Problem priming Starline brass

[Bush Pilot]

My cheapness was finally overcome and I decided to crack open a 1000 lot of new Starline .41 mag brass that's been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years. When I tried to prime 50 cases with a Lee Auto-prime there was so much difficulty seating the primers I had to finish the job on a single stage press. One of the primers was so stubborn it jammed itself in the Auto-prime shell holder and I can't get it loose. BTW, the primers were CCI 300. Has anyone else ever had this issue? I'm not looking forward to the other 4000 new cases, argh.

 

[Walkalong]

My Starline .41 Mag brass was a little tougher than average to prime the first time as well. That is a good thing as far as I am concerned. I am using an RCBS hand primer. The way it is designed I can use the second hand to help the first with it for those tougher PP's. In my youth it would only take one hand, but these days a long priming run can wear me down some.

 

[Cosmoline]

I also use a hand primer and it works fine with these. You can widen out the pockets, but I'd rather have tight fits than loose ones. Starline is fantastic, long-lasting brass with a great rep, so if you do decide not to use it, you should be able to resell it easily.

 

[Bush Pilot]

Starline is good brass, I won't be getting rid of the cases anytime soon. It's a little frustrating as I hate priming on a press (other than Dillon)

 

[Runningman]

Got any other brand of similar primers to try? Had a similar experience with some a new lot of rifle brass years ago. Found with mike that Remington 9 1/2 primers were about .0003 smaller in diameter. Worked out much better.

 

[Bush Pilot]

Will be trying Win or Rem later, was trying to burn up these primers for plinking loads.

 

[Robert Wilson]

In my experience some batches of primers don't work with some batches of brass. When I encounter problems I just switch primers. I once had a batch of Winchester large pistol primers which wouldn't fit into Winchester .45 Colt brass. I could afford to write it off as amusing, because I had plenty of Federal primers on hand which worked just fine. And the Winchester primers are long gone, as they worked perfectly in some other long-forgotten loads. C'est la Vie.

 

[ForneyRider]

Keep shooting and reloading. My Starline was tough at first too. Several H110/WLP loads should soften it up over time.

 

[apatt]

Starline

Try using Remington Large Pistol Primers. I used some Wolf primers recently (everything else was sold out). The Remington primers seated without any effort compared to the Wolf primers. Big Difference!

 

[BADUNAME37]

I have loaded thousands of new Starline brass and, although a bit snug, I was able to seat every one on my RCBS Dedicated Bench-Mounted Priming Tool (which seems like it would give better leverage than the hand-held ones).

 

[zxcvbob]

Use Federals for the first loading.

 

[Jimfern]

i've also had issues with some batches of primers (usually older CCI) and 2-3 times fired brass. I use a RCBS hand primer too. Even when I manage to dent them, they still go boom though.

 

[WV_Vizsla]

Starline 9mm IDPA pickup brass does not like my current sleeve of WinSP so I just recycle then with the S&B and anything else that looks odd. Brass is free and grows on the ground every month.

 

[JoelSteinbach]

I have just primed 500 new Starline 41Mag with CCI 300, some with Rcbs hand primer some while loading in a Dillon 550.

 

[A and O]

I ran into the same problem with a lot of 1,000 Starline 45acp this past Winter. I was using Wolf primers and had some big arms when I was done. I like poster #11's idea about using Federal primers for the initial priming and following loadings with the other hard to seat primers such as Wolf.

 

[Maj Dad]

Lee has a Ram Prime setup that screws into the press like a regular die and seats on the more lever-powerful upstroke. Never used one, but the principle makes a lot of sense. If you think you'll need it for 4000+/- cases it will easily be worth the $10 cost (plus shell holder).
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=728999