Properly prepped L.C. brass is about the best there is. I pick up all I need at the range. I prefer to do the prep myself.
I bought a batch of 1,000 prepped L.C. a couple of years ago. The primer pockets were poorly swaged and had to be re-worked, the shoulders had been set back 7 thousandths below SAAMI spec, and they were still pretty dirty. It didn't save me any time, and the short shoulders caused the brass to stretch beyond what was necessary leading to risk of early case head separation.
I won't make that mistake again.
One of the members over at Accurate Shooters did a hardness test on .223/5.56 brass awhile back and Lake City came out on top, with Lapua coming in second.
