Starline 10mm and .44 Magnum brass issue (Buyer Beware)

[Intercooler]

   I'm re-posting this for a member with a "buyer beware" to end users. This is not to be any type of bash but as information to hand-loaders using Starline new brass. Hopefully ammo makers are doing some QC in these areas before assembly.

Reloaded 500 pieces of Starline brass last week and lost about 40 of them to being over length, that was 10mm. A friend of mine that reloads .44 Magnum using Starline Brass, the primer pockets were for small pistol primers. Oh, after I shot a 100 rounds of the 10mm reloads, I lost another 18 cases due to cracks and they weren't very hot loads (170gr Hardcast, 5.1gr's of Tite-Group,1.253 COL@1075FPS) I contacted Midway USA who sold me the brass and they said I had to contact Starline, which I did. I talked with a Dave in Tech and he said he would replace the brass, my concern wasn't that, my concern was blowing my guns up or losing an eye or a hand, doubt that I will use Starline again, their QC seems to have slipped (possibly due to the demand). I have weighed some of the brass cases and some of them are as much as 4gr's difference in weight, try a 4 grain slip up with powder and see what happens. Very disappointed with Starline and as of today I still have not received my replacement brass. Having better luck with range brass or once fired brass.

[hammer1]

THATS SWELL, I have 200 new starline
empties sitting on my bench right now

[Intercooler]

  Might not hurt to just weigh them and check length before loading them up. If you find anything post back. Thanks!

[The_Shadow]

I had found this chart on the web sometime back, I can't attest for it's accuracy, but there is only one way to gain more interior room!  Thinner case webs!

[hammer1]

  Might not hurt to just weigh them and check length before loading them up. If you find anything post back. Thanks!

I will, thanks.

[Steve4102]

  Just out of curiosity, how do you Lose a case if it is "over length"?
How far over length?

Can't you just trim them to the proper case length. .987-.992?

[DenStinett]

Noticed Norma or Winchester Nickel isn't listed

I reload both Win Brass and Win Nickel Cases

[Steve4102]

I had found this chart on the web sometime back, I can't attest for it's accuracy, but there is only one way to gain more interior room!  Thinner case webs!

Or make the case longer/to long as in the OP.

Were all these test cases trimmed to the same length or tested as is from the factory?

[Thunderjet]

Chart really means nothing because as others have said there is no proof they were all the same length as well as no one knows who made up the chart.
Only way to find out the web thickness of each brand is to cut them in half long ways and compare them to each other.

[tommac919]

Just ran a set of 250 new Starline... random weight of about 30 and all very close, also lenght and found nothing out of spec.

In a G20;
Loaded mid level loads, shot same, all shells look just fine, no problems with any I've seen so far.
I was running a batch after load tests and found expansion in the order of .432 - .4325 near base (max area), no primer problems.


IMO, just fine but will keep my eye on the next batch of 250.

Edit; Just chked a new box of 500 from 10/25 ordered date..pulled about 100.
Av lenght .9885, max -.990  min- .9865
weight av 71.8, low 71.2 high 72.4

[nickE10mm]

I have nearly 500 new SL on my bench. I'll try and check them and post here.

[The_Shadow]

Yours seem to be near what I have measured in the pull-downs from various vendors, however have seen some that were shorter as used by Littlestone where the brass was measured at Length 0.9860"

Most Star-Line 10mm brass measured 0.4215" at the base prior to being fired and the length is usually 0.988"

The Glock chambers (0.4330") do allow the cases to expand more than other makes of guns and aftermarket barrels.

[blastfact]

I'm not a Starline fan at all concerning 10mm. I think Shadow, Intercooler and I have commented on observations on another board in the past. I find Starline brass to be very soft and weak concerning primer pockets. And once I shoot a MAX load. ( Very Hot ) It basically becomes plinking 10mm brass which over all means it goes into the scrap bucket.

I spend my money on Winchester 10mm brass, Yeah it cost a whole lot more. Twice to three times as much as Starline. But ,,, I don't wear it out!

I have had micro failures with Starline brass in my 10mm. I know your asking, What is a micro failure? For me the micro failure has been wasted loose primer pockets. But more importantly it's been micro holes in the case wall. I've seen this only in my Starline brass. And please understand these are nuke loads.

The failure has been seen when shooting a round out of a very clean barrel/chamber. The damage to the brass is a black dot on the outside and inside surface of the brass. Under magnification one can see a small pin hole in the brass. I NEVER get that failure with Winchester brass. And I have not to date lost a Winchester piece of brass to a loose primer pocket over 1 to 5 max loads.

Starline IMHO needs to up there game.

[DenStinett]

I spend my money on Winchester 10mm brass, Yeah it cost a whole lot more. Twice to three times as much as Starline. But ,,, I don't wear it out!

I'm with you there my friend

In 10mm, I reload both Brass and Nickel

[nickE10mm]

I just weighed and measured 8 random pieces of 10mm (yellow) Starline brass for you guys.  Its part of a box of about 500 of them I got from Dad before he passed.  I haven't even dipped into this box yet as I have about 1000 pieces of brass that I'm using for my light target loads and I haven't had a real reason to need to use my new stuff. 

Here are the weights and lengths for the 8 I measured.... in no particular order (and the lengths and weights don't match up to the corresponding columns so just take the group of weights and group of lengths separately.

Weights
70.6
70.0
70.8
71.4
71.0
70.6
70.8
70.8

Lengths
.986
.986
.986
.988
.991
.990
.986
.984

Hope this helps....
Nick