory Reloads based on cartridge discoloration?

Thanks for your help.

It's new. That's just the way that stuff is.

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Thanks for the reply. I suspected that it was new but wasn't totally sure.

Yes, it is good thing too. High end brass has been doing this for ever. It's called annealing and when done properly to the neck/shoulder of a brass case it is a good thing. NEVER do it to the head of a case as that makes the brass too soft and you likely will be harmed. Accuracy reloaders (myself included) do it to our reloads, but you have to know what you are doing.

Modern brass is complex. The hardness of the head is much more than then the neck. The neck needs to be flexible so that it can seal the chamber and release the bullet cleanly.

Annealing softens the brass as brass work hardens. That means that you stretch it, the brass will get brittle. This shows up as split necks, etc. Annealing makes the case last much longer. Also, annealing relieves stress in the brass so many claim that it aids accuracy.

Thanks gunderwood. I wasn't aware of the reasons.

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Yo, he dropped mad knowledge on ya, bro!

Also, I think it's pretty. (annealing=rainbow of fruit flavors)