Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Starline rifle brass

Has anybody tried the Starline brass in their rifles? If so, how does volume compare to say, WW brass? Consistent neck walls? Does it seem to be soft, hard, or just right?

Not yet, but saw a positive review from someone I trust. Might give it a shot when I need more .243 brass. Can't imagine ever needing more .308 than what I've got, between the commercial I've piled up and the 500 LC cases I bought a while back.

It's a lot closer to Lapua in quality than it is Winchester.

Just getting started with it in 7MM-08. It arrived a bit tarnished, but that tumbled right out. It works well and the primers seat snug.

Glad to read these last two reports. I've used Starline brass in handguns for years and have always been satisfied. Gonna have to try some of that 7mm-08 stuff.

I have used Starline .44 Magnum brass in my Ruger 77/44 and my S&W 29, haven't tried it in my rifles as Winchester brass has served me well for more than 40 yrs..

I'd use it in everything, if they would make it

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This.

Have used some from the new 243 to the 45-70.

had no problems with any load.

That's one of the reasons I was asking. I have three 243's and different headstamps for each rifle can help prevent confusion.........

I would love to see belted mags and 280 AI.

Ditto for the 280AI.

I've been shooting it in a 6.5 CM.

I love the brass and would compare it more to Lapua and diffidently better than Winchester.

I recently bought 50 pieces of 308 Win bulk packed from Midway. They are heavier than WW 308 brass, 178 grains avg vs 155 or thereabout. The neck walls are thicker than WW, .014" vs .012". I didn't take time tonight to measure them all around for consistency.

As I received them the case mouths were a bit rough for my taste. The inside edges needed chamfering, and the outside edges needed a fingernail catching "overhang" removed. I started by knocking back the inside rough edges a bit with the slotted Lee chamfer tool. Then I ran the necks over a .307" mandrel in an expander die. Now the necks were round so I gave them a good chamfer inside and out with a Wilson chamfer tool. I finished by running them through a Lee collet neck sizer to tighten them for loading.

I loaded twenty pieces and four finished cartridges had .005" runout measured on the bullet ogive, nine had .003" runout, and seven had .002" runout or less. Each cartridge was marked for runout so I'll be able to tell how much straighter they get on their second loading. I've found the straightest cartridges are usually made on the second loading.

A belated thanks for the info MM. Case capacity of Starline was a question I meant to ask. Starline straight wall brass had a rep for heavy cases too. 178 gr vs 155 gr is a fair difference in a short case like the 308--could make a big difference in powder charge and pressures.

Since I last posted in this thread I loaded the other thirty pieces, but before I assembled those I weighed every one of them. There were two weight classes in this batch of brass, one at 176-177 grains and another at 179-180 grains. Why am I not saying the cases weighed 178 grains, +/-2 grains and that's not bad for non-Lapua class stuff? It's because the distribution was clustered in the stated bands, nothing much in the middle. Maybe there were two lots mixed in this bulk pack brass from Midway. That's not the problem though.

This evening I did take some time to measure the necks with my tubing micrometer and they are a disappointment. The majority of them are .015" thick on one side and .013" thick on the other. It looks like my neck turning gear will get a workout.

MM,

I just weighed 200 pieces of 243 brass--100 WW and 100 Hornady. The Hornady averaged 161.6 gr and had 88 pieces within 2% of one another but a lot of them were on one end or the other of my weight parameters. The WW averaged 159.6 gr had 99 pieces within 2% and the weights were clustered closer together.

Just bought some 358

Update: I've turned them to .0125" and a good number of them have patches on the neck that didn't clean up. If this batch is representative then Starline brass isn't what you want for precision work.