Lake City, Twin Cities and WRA Hollowpoints?

[dancingchicken]

Hey there, some questions here I hope someone can help me iron out. I bought some ammo from a gun show last weekend that looks old and is acting strange. It's 100 rounds of 5.56 on stripper clips, but it looks like it's hollowpoint. I've never seen what looks like hollowpoints with military headstamps before. Is this normal?

The headstamps are:
LC 70
LC 73
LC 74
TW 73
WRA 70

My questions:
Are these truly hollowpoints?
Are they worth any more than the .15 per round that I paid for them?
I recognize the Lake City and Twin Cities stamps, but where were the WRA rounds put together?
What's the bullet weight?
Are they safe to shoot through my Stag-15 with a 5.56 1/9 barrel?

Some potential trouble is that I tried to cycle a few of these rounds through my carbine and they stick. By this I mean that when I ride the bolt forward it will not go home on its own. A good push on the forward assist will not fully seat them. If I let the bolt slam home from full open lock they will seat, but it takes a hard tug on the charging handle to get them out. The cartridge is not deformed when it comes out, but it has some scuffs where you can tell it has hung up. I also noticed two or three rounds in the lot where the primer was not fully seated and about 15 or so that had a partial ridge along the base. I've seen a similar ridge before in handloads that were about to have a case-head separation but I have no idea if this is the same thing. As far as I know these are not reloads. The primers all seem to be crimped in-military style, but who knows.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give.

[MaDuece]

Hey there, some questions here I hope someone can help me iron out. I bought some ammo from a gun show last weekend that looks old and is acting strange. It's 100 rounds of 5.56 on stripper clips, but it looks like it's hollowpoint. I've never seen what looks like hollowpoints with military headstamps before. Is this normal?

The headstamps are:
LC 70
LC 73
LC 74
TW 73
WRA 70

My questions:
Are these truly hollowpoints?
Are they worth any more than the .15 per round that I paid for them?
I recognize the Lake City and Twin Cities stamps, but where were the WRA rounds put together?
What's the bullet weight?
Are they safe to shoot through my Stag-15 with a 5.56 1/9 barrel?

Some potential trouble is that I tried to cycle a few of these rounds through my carbine and they stick. By this I mean that when I ride the bolt forward it will not go home on its own. A good push on the forward assist will not fully seat them. If I let the bolt slam home from full open lock they will seat, but it takes a hard tug on the charging handle to get them out. The cartridge is not deformed when it comes out, but it has some scuffs where you can tell it has hung up. I also noticed two or three rounds in the lot where the primer was not fully seated and about 15 or so that had a partial ridge along the base. I've seen a similar ridge before in handloads that were about to have a case-head separation but I have no idea if this is the same thing. As far as I know these are not reloads. The primers all seem to be crimped in-military style, but who knows.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give.

Everything you say dictates they are reloads and poor quality at that!

The reason they are not allowing the bolt to go fully into battery is the fact they weren't resized properly.

The high primers dictate poor quality control after reloading.

The ridge you are seeing is probably caused by the sizing die, it could be the rounds were originaly fired from a full auto with excessive headspace that left the brass over expand.

personaly there is NO WAY I would fire any of the rounds! either bite the bullet and list this one to experience OR if you can find the dealer that sold them to you, see if they can be returned (fat chance, it was a gun show).

[dancingchicken]

Thanks for the reply, MaDeuce. You're definitely a wise voice of reason in this case and probably right on all accounts. There's no way I'm going to subject my lovely AR to what these rounds could possibly do to it. I'll might see if I can take them apart and see if any of my friends want the bullets to reload. At any rate, it's only $15 I'm out. Much better than suffering an injury to a case failure or worse. If whoever reloaded these did such a poor job who knows if the powder charges are correct.

Normally I pass things like this right on by at the gun show, but I had a friend of mine with me this time and he's always playing devil's advocate, trying to get me to spend money so he doesn't look so bad for doing it all, lol.

Cheers!