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02-16-2017, 08:46 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 3
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Liked 6 Times in 3 Posts
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I recently bought 500 pieces of new Starline .308 brass direct from Starline for $199 ($0.40/ea) and split them with a friend.
Case Weight:- I weighed my 250 pieces individually on a Dillon D-Terminator scale.
- Also weighed 158 pieces of once fired Lake City “LC 13” head stamped XM80 brass for comparison.
- Starline has an average case weight of 178.3 gr, with a standard deviation of 0.97 grains.
- LC has a slightly heavier average case weight of 179gr with a larger standard deviation of 1.23 grains.
Flash holes:- Starline brass flash holes look remarkably consistent and burr free, definitely no big nasty burrs protruding into the case as I have discovered while swaging primer pockets on some 5.56 brass.
Primer pockets:- Feel nice and tight, but I’ve only loaded them 1X so far. I’ve definitely had LC brass pockets start to feel loose after a couple loadings.
Case length:- Of only 17 pieces measured for case length, none were close to max case length. Average was 2.004”, max 2.007”.
Case sizing and Case neck uniformity:- Don’t expect that these are ready to load as delivered, some case mouths are out of round. I full length resized everything.
- Case mouth deburring and brushing is a good idea too. While deburring I found one case mouth with a “wrinkle” that I certainly would not fire in my rifle. I culled this case and dissected it for inspection/photos. I didn’t complain to Starline because it was only one 40 cent case, not sure if this is common or not.
- I haven’t yet done a serious investigation neck thickness uniformity.
Load data:- I’ve been using load data previously established in LC brass with good success.
- ~42.8gr of TAC with a 168gr HPBT works well in my 20” AR, YMMV. I’ve observed some ejector marks on the cases but nothing that alarmed me.
Conclusion:- With this brass I routinely achieve <0.5 MOA 5 shot groups, which is as good as I’ve ever had with LC brass.
- I did sort my brass into +/-.5 gr bins since I had already bothered weighing it.
- At half the price of Lapua brass, so far I’m happy with Starline rifle brass.
- While statistically better than LC by weight I haven’t noticed any real world differences, though I’m glad to not have to swage primer pocket crimps.
Pictures:- Attached are histograms for both Starline and LC brass case weight. Starline certainly has a tighter and more normal distribution.
- Attached are some pictures of the neck wrinkle, primer pockets, and flash hole.
- Note that the flash hole is NOT actually eccentric, this was just camera perspective.
How's that for a first post on this forum?
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