I know Winchester was making the Lake City brass, but then Federal took over.  Does anyone know:

When the transition was;
whether the tooling stayed, and
how should one sort the brass?

I got  a thousand assorted LC and WW cases.  When/if/should I sort Win with LC and what years?
Or is all LC made on the smae dies and presses?

I hope this makes sense; I'm tired.

should be all made to same gov. spect.  I am purely guessing on this though.

I'm not trying to hijack this but take a look at the thread here on  FEDERAL XM193 SEALING.  There is strong evidence that sealant is not milspec/consistent on many lots.  Could the same be true for the brass? [URL]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=16&t=172602&page=1[/URL]

I guess the real question is whether the drawing dies and stamps were originally Lake City or Winchester, and whether they stayed when the plants changed hands or did Federal bring in their own machines and dies.
Is the alloy a standard "Lake City" order, or is Win make and Fed make the alloy that each company would use in their other brass.
Because the alloys are very differnt; and RP is different yet.

The sealing and all was probably just an employee asleep at the switch and let a bad bunch out.

From what I understand, Federal took over the production factory from Winchester. The equipment is owned by the US Gov and they hire out the operation of the factory and Federal is the winner of the contract.

As for the sealant...ever wonder why the ammo is surplus current production ammo? It was  surplused because it didn't meet the spec. for the US Gov use, for one reason or another. Not that this is a bad thing for us, but you have to expect these type things.

That'sa what I needed to know; thanks Troy.

Larry

Ok here is the skinny.

Lake City is Lake city.

ATK won the contract that took the facility from Winchester.

After the bid was won, Winchester tried to regain a foothold by stating (correctly) that ATK had no experience in small arms  ammunition manufacturing. At that point the ATK people trotted out the "consultants" that they had hired. The manufacturing managers and foremen from Federal. (then owned by Blount)

Most of the folks on the floor are the same ones that were there during the Winchester days.

Since that time ATK has purchased Federal, updated the marketing and re-invested in the facility and equipment. (Blount bled Federal white while they owned it.)

As to sorting lot numbers on brass. At the rate the draws put out brass, I personally think it would be silly to sort. It is all pretty much the same.

As to sealant. A couple of things to be said here. If the loader is running right you won't see it. If it is being applied too heavily, then it is obvious. I know the folks on the line need a black light to make sure it is applied(A dye is added for this purpose). I don't think [b]anyone[/b] is using a black light to check, they are using Mk1 eyeballs.
In another thread, a guy with a jeweler's loupe stated he could find sealant on every spent cartridge even though he couldn't see it with the naked eye.

I see the process at Federal damn near every day. Mistakes do happen, but not as often as you might think.

(edited to add:)

I see the process at Federal, not Lake City. From what I've been told, LC it tougher on quality than we are.