Mystery Lake City 54 Catridge/Brass

[cipherk98]

So I recently acquired a massive lot (around 2500-3000 pieces) of mostly .30-06 brass, almost all it being 53 Lake City, at a super good price from an estate sale and have been sorting it. I've tossed maybe 10% of it out due to various issues but the rest is good to go after a trip through the tumbler and some clean up on the primer pocket.

However, I came across 5 very odd pieces of brass in the lot. They all still have live primers and are marked "LC 54". What stuck out to me are the odd case necks.







I've never seen anything like these and a quick search wasn't helpful either. There is also red lacquer in the inner of the neck. Aside from the very odd case neck they appear otherwise identical to normal .30-06. So what are these? What did they go to?

Information

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[mike1967]

They are blanks, the red over card wad has been taken out to remove the powder.

Regards

[browningautorifle]

Yep, M 1909 blanks. Not unusual, just not average cartridge brass.

[cipherk98]

Interesting, when did they transition from this style of blank to the crimped type I more commonly see now, and any reason for that? I understand grenade cartridges were always crimped but obviously not these.

[browningautorifle]

These went out when they changed service cartridge. These stayed the same while produced and 7.62 had a long neck but open end. 5.56 had the full crimp. Carbine too...just depends on which one you look at. They all performed differently. The .50 had this type originally and changed to crimped rose petal (I think they called it)...

[Bruce McAskill]

Blanks were made from rejected cases during production. When rejected cases were in short supply then once fired cases were turned into blanks.