An interesting find inside a box of American Eagle .223

[AlbertaGunslinger]

So pretty much I bought a box of American Eagle .223 50 grain JHPs from wholesale sports a couple of weeks ago. When I opened up the box I was very suprised. In the box were 20 rounds of ammo with a headstamp of LC 09 with a NATO cross. For those that don't know that headstamp is what you will find on ammunition manufactured by Federal at their Lake City plant for use by the US military.

The primers in the ammo are sealed in the same fashion as you see on genuine 5.56mm as well as AE 223 tactical which is advertised as having a military primer. The projectile does appear to be the advertised 50 grain JHP.

So after seeing all this I have several questions.
1. Since there is no doubt that the brass is military 5.56 stuff(because Lake City AFAIK only manufactures military ammo), should this be treated like 5.56mm?
2. Since the US is a signatory to the hauge conventions why is there military headstamped ammo factory loaded with a JHP?
3. Has anyone seen this before?
4. How the heck did this get packaged comercially and exported to Canada?

Thanks for your input.

 

[deagle2008]

yes i get em all the time. lake city and American eagle is owned by federal. so sometimes they use left over brass from their LC plant. and no its not a 556 round. and since America has a law that no military round should be sold to civilians, federal used the lope hole by adding X to the M. so left over or the new M193 or M855,M856 and other rounds were named XM193,XM855,XM856 and was legal to sell to civis. i have tons of XM stuff

 

[Canuck223]

Correction.

Lake City is owned by the US Gov't.

ATK have the contract to manage and operate that plant. Just like Winchester did for years prior to losing the bid, ATK can use the Lake City tooling to produce thier own ammo. However, production of gov't contract ammo comes first.