I primed some recently purchased new 357 mag Starline brass last night using the Lee deprime/resizer die on my Lee Classic Turret press. Most of the 100 case I primed were tighter than a ticks butt when seating the WSP primers. I have not used Starline brass before now but have read nothing but good things about it. Anyone else ever run into this problem using Starline brass? I have loaded many thousands of range brass with the same setup without issue and I would be hard pressed to blame it in the the Lee hardware. Any suggestions?

Those cases are like a new pair quality leather shoes........

They just need a little break in period. You will be happy after
they have all been fired one or two times.

Just take your time with the first loadings so you don't damage any primers with the tight fit.

They are tight new for sure. Had the same impression on the batch I just loaded up. Ive been loading my old Win Brass so long I`d forgotten what new brass was like.
They sure are pretty though.
Jim

I've used thousands of Starline cases in many calibers with no problems at all. I have even used brand new cases and while they may have been marginally tighter than spent cases it was certainly not objectionable.

Before making any decisions, shoot a few of the newly loaded cases and re-load them again - see how they prime after being shot. Then is they are still objectionable I'd call Starline and see what they have to say.

I have also always had a Dillon press of some sort and their handles are relatively large, producing lots of leverage. I am not familiar with Lee's and do not know how their "feel" is. Right now I do most of my reloading on a Dillon 650 which is beefy, strong and has a very large and smooth handle so loading any primer is effortless. When I had my Square Deal-B (smaller and less heavy duty) it was a little more effort - but again nothing objectionable.

I've been using Starline for 26-27 yrs. now the first brass was in 10mm.. Midway USA was still relatively young at the time, Starline hadn't started putting their name on the brass, this brass came with Midway stamped on the brass, got real good buy on 1000 pcs $60.00 IIRC I'm still using the first batch I got if I have choice I'll get the Starline. Since then I got their brass in 9mm .38special .40 S&W .41 mag .44 mag .45ACP 7mm Remington mag .338 Winchester mag
some of my brass is on their tenth reloading.
You might try chamfering the primer pockets out JUST a smite and I mean just a smite because they will grow on their own with repeated loadings you might want to use a harder primer at first.

Paul

We had a thread on this a ways back. I've found Starline to always be excellent, but this last batch I got a few months ago was like resizing steel and the primer pockets were almost unworkable that I was about to buy a pocket uniformer or some tool. Other people reported the same problems.

PS I used RCBS equipment. It ain't the press or dies that are the problem. I also used a Lee hand priming tool. I thought I was going to break it.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

The last I bought was probably 4 years ago. I recall that I could definitely feel the primers seat with a click, but they weren't difficult. I was using Federal primers.

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Common sense isn't so common.

Thanks for the replies. I thought/hoped that they might loosen up after I fired them. I really did not know what to expect as this is my first try at new brass. Some of the primers have a small indentation on the faces but nothing creased or deep. I made up about 18 rounds for a load I am working up and planned on firing them yesterday but instead I had to see a dentist about a tooth extraction. Not much of a trade off. Anyway, hopefully I will be able to do some shooting this afternoon and I will check out the primer pockets afterwards and see if they loosened up a bit.

I recently bought (400) new .357 S-L brass & did not have any problems seating primers.

One thing I've always done initially, with my new brass, is deburring the case mouths (they always have a inside lips on the case mouth that needs deburring - check it with your little finger's nail) before loading. Recently I've added a new step to that routine.

Once I've deburred the inside & outside of the case mouth I take the pointed end of the debur tool & put it in the primer pocket & give it a few quick twists. Just enought to give the primer pocket's mouth a slight camfer to direct the primer in without catching on the edge. Don't know if this is the reason I haven't had any seating issue but it only takes a few seconds longer while you have everything already in your hands.

.

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Waiting for the break of day

I had the same problem with recently bought 44 mag. Tried three primer brands before I could even proceed. I was going to post here to ask if I needed to chamfer the pockets, because I didn't, and I've never had to in the past. If I chamfer the remainder and try again, I'll report back.

I had the same problem with Starline .41 Mag brass... very difficult to get CCI primers to fit, didn't try any other brand of primer. Anyone ask Starline?

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Old paratrooper in NC

WOW! Maybe they have been cranking out Brass so fast and in such large numbers their Dies have worn a bit causing slightly tighter Primer Pocket. Seems pretty common these days among manufacturers who are producing items in huge demand markets.
I will admit that the newest Starline Brass I have is at least a few years old now. Hope they have rectified this issue. I would like to know what they have to say. Please keep updates coming. Thanks!

Ran into this with .44 Mag brass last year, after one fireing no problem. Other new Starline brass no problem so I don't think it affects all calibers all the time.

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Stay safe people!

I have had nothing but good results using Starline Brass. But Guys, ALL mass produced brass is subject to several variables. A major one is tool wear; a second is speed of manufacturing machine operation; third is a slight variation in physical properties of the brass; and a fourth is the little thought of 'temperature of the manufacturing machine'. If the machine is subject to temperature variations over a large range, it will produce slightly different sized brass casings. I remember talking to a PMC Tool and Die Machinist when PMC was still here in So. Nevada. He mentioned that they had one machine that drove them crazy in its variations. They finally figured out that a big door to the outside was near it and during the summer the hot sun beat on it every time the door was open. The solution was to move the machine.

It has been mentioned to chamfer the primer pocket lip. I would go one step further and say just purchase a primer pocket uniformer tool from one of the benchrest suppliers and uniform all those primer pockets right from the get-go. Benchrest shooters buy the best brass available in the world. Yet they all routinely use the uniformer tool before ever loading that brass for the first time. There are two types of this tool (probably more now.....I'm out of date); one is a small tool that looks like a screwdriver with a round handle, the other is a small knurled steel barrel with the cutter on one end. I use both, but for a large batch of brass I use the second tool chucked in my lathe and turned at the slowest rpms possible. It is very easy to take a brass case and feed it into the lathe mounted tool and uniform the primer pocket. It is also very fast to do a big batch. I have also done it using a variable speed drill motor clamped in my bench vise. I prefer using the lathe. .................

I should add: there are four sizes of these tools for primer pockets; Large Rifle, Small Rifle, Large Pistol and Small pistol. It does make a difference. Use the right one for your job.

I've loved the stuff up until this last batch. Hard as a rock on both ends. Makes me either think that it's going to last a long time because it's so tough, or not last a long time because it's so tough.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Well I did not get a chance to do any shooting today because of rain. My plan was to shoot the 18 cartridges I have that are made up and check them out to see if they loosened up any, which is what I suspect will happen. If not I will probably uniform the primer pockets. Either way I am going to give Starline a friendly call and see what they have to say about it. Lots of good info posted here so far and I appreciate it. I will post my results here when I have them.

I got some starline .45 ACP brass recently and the pockets were a little tight and it was sizing/seating a little tougher than I like. I ran it through the tumbler with some cob and polish and it helped schlicken-z-seating.

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Trucks and guns.

There are actually three sizes. Small pistol and small rifle are the same. Large pistol and large rifle make up the other 2 of the three.

Update: Yesterday I shot up the remaining 70 rounds of Starline brass I had. All 100 loaded and performed flawlessly. The only problem I had was the original issue of seating the primers as I mentioned in my previous post. Last night I tumbled the once fired brass and primed all of it without any issues. They were still tight but nothing like the first time around. I cant say how much they had to do with it but I chronographed a 357 mag load I have been working on using the Starline brass and I got an ES of of 16 and a SD of 5 with good accuracy. A good day all around. Thanks to all for the help.