Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Starline Rifle Brass

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.

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.

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.

I bought some of the 308 Winchester brass. My earlier reports:

Update: The turned neck Starline brass loads into straighter cartridges than before, but it's handily beaten by the out of the bag Sig brass I'm also trying out.

I have always used Starline brass for Magnum loads in my revolvers and it has always given great service, don't see any reason why rifle brass wouldn't do the same.