Starline 223 brass

[Mulligan]

Couple of questions about Starline 223 brass.

1.) what is the neck thickness?

2.) How is quality?

I intend to purchase 300 pcs of brass and fireform them in my 223AI.

This chamber has a .250 nk.

Any accurate fireform loads with 50 grain varmint bullets you can share?

Thanks
CW

 

[cs5700]

If I remember correctly, I trimmed my 223 Starline necks down from ~0.013" to ~0.010". I measured with calipers rather than a micrometer, so the accuracy of the measurement is questionable.

The first two times loading them I had a heck of a time with bullet seating force required being excessively high. I had to open up the necks with a mandrel to having about 0.001" interference fit and lube the neck with Neolube-2 before the seating stem stopped denting the bullet. I should have given up, but I'm stubborn, and they seemed to straighten out around the third firing. They seem to be holding up fine at the sixth firing otherwise although the ES/SD is still higher than I'd like (10 - 20 fps). I'm blaming the brass; however, that could still be something I'm doing.

I don't have any input on the fire-forming loads w/50gr. I'm shooting 77gr SMKs from a bolt gun.

Hope it helps.
CS

 

[Mulligan]

Ok
It sounds like they are a bit thick for my application
Thanks
CW

 

[Woollybugger]

I had a 22 Dasher reamer that was .250 and Dave Kiff at PTG called it a “light turn” neck. Dasher brass, of course, was at that time made from 6 BR brass so I expect that brass would be thicker than 223.

The LC brass I use in my 223AI is .011-.012 thick. (ball mic) Loaded rounds from standard Redding FL dies are .248-.249 and come out of my gun at .255 I would expect you will need to turn necks. 26gr 2230 50gr seated in the lands. Bolt gun Wilson 8T barrel.

 

[C.E.Smith043]

I've had a very hard time beating 50gr Speer TNT with a stout load of Benchmark. Fireforms very well and deadly accurate

 

[jelenko]

I've loaded ~ 5000 unfired, untouched cases with Sierra 69's and 77's. 99% of the time the bullets seat smoothly with 'normal' effort. 1% of the cases requires significantly more. Might be slightly out of round mouths.

 

[seagate]

Brand new Unfired unsized but from 2023

 

[Mulligan]

Brand new Unfired unsized but from 2023

Exactly what I was looking for
Thank you

CW

 

[kyotekiller25]

My loaded necks were .250" You will more than likely have to turn necks it looks like.

 

[Mulligan]

My loaded necks were .250" You will more than likely have to turn necks it looks like.

That is not in my plans.

I turn enough necks with my benchrest rigs.
I ain’t going to do it for my rat rigs.

I guess I’ll keep looking for Winchester brass
CW

 

[kyotekiller25]

I don't blame you one bit. I wouldn't turn necks for anything short of a BR rig myself.

 

[Gabe22BR]

Looks like you got a turn reamer-

Starline Brass is good stuff- I picked some up at MidSouth- the bag was tore open…
I made my little 20-221AI into some, rest was distributed around to use, some was for a 223AI.
I haven’t blown a primer pocket yet in my 20cal-

 

[10XSHOOTER]

That is not in my plans.

I turn enough necks with my benchrest rigs.
I ain’t going to do it for my rat rigs.

I guess I’ll keep looking for Winchester brass
CW

Clay, Dan has a .252 neck .223 AI reamer. He's going to build me a 1-9 twist to shoot 69 gr moly bullets.
Gary P

 

[Evan]

Couple of questions about Starline 223 brass.

1.) what is the neck thickness?

2.) How is quality?

I intend to purchase 300 pcs of brass and fireform them in my 223AI.

This chamber has a .250 nk.

Any accurate fireform loads with 50 grain varmint bullets you can share?

Thanks
CW

Not exactly what you're asking for Clay, but their 222 stuff has been good and I imagine a lot of the tooling is the same:

1. 0.0124 up to 0.0128 across my whole batch from 2024, but consistent to within .0002" on any one piece.
2. Excellent, holds pressure just as well as the Lapua and Norma I have. Starline is heavier and has less capacity in the 222, requiring reduced powder charges to hit the same speed.

 

[Mulligan]

Not exactly what you're asking for Clay, but their 222 stuff has been good and I imagine a lot of the tooling is the same:

1. 0.0124 up to 0.0128 across my whole batch from 2024, but consistent to within .0002" on any one piece.
2. Excellent, holds pressure just as well as the Lapua and Norma I have. Starline is heavier and has less capacity in the 222, requiring reduced powder charges to hit the same speed.

View attachment 1685243

Excellent info, thank you

CW

 

[Laurie]

Here's what I found with a sample 50-pack bought from the UK distributor late last year.

Visual inspection impressed re appearance, dented necks and other flaws. No issues at all.

Weight consistency is good. ES of the 50 cases = 92.8-94.0gn, only slightly larger than typical Lapua. Modal weights 93.2 & 93.5gn, slightly lighter than Lapua. (Have still to fire them, so fireformed water capacity unknown.)

Neck thickness range and consistency were disappointing compared to Lapua/Norma/RWS 223, also Starline 308 Win (LRP + SRP batches bought from the same source at the same time).

Sample of 25 cases each measured at three points around the circumference, ie 75 individual readings.

Total ES of 75 measurements: 0.0118 - 0.0138" = 0.002 (Lapua is typically just over 0.001" in same exercise.)

Individual case variations over the sets of 3 readings: 0.0003 - 0.0019" split roughly 50/50 either side of the 1 thou' mark. (Would expect high 90s % <0.001 from quality European 223 brass and half or so nil to 0.0005".)

If I read your chamber measurements right, you need neck thickness of 0.0125 or less to avoid turning (0.003" overall case neck to chamber clearance). In my sample of 25 pieces, 46 of the 75 readings exceed that figure.

 

[FoxTales]

I found the .223 brass to be very hard , annealing and primer pocket uniforming transformed them . They're not Lapua but then they're not Lapua money .

 

[William Vogel]

My loaded neck diameter is .250. That reamer is a neck turn reamer. I had a match chamber reamer that was .251 and for 223Rem but now it’s chambered to 223AI and it’s a .255 neck. I think I just sneaked by problems before going to AI. The Starline brass has just begun to expire at 16 reloading cycles. I just swapped to Lapua since it’s become available. Same loaded neck diameter.

 

[AWS]

I just made a hundred rounds of 20P from new Win brass, with old stock Rem 7 1/2 alot of primer pockets seemed very loose l, not fall back out loose but you could hardly feel them going in. Some to the point I actually tapped them on the bench to see if they would fall out. I have 250 Starline in the cart now.

 

[Longtrain]

A little late to the party, but FWIW…
I screwed my 223 Hart 1:8 AI barrel back on my Tikka 595, it has always shot well and I had the hankering to fire it up again.

I have two batchs of FF’ed Lapua, the oldest, the primer pockets are getting a bit loose. I ordered a pin gauge from Grainger to cull the bad ones out. I loaded a moderate load of RE-15 and 73 Bergers, they easily shot less than 1/2 MOA, so I knew the barrel would still shoot. I’ll bump that up a bit to get over 3K FPS and see how it does.

Since some Lapua is getting old, I saw that I had a couple bags of virgin Starline 223 brass sitting in the shelf.

I loaded 25 grains of H335 over a 50 grain SP and hit the various gongs 50 times. Besides the enjoyment of ringing some steel, I ended up with 50 pieces of nicely for 223 AI brass. I havr more to form, which I’ll do a little at a time at the end of other sessions.