Starline and Midway .357 brass

[scooter123]

For those who have wondered what issues I am having with my Winchester brass. first is the primer pockets. About half of my Winchester brass won't seat the primer all the way. I have reamed the pocket rims and cleaned the pockets spotless. Still won't seat deeply enough. When running them through the charging/flaring die the winchesters are extremely difficult to remove. Now I know that a lot of you are anxious to say that the die's need adjustment but it only happens with winchester. Every single time. Nothing else will exhibit these issues.

Are you flaring your cases when they are clean or when they are dirty? If you flare your cases when they are clean your difficulty extracting cases will still be a problem with the Starline cases. The cause is what I call "Thumbcuffing". What happens is similar to the action of a Chinese Thumbcuff and when you try to extract the case the flare is drawn down forcefully onto the flaring punch. The solution is some type of case lubricant, such as wax in the cleaning process or case lube. I use the RCBS Case Lube and Pad because I can flip the pad upside down and flare a full tray of cases. I also run my cases through the size and flare operations when they are dirty because I use the wet Stainless Pin method to clean my cases. As a result after cleaning I have clean cases flared and ready to prime. Yeah, doing this does mean I have to clean my Size and Flaring Dies but it's only a small inconvenience for a larger benefit.

In regards to your primer pocket issues with Winchester cases, I load with CCI primers and haven't noted any issues at all with shallow primer pockets in Winchester cases. However I don't get worried about a primer that is sitting flush or just a whisker "high". As long as they chamber properly and function well in my revolvers or 357 Magnum rifles a primer that is high enough to show just a tiny hint of daylight is NOT a problem. BTW, I am telling you this because CCI primers sit nearly exactly flush in Starline cases.

 

[Collo Rosso]

I've just started loading 44mag and you got me looking at my brass. I have loaded some Winchester but it gave me no problems. I have about 30 cases of Hornady were I had to use my primer pocket swager kit before I could prime one without crushing the primer. They were not crimped, at least not that I could tell.

 

[1sailor]

I think that an important thing to take note of is that ONLY winchester brass does this and it happens with EVERY SINGLE WINCHESTER CASE I load. Absolutely NONE of my other brass does this.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

Starline is great brass. BUT this last time during the shortage I finally got my hands on some Starline .357 brass because I had such good luck with it before. This batch was hard overall (maybe thicker wall) and the primer pockets were REALLY tight and hard to prime. This could be fixed with a primer pocket reamer, but I did get them primed and I'm on my way. This isn't going to stop my from using Starline though. One tough, (not really 'bad') batch isn't slowing me down. I suppose after they've been primed one time and shot they will be easier.

Just got a 1000 of Starline's .357 Mag brass two weeks ago. I had the hard to seat primer problem with their .44 Mag brass last year and after reading RWsmith's post about his problem seating primers in the .357 Mag brass I wasted no time in loading up two boxes. No problem with this batch, all primers went in nice and smooth.

 

[gregintenn]

You might try Winchester primers in the Winchester brass.

 

[zeke]

I think that an important thing to take note of is that ONLY winchester brass does this and it happens with EVERY SINGLE WINCHESTER CASE I load. Absolutely NONE of my other brass does this.

Just curious-What other brass are you comparing Win to, what primers are you using, what press and what specific brass are your dies set for?

Win pistol brass can be thicker/more ductile than some others. In addition the win primer holes are not flat bottomed/tighter/shallower than some others.

It would not be at all unusual to change case expander settings with differing brass, especially differing length brass.

The only Win 357 brass had any trouble with was a nickel plated lot Graph and Sons discounted several years ago.

 

[growr]

You can send all of your problematic Winchester brass to me....it has been flawless for me....

Randy

 

[rwsmith]

I forgot to ask....

I'm really sick and tired of fighting with my winchester brass to the point where I've culled it out and won't be using it anymore. I need to pick up some more brass and have been looking at Starline and Midway. Thing is, I don't want another debacle like I had with Winchester. Are any members reloading .357 brass made by either Starline or Midway. Have you had any issues with it. Is it hard to resize, any issues getting primers to seat correctly, any other issues.

Winchester brass is traditionally very good. Do you think you got a rough batch from the time it was in short supply like I did the Starline? What other issues do you have besides hard sizing and priming? I will say that when I got that 'bad' batch of Starline sized and primed, the resulting ammo was gorgeous and plunked into the chambers VERY well.

 

[rwsmith]

Thanks alwslate....

I've used Winchester 357 brass for many years with no particular
problems. If your primers are CCI they might be the problem. I've
found them difficult to seat in any brand of brass.

I use mostly CCI and some Winchester primers and I know that the CCI are like little rocks which probably didn't help trying to get them into some really tight pockets.

 

[muddocktor]

I don't know how you guys seat your primers, such as on your press or with a hand priming tool, but I switched to using the RCBS auto priming tool in the early to mid 80's and I am glad I did. It adds an extra step to the loading process, but I will gladly trade that off for the positive and easy priming the auto priming tool provides. It beats the heck out of priming on the press and is much easier on the wrists than those hand priming tools and gives great feel when priming. And when you run into brass with tight pockets, you can bear down without killing your hand yet still have good feel to know if the primer is seating correctly. It's a little spendy nowadays but money well spent in my book. Last time I looked, they were around $80 on Midway. I gave $31 for mine back when I bought it.