Rating new brass

[brutus51]

Have always used Winchester or Federal brass with no problems until Federal started using small primers in their .45acp cases, no longer buy their ammo.
When I got into 38 Super I purchased some Starline Brass which I now consider top of the line.
Curious to know what other folks think. Especially regarding Hornady brass as It currently is the only 6.5 Creedmoor available.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

Starline makes 6.5 Creed brass.

 

[Charlie98]

There's been a few threads on brass, and Starline brass specifically. The general consensus is everyone loves it except me.

 

[12Bravo20]

My only experience with Starline brass has been their 9mm Largo brass which has been good to go in my Star Super A.

 

[Blue68f100]

Starling brass is probably better than most all commercial brass. There are a few things that I don't like about it. It all comes in at trim length. So if you want to square up the mouth you need to wait till after the first firing or trim short. It's not the quality of Lapua brass, if you want more consistent brass you will need to upgrade. For general shooting it's fine.

 

[peels]

I am using starline 6.5 brass with small rifle primers. So far I'm only on the third firing, so no longevity projection yet.

The brass as new are pretty uniform. They all came in at or slightly below trim length. The interesting thing is that all the 1x fired brass shrunk in length (all came in lower than the initial length after 1x fired). I am guessing the new brass was sized to min spec, and after fire forming, the brass actually reduces in length.

So far i am happy with the brass as I am able to develop loads that are in the 0.5 to 0.75 moa range with eld-m and h4350

As for Hornady brass, I know plenty of folks use them in 6.5 and having good success.

 

[whughett]

On the subject of Starline Brass. I have thousands of Midway Brass. Is there a connection between Star Line and Midway.

 

[Jack B.]

Have never used Starline in a rifle caliber. Pistol only and I like it the best. Mostly by the way it is easy to prime. I have some Remington that gives me fits and a large batch of Lake City 38 special brass that won't take a primer at all. Some one gave me the Lake City Brass not to sure about it.

 

[Rule3]

Ask 10 people and you will get 15 answers, It's all good except a few really bad brands that someone posted about on the internet.

 

[packetloss]

I don't know, I've loaded lots of different brands and most seem easy to prime, size, deprime, etc, and are consistent. I didn't find Starline to be better than Winchester, Federal or Remington. I even find Blazer brass to be very good. The only ones I don't like are maxxtech, cbc and one or two other that are just thicker and they didn't size or deprime smoothly.

What do you folks see in starline that you put it so far ahead of the others?

 

[ballman6711]

What do you folks see in starline that you put it so far ahead of the others?

Price (if purchasing new) and consistency of the brass.

chris

 

[Walkalong]

Starline has a great rep with their pistol brass, but I think the rifle brass is to new to have a consensus on just yet. I have not tried any yet.

 

[12Bravo20]

What do you folks see in starline that you put it so far ahead of the others?

For me it's the fact that I can get new 9mm Largo brass to reload. It's been so long since I've even seen any 9mm Largo ammunition on store shelves.

 

[.38 Special]

What do you folks see in starline that you put it so far ahead of the others?

For me it is consistent quality and longevity.

Prior to Starline I had gotten used to some lots of brass working and lasting very well, and other lots of the same brand showing defects, or failing right away. With Starline, I get a very occasional defective case, but never have had one of those boxes where every other flash hole is off-center, or dozens of cases have burrs on the rim, or any of the other troubles that I have encountered with other brands. I also know that with Starline I can be almost sure of getting many reloads from each case, whereas with other brands it was hit-or-miss.

It has been a long time since I switched to Starline, and it may be that other manufacturers have upped their game over the decades, but I haven't yet seen any reason to find out.

<edit> This is all for handgun brass. To the best of my knowledge I have not used a single piece of Starline rifle brass.

 

[brutus51]

As I mentioned I've pretty much stuck with Federal or Winchester, mainly because my. standard routine was to buy loaded ammo and then save the brass after shooting them. That has always worked well until this primer thing. Very frustrating tumbling, resizing/decapping and then discovering 1/4 of them have small pockets.

 

[ballman6711]

For factory loaded 45acp brass, I shoot it then tumble it. I then sort it as it comes out of the tumbler, large primer going in one place and small primer in another. Done. I do save the small primer for future loading IF I get enough of it, but only have about forty or so rounds so far.

I haven't seen any small primer Winchester or Federal yet, but all my Blazer 45acp is small primer.

I like the Starline brass for all the reasons stated above. Very consistent during all steps while reloading. Not knocking on the Winchester or Federal brass, or the several other brands I have, but they don't seem to be as consistent in length, primer pocket size, etc..., even though they load fine.

chris

 

[markr6754]

The only new brass I’ve ever bought is GBW .45ACP brass, and only because an email pricing error made it too good a deal to pass. It’s quite an experience to stuff primers into virgin brass. It really takes some effort. I’ve considered buying more in additional calibers, but I don’t have any brass shortages at the moment.

 

[Charlie98]

On the subject of Starline Brass. I have thousands of Midway Brass. Is there a connection between Star Line and Midway.

it’s my understanding Starline made Midway brass, including some specialty head stamped brass... I had some .357 brass with the TEXAS headstamp, for example, from Midway. All of my original .45ACP, and .38SPC brass is Midway, that’s the brass I’ve had problems with.

Starline has a good reputation, they make a lot of obsolete and obscure brass, and normal brass is available and cheap.

 

[Obturation]

I prefer starline , I mentioned it before but I'm still working through a batch of 454 casull cases that 10% or so are too hard. You can feel it when sizing the cases even the first time. Typically 1 or 2 out of 100 will split. The cases that feel normal when sizing have no problem taking that same loading 10 times without splitting.
Starlines still my favorite though. I've got 45-70 cases that have been loaded many many times and they show no signs of loosening pockets or splitting mouths.

 

[sparkyv]

I too, have never used Starline in a rifle caliber. I found the Hornady 6.5CM to be a little soft for my liking. I much prefer WIN, which I obtained from factory loaded match ammo.

 

[Ruger 15151]

Starline is considered top of the line for pistol brass and on par with Hornady for Riffle brass. The question would be... whats your purpose. If you are looking for great everyday brass and our not competition in long range competitions, then Hornady or Starline are great choices. However, if you are looking for the best rifle brass, Lapua is what most competitive long range shooters use hands down because it is has the most consistent case thickness and requires the least amount of prep when its new. There is a reason it costs $85 per 100 cases versus Hornady and Starline at $40 per 100 cases.

 

[Varminterror]

I have given up on Winchester rifle brass. I used their brass, sorted and turned, for a long time, but have been exceptionally disappointed in the last several years - and by extension, even MORE exceptionally disappointed in their customer service when I’ve found an issue with their brass (such as two bags of the same lot with >50% defects).

I typically use Hornady and Lapua for all of my competition ammo, and use Hornady, Nosler, and some old batch Rem for my hunting rifle ammo. I have several types of handgun brass, often using different brands as indicators of different loads for different purposes or for different handguns.

“Not for nuthin’” as they say:

 

[mdi]

While I'm not a pro, my guns are average or a hair above and my marksmanship is waning over the years, I quite successfully use all common brands of brass for my handloads, and much of my reloading brass is my once fired, purchased once fired and some range pickups. Starline makes high quality cases and at a fair price. When I got a new 45 Colt and a new 380 I purchased Starline brass, but to be honest other manufacturers' brass worked just as well,, None of my semi-auto handloads with mixed brass have loose neck tension from thin case walls. I haven't counted number of times reloaded but I haven't seen any definite difference in case life. Same with primer pockets, not found any too big/too small pockets (one European ammo maker's brass has very little/no chamfer on the primer pocket mouths, sharp edged). Starline does make a quality product and I have never found any downside to using it (although sometimes I would like to purchase smaller quantities [100] than what is offered on their site). I'll probably continue to buy my "new" brass from Starline...

 

[whughett]

I have given up on Winchester rifle brass. I used their brass, sorted and turned, for a long time, but have been exceptionally disappointed in the last several years - and by extension, even MORE exceptionally disappointed in their customer service when I’ve found an issue with their brass (such as two bags of the same lot with >50% defects).

I typically use Hornady and Lapua for all of my competition ammo, and use Hornady, Nosler, and some old batch Rem for my hunting rifle ammo. I have several types of handgun brass, often using different brands as indicators of different loads for different purposes or for different handguns.

“Not for nuthin’” as they say:

View attachment 922758

How much of that is due to sponsorship.?

 

[Walkalong]

That I don't know, but I do know many average competitors have a hard time paying for Lapua/Alpha etc when Hornady is so much cheaper and a lot of folks that are beating them are using it.

Sooooo,, while I buy Lapus 6BR to form to 6 dasher, and it's great, when I needed 6 Creed brass, I bought 300 new Hornady cases, because while working up loads/playing with powders using my once fired factory Hornady brass 1/2" groups weren't overly hard to come by.

A head silhouette on 8.5X11 paper.