Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading .38 Special brass

Don't know how long it will be in stock, but you can buy Starline .38 special brass direct now. 500 for $95.50 and free shipping

Great brass. Buy 1k

It's showing Backorder now but that is the way I've ordered most of my brass from them over the past few years. Almost all of those orders shipped within 2 weeks. .45 AR took a year and .222 took 2 years.

So for less common stuff plan ahead.... nice business model when you can have your production run presold. Pleased with the company. Never saw them price gouge.

Showed back order for me, but shipped same day.

Best brass you can have shipped to you.


I somehow got 1000 357 cases "backordered" before Mackay got them.


Figured it would be months.


Hell...it wasn't two weeks.



I bought 1500 Speer 148 HBWCs ......need to order 1000 special cases.

.38 Special brass is kind of like .38 revolvers - it takes a lot to wear it out.

A while ago in the height of the shortage Powder Valley showed Starline .38 Spl brass on sale so I got 200 cases and then a couple days later decided to get another 300. They went out of stock so when they got more in a couple months later the hoard bug really bit me and I got another 500, 1000 total.

Thing is, I'm still working on a batch of some 500 Winchester .38 cases bought God only knows how long ago, at least two decades. Separated those into batches, one batch of 200+ is on it's 24th firing and another batch of 150 or so is on its 14th firing.

They start to get neck cracks around the 20th firing but after that you only lose one or two out of the batch per firing. So a batch can last for 40 or more firings, probably a lot more. Even at a greatly increased rate of shooting .38 Special these days that means I still have some 7,000 loads left in the Winchester brass before I even have to start on the Starline brass.


The moral of the story is that someone is gonna find 800 or so cases of brand new Starline brass at my estate sale...

I was just thinking the same thing. ^^^

I use about 200 pieces of 38 brass at any given time. I’ll load them up and put them in a plastic container and go shoot them up in an afternoon and then load them up again, sometimes twice a week. I simply toss any that split and replace them out of a bag of once fired I have under the loading bench. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve loaded them but it’s quite a few. I have brass in the batch from as far back as the 40s or 50s that’s still going and I bet I have to replace one every 5th time I load them all up on average. If you can’t get Starline don’t be afraid to buy fired stuff as it’s probably fine.

They just last a really long time. I probably have 1k or close to that around but I’m going to need to live a lot longer if I’m going to use it all up. It is fun to try though.

Yep

I've bought a lot of Starline brass recently

Guy here selling Starline 45 Colt in the ads........

Starline was cheaper/shipped than his in the ads

I used to buy 1000 round boxes of .38 special 148 gr WC reloads from Matthew's Police Suppy in the 1980s. :Around $100.00 per thousand. Only about half of the brass was reloadable.

I picked up a few thousand once fired cases a few years back when they were relatively cheap. Should last me near a lifetime. Starline is good stuff, picked up 1000 357 cases last year.

One reloading session I got to sorting head stamps. I filled a 100 round box with different head stamp cases. I started loading 38 Special in around 1969.
Cleaning up my loading room I have two 5 Gallon Buckets with 38 Special Brass in them. I also sorted out several bags of new brass. A few years ago I would buy all the 38 Special Brass that I could find at Gun Shows for 2 cents a round.
At the range last week I picked up close to 50 rounds on the ground. I have a hard time leaving 38 Special or 45acp on the ground. Even if I currently have all I will ever need.

If buying new, Starline is very hard to beat for Quality, Durability, and Availability.

I wish 222 Remington would get more production. I would buy another Contender barrel in 222. At my age I do not plan to wait two years on brass.

Bob R