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Starline .308 brass

velocette

I bought a package of 50 pcs of .308 Starline brass from Midway.
I have used Starline for many years with my various pistols with excellent performance
so I decided to try their rifle brass.
Nicely polished, clean inside and out. Necks were quite tight when run through my neck sizer.
Bodies were a very light kiss when when run through my body sizing die.
Their primer flash holes had NO burrs & did not need any attention. Primer pockets were nicely squared off at their base & very smooth.
Weights ran an average of 178.5 grains +/- 2 grains with the large majority running 178.5 +/- 1 grain. Just a few lower or higher. (My Winchester .308 brass averages about 168 grains)
The normal case mouth chamfer is needed.
Overall, they appear to be very nice brass and easily worth the price of .46 cents apiece for 50.
 
T-shooter said:
I have heard that their rifle brass needs to be annealed. Does it seem to resize easily?
Click to expand...
New brass was neck sized & body sized. During the neck sizing it was apparent that the necks were on the small size & I had a little difficulty with the neck mandrel entering the neck. Perhaps that might be where the idea that they needed annealing. After neck and body sizing, I loaded them. The seating effort was very consistent and consistent with my annealed & neck sized Winchester brass. I do not think they need annealing, out of the box. Perhaps after a few firings.
 
Do they make 308 with small primer pockets? You didn't mention what size the primers were on your new brass.
 
T-shooter said:
I have heard that their rifle brass needs to be annealed. Does it seem to resize easily?
Click to expand...

i tried some 243 from midway when it first came available ~ 6 months back. it would not seal - so yes that lot at least i should have annealed first. accuracy and performance was very disappointing. i did not try a follow up test.

there have been other threads on the this subject, btw.
 
velocette said:
...Perhaps that might be where the idea that they needed annealing. ....
Click to expand...

BPCR shooters have been using straight walled Starline for their 45 caliber Sharps rifles for yrs. It has been a pretty well established in that community that you needed to anneal new brass from them.
 
T-shooter said:
I have heard that their rifle brass needs to be annealed. Does it seem to resize easily?
Click to expand...

Here is the answer I received from the manufacturer:
Chuck,



Our bottle neck rifle brass is neck annealed as the last step before polishing, so it will not require annealing prior to loading. Some of the calibers like .45-70 may need annealed if you are shooting black powder or very light loads through them that will not seal the chamber.



Regards,



Hunter Pilant

Process Manager

Chief Ballistician
 
Fired the first batch of 50 rds yesterday. No problems with function. Got good accuracy, 3 ~ 4" groups at 500 yards on a gusty windy day. Resized very easily. Fired in an LR 308 with a 24" Criterion barrel. Very consistent so far.
 
I have been shooting Starline 243 in my Ar10. The last two sessions I took brand new brass and loaded them. Shooting in awful conditions with gusting 10 to 15 mph crosswinds it was still trying to shoot 1/4 and 3/8 groups.

I think Starline is thicker than Lapua and I had to drop the loads about 1 grain over Lapua. I'm not going to say the groups are as small as Lapua but they are darn close.20191103_140458.jpg 20191103_140504.jpg 20191116_103324.jpg
 
AJC said:
Be nice to see a good review. Only review I have seen in on jonnys reloading bench. He liked it a lot.
Click to expand...

I usually dig in the archives, ask questions, etc. Push come to shove, I'll buy a pound and let it tell me first hand. Matter of fact I'll get on Quickload and run it in several cartridges I shoot and figure out where I'll go from there. I have a newer .223 AR that needs some attention.
 
The members of The Reloading Podcast almost single-handedly twisted Starline’s arm into offering basic 308 brass, that will be released soon. Good news for those who are forming wildcat brass.
 
I have been thoroughly impressed with the 260 rem brass. I used it mostly because I wanted to try it and secondly because it wasn't a dollar a piece. I used it to fire form cases for my 260 Ackley and it worked perfectly, never lost a case and accuracy has been great. I am on my third reloads with this brass now pushing 140 Berger's at 2940fps and primer pockets are still as tight as when I bought them. Very good brass for the money.
 
Dgd6mm said:
I usually dig in the archives, ask questions, etc. Push come to shove, I'll buy a pound and let it tell me first hand. Matter of fact I'll get on Quickload and run it in several cartridges I shoot and figure out where I'll go from there. I have a newer .223 AR that needs some attention.
Click to expand...

Does your Quickload have heat index numbers for AR Comp and R16?
 
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