Starline Brass, the good, the bad, the ugly

[NWBLKTAIL]

I’ve used a lot of it now, none with a ton of firings but up to 5x on 5.56 200 pieces, and 4X on 200 pieces of 7mm08. I haven’t had to chuck any.

I’ve used 200 pieces 308 2x fired, 100 of 243win 3x fired

I’ll pick up 25-06 soon and try that as well

No complaints accuracy has been good

 

[steelheadmike]

I picked up 150 7mm-08 cases and have been pretty happy with it so far. It definitely needs a little more work on the virgin brass than the Peterson. I had to run a mandrel through them and give them a hearty chamfer/debur to clean up the case mouths. Once I got through the first firing, they seem to be shooting really well.

Despite the extra work needed, it seems like decent brass for almost half the cost of Peterson and Alpha.

 

[Rich M]

I don't like Hornady brass - too soft for me. Starline is good, same for most others. I've used starline in rifle and pistol.

My 30-06 shoots 1-inch at 250 yards with mixed brass. Never felt the need to pay $1 or more per brass but I don't shoot for distance - 250 is all I got around here.

Still working with my new 243 but also with mixed brass. It is close to an inch at 200 yards with diff federal factory ammo. That brass will get reloaded.

 

[streamerfish]

How does the capacity compare to other brass in 243 and 6CM?

As a general rule. Slightly less then hornady, more then "premium" brass.

 

[streamerfish]

Personally starline is all I use for rifle. My brass prep is well...Basically nothing, starline works great for me to use a handful of times then toss em and buy more. Cheap and easy.

For pistol (9mm), I buy bulk mixed brass thats been cleaned online. Super cheap for my high round count shooting (uspsa).

 

[Te Hopo]

I've been using Starline in my 357 and 38spl for a few years now, over 10 firings and its all good.

Thinking I need to pick up some 6.5Grendel as its about the cheapest brass locally

 

[brucemt]

I’m using starline in .223, 7:08, and now 6 creed and have had zero problems. I have never used any “premium” brass to compare to, but, see no reason to pay twice as much for brass. It works and works well.

 

[doc holiday13]

only have 1x firing on some 308 brass. I've shot lots of pistol brass. Just ordered 100 pieces of nickle plated 357 brass for some 170g SWC cast. I'll fire a few to make sure they don't create leading issues i'm expect 1550 fps

 

[Roonster]

Because Starline brass is packaged in plastic pouches, the case mouths can get dinged on their way to you.

I purchased Starline because I wanted to ascertain whether it was feasible to load straight from the bag and avoid having to resize previously fired brass. It’s not economically viable with Lapua given it’s ridiculous price these days, but with Starline it might just be.

My main concerns are 1. D shaped case mouths; 2. Bellowing of the case mouths which I think is caused by over zealous trimming speed at the factory.

At the moment I’m averaging 6% that need remediation for dings and pretty much 100% that have bellowing. This necessitates a manual inspection of every single case, and for those with a D shaped mouth, I need to lube the mouth, expand it with a mandrel, neck turn to remove the bellowing of the case mouths can get and then trim, chamfer and debur. Not the end of the world, but it does mean that if you want uber consistency, you need to do all 100 cases, and at that point you might as well just resize fired brass.

So for my intended use, loading straight from the bag is a non-starter. Starline is reasonably priced, but it does require a lot of work before it is usable. On the plus side, neck wall thickness is very consistent, and if it weren’t for the bellowing, I don’t think you’d need to neck turn at all.

Just my experience with Starline YMMV.