Seeing that Starline is now making bottleneck rifle brass. How does this brass compare to other brands and
specifically Lapua?

For the most part, there is Lapua and then everyone else. A few exceptions, however I doubt Starline is one.

I would agree with that.

But finding any Lapua in 6.5 CM is near impossible. Starline is making it 6.5 CM with a large and small primer holes.

Only 1 way to find out....

Which is why I need 4 closets for all my reloading stuff....Grin...

I'd check out that Alpha Creedmoor brass. 6.5 Guys did a review of it and it looked really good.

Time to come out of the closet Greg.

Has anyone actually used the Starline brass to any degree and how did it fare with Lapua?

I've got some Lapua 222's and darned if it works much different than some 40 year old Herter [bleep] I've been using the same load with, other than the Herter brass needs .001 less on the neck bushing and its smaller flash holes won't allow the decapper.

Ha! I'm not far behind you............

I just bought 250 pcs of Starline with the small primer hole.

Somebody please get a out a tube mic and check some necks.

Watch this.

Funny that the small flash hole case he used as an example looked off center slightly. May have just been the angle he was holding it but looked non concentric to me.

I can't see it on this computer. I'll check later.

Think it was the angle.

It looks nice. I'd like to hear more about the small vs large primers in 6.5 Creedmoor. Actual performance in target conditions and even in the cold.

recd the 308 brass last sept 2016... it is very heavy..weighed all 250 cases and they averaged at
187.4gr. my Lapua 308 avg is 173.5gr...
Cut my favorite load of 44gr varget cci br2 165 nosler partition 2.770 oal lapua case to
42 gr varget for the starline cases...same point of impact at 100 yds and no diff in accuracy
in either my bolt actions or my 308 AR's...this load shoots well under an inch...and is deadly on deer snd hogs..
cant tell any difference from the lapua cases...
yup.. i will buy more.. cant wait for their 223 brass...
pete

Brian Pearce recently reported that it's good and tough. Didn't address neck uniformity specifically. He did say it's annealed, but the color is cleaned off.

Kinda brassed up for now, but might try some when I start to run low on something, or just get curious.

Another great brass maker, (I have heard) just as good and maybe even better than Lapua, is Peterson.

They will have some 6.5 CM Palma (small primer hole) brass available by the end of this week.

https://www.petersoncartridge.com/

The annealing color is NOT cleaned off the batch of 250 cases I ordered back in Sept 2016...I probably got some of the first batch of this brass that they made...it looks like LC Brass...annealed and heavy and tough...
Pete

I just bought 50 pcs of Peterson PALMA brass in 6.5 CM.

I want to compare Starline and Peterson with some Lapua if I can get my hands on some.

If anyone here wants to trade out 6 pcs of Lapua for some of the above please PM me.

I won't get the Starline till the end of the month and Peterson for another 10 days.


https://petersoncartridge.ecwid.com/6-5-Creedmoor-PALMA-Small-Primer-Box-of-50-p87668710

you'd think ............223 would have came out when the 308 Win did............

I use Starline straight wall cases........

good stuff...........

I've used Star-line handgun brass for years and think it is great. I've probably got all the bottlenecked rifle brass I will ever need stashed away, but if what I have experienced in the past is any indication, the Star-line rifle brass should be good stuff. As has already been said, the best way to know is give it a try.

Old thread, but it's all I found. I took the leap and ordered 500pcs of Starline's .223 brass from Brownell's. I love Starline's pistol brass, so I hope I like their rifle brass as much.

I bought a batch of Starline 308 brass a while back. It did not compare favorably to Lapua, the case necks of the Starline were not uniform at all.

I use a lot of Starline brass in straight walled rifles cartridges, 38-55 and 40-65, and have nothing but good things to say about it. I’m also using starline brass in a 6.5 CM and a 243 win. I don’t have any Lapua to compare with, bu I’ve been really happy with both examples. I’d buy it again without hesitation.

I agree, it's great stuff. However, why would anyone compare it to Lapua? Comparing new brass is like comparing apple's to orange's. Straight out of the box, lapua wins. Hands down. Now after its fired once and then trimmed and prepped, that's a different story.

Fire, trim and prep won't make the neck walls any more uniform. My comparison was not about ready to load appearance straight out of the box.

for the average Joe in a game rifle.......

Starline would be fine......you wouldn't feel as bad when

you ejected an empty out in the snow & mud never to be found

Lapua would be a different story......

I'm not a Starline "hater" by any stretch. I've used thousands of pieces of their handgun brass with much success. But the necks on the batch of 308 cases I got weren't just not as good as Lapua, they were genuinely bad. Like .003" thicker on one side bad. Other non-Lapua brass is usually better than that.

Lapua will always be better brass, but as far as Starline goes, the final result is the target and so far I like what I see. I will continue to use it.

Thank you all for the info. I use mostly Remington brass for all my .223's, so I am hoping that the Starline brass is comparable to Rem and/or Win production brass.

Lapua brass is a whole different animal, and I don't think I need the quality (or expense) for this particular rifle project.

I bought 500 pieces of starlilne .223 brass for last summer sagerat shoot. I always tune up my brass before loading but as for finding it .003 Wall thickness or that much in length difference is just bull pucky. I about to order another 500 25-06 from Starline. I like their brass.

Good post. I too like R-P, but couldn't find any for my new creedmoor, so I bought some starline. It's good stuff. I checked loaded ammo for TIR, and every piece was less than .003" for run-out. I bought 250 pcs of this brass and it all looks great. And like R-P, they give you an extra piece every 50. Something Winchester has never done. I think you'll be more than happy with starline rifle brass. Let us know what you think after you get it.

Yeah, I think mathman got a bad batch. Like I said earlier, I'm getting less than .003" run-out.

Here are some different groups during load development on a new rifle. This is brand new starline brass, not even fireformed yet:



Then 2 more groups fired with a 41.5gr charge wt, still new brass, but plenty accurate:


Haven't loaded enough for this rifle yet to know what it really likes, but this starline brass is working good. Truth be known, I ordered some lapua brass from midway and when I got it, found out it had the small flash hole and sent the chit back. Bought starline and I will stick with it from here on out..

Looks like the same results I am getting.

I just love statements like this.
They leave no doubt.



Could you give me some stock tips?
Powerball?

Another, from today. It's really not bad brass at all:

The Starline .223 brass arrived yesterday, and I got done chamfering and deburring them all today. They look great. I didn't find any bad cases with splits or dents, and I ended up with 24 extra cases in the 500ct box.

I weighed about 50 cases, randomly, during the process --- they ranged between 99.5 and 101.5 grains.

Next step is to see how they shoot.

How good are the neck walls?

I have no idea. I don't have the equipment to measure neck walls. I don't have any tight custom chambers, nor any that require neck turning, so I have never concerned myself with neck wall thickness.

My prep for new brass consists of a pass over the expander ball in the sizing die to make sure the case mouth is round. Then I use a flash hole uniformer, inside chamfer, and outside deburring on the RCBS Trim Mate case prep center. Done.

I'm not sure what that makes me, in the grand scheme of the handloading hierarchy. Lazy, perhaps?

Brass prep is easily my least favorite reloading chore.

The reason I think about neck walls is concentricity, not tight neck chambers. Straight ammo is usually more precise on target, and good necks aid in assembling straight cartridges.

Hence the reason for my statement about being less than .003" TIR. I'm not seeing the neck thickness difference you are with the 250pcs I bought. You may have gotten a bad batch. Who knows?

That certainly can happen. I have gotten an off batch of Lapua.

I've had so much great service from Starline handgun brass over the years that I want Starline to succeed with their bottleneck rifle cases.

Hit the range on Saturday, and the new Starline brass works just fine. There's no issues with it that I can see.

Yep, I figured as much. I finally got around to shooting all of my new starline brass. Now I just started shooting "once fired" starline. Of course we all know once fired is more accurate. Here are a couple groups shot with the once fired stuff:



And also a group fired during a centerfire competition last Saturday:


I fired the first shot, looked through the spotter and thought the first shot was way to the right. Must have been me, I thought?? Fired the next one and it was off to the right again. I knew something was wrong and checked my scope. Exposed windage turret was 2 clicks to the right for some reason! Zeroed the turret and fired the next 8 into the same hole...

This starline brass may not be as good as Lapua (seriously it is not), but it's good enough for my kind of casual shooting...

Looks good for hunting rounds. I personally don’t mind brass prep but I’m not an expert reloader or a competitive shooter. Thinking a quick neck turning and resize should fix any neck issues. With Lapua,Peterson and Alpha Munitions fetching over $100 per 100ct Starline is looking good enough for me.