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+--- Thread: Starline Pocket Life (/showthread.php?tid=481)
Starline Pocket Life - StoneHendge - 11-12-2021
My recent experience with Starline rifle brass has been less than stellar as I sent 600 pieces of 6.5 LRP 6.5 CM brass to the recycling bin. I'll document the reason at the end of this post, but thought it might be caliber specific or due to it being brass made when Starline first started doing rifle brass. My experience with converting Starline 7.62x39 (LRP)to 243 LBC (or 243x39 as I call it) has been relatively good and has exceeded expectations, and there's an extensive thread on the Grendel forum about it. I'll also note that I have been impressed with it's weight consistency at it's price point.
I started with 400 pieces of nickle plated Starline 6.5 Grendel brass last fall. I was originally going to use it for 243 LBC match brass but then decided to use it as ARC brass after I bought my barrel. All of it was fireformed as 243 LBC and about 70 or so had a second firing as 243 LBC. Although this could have an impact on the neck and shoulder areas, it shouldn't effect primer pockets.
I have 374 left having lost a few at matches along the way. My load was 26.8 grains of Varget (27.0 Hornady book max for 105s). A handful were subjected to higher charges in load development, but for the most part they either had the fireforming load or that load through 3x. I switched to the RCBS Base Size die after all was 3x and settled immediately at 26.5 gr without going higher. Yes, my load is near max. In my chamber it could be slightly above max, but if so, not by much and it is certainly a workable load.
The punchline: I decapped 128 pieces that are now 4x. And my primer pocket gauge fit into 20 of them, which represents 15.6% of the 128. The fit was extremely snug in about 75% of those. Max primer pocket width is 1.745" and the width of the gauge is 1.740"according to calipers purchased at NAPA and 1.750" according to Hornady calipers.
Quite disconcerting given what it takes to convert brass. Given the snugness of the fit, I am confident that they'll hold for one more as practice brass, but they will certainly be retired from match duty as a blown primer floating around the BCG or in the well around the trigger can end your day.
I'll update this as I move through the lot. Please add any experiences you might have had - hopefully I just got a bad lot.
The 6.5 CM brass: I bought 750 pieces in 2017. I weight sorted it and kept about 600 that were +/- 1% from the mean weight. I thought of it as a poor man's Lapua. I didn't shoot my CM much for a few years and got back on it last fall. Most loads were relatively mild, but each piece probably saw a max book load once with a few twice (140s at 2740 out of a 24"). About 5% didn't pass the gauge after 3x. Another 15-20% after 4x. At 5x I was tossing 40% of what remained and knew I needed new brass. I started running a near max load of Shooters World Precision with 123s (2870 out of a 22"). Took 100 rounds to my AR match using the CM iso my ARC for various reasons. Cleaned the first 6 of 9 targets on the first stage without a miss (including 4 at 640). Feeling pretty damn good settling into the 3rd position and had no trigger pull on the 7th shot. Blown primer stuck between bolt lugs and bolt carrier. Day over. Maybe I missed one with the gauge, but I decapped the 5 that were now 6x when I got home and the pockets were looser than Kamala Harris at a job interview in Willie Brown's office. Deconstructed the remaining 94 and all threw all of it into the recycling bin.
As an aside, I bought 300 pieces of Alpha Munitions LRP 6.5 CM brass and have been extremely impressed thus far. I went with it due to its reviews, no Peterson was available, it was 15% cheaper than Lapua, and it's Made in America. I weighed 20 and the sample weight STD was 0.3 gr with an ES of 0.9. That absolutely blows Lapua away. Hopefully they see an opportunity in ARC.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - Dino11 - 11-13-2021
That's a very interesting observation.
Looks like I need to sort through my brass and segregate the Starline Grendel from the rest and keep an eye on it. My Starline has been loaded 2 times along with the cases it is mixed in with. I was using it for plinking loads. I have another 1000 Starline that I have not even processed yet, winter project. I was going to load them with 100 grain speer soft points and fire form them and set them aside for precision loads, maybe fire form them twice if need be.
I have some Hornady brass that is coming to the end of it's life, pockets are starting to get loose. I have not popped any primers yet, but I don't load to max or above. Some of this brass has been loaded 12 times. I have thrown out a small amount due to a line above the case head, but some of those were loaded hot to experiment with. I have found that this round doesn't like to be loaded hot for accuracy.
I do keep my bolt gun and gas gun brass separate.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - grayfox - 11-13-2021
The stuff you 2 guys post is always instructive.
Taking notes I am.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - StoneHendge - 12-26-2021
Just checked another 64 of the Starline Grendel formed into 6 ARC at 4 times fired. 49 good and 15 loose which brings the total to 157/35. Have another 66 in the tumbler I'll be checking in a day or 2.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - popgun - 12-27-2021
Makes me feel a little better for the retarded price I just paid for Lapua. Hopefully it holds up. BTW Midway has 6.5 Grendel Lapua brass right now but it's $142.99 for 100. It resized very nice.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - gorillamotors - 12-27-2021
I just purchased last week 500 Lapua 6.5 Grendel brass at $115/100. Glad I did it when I did as they were gone in 1 day.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - StoneHendge - 01-01-2022
I'm now at 53 of 282 loose, or about 19%. It'll probably be a few weeks before I get to the remaining 90 at 3x and then see how the 4x fares.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - StoneHendge - 02-16-2022
Haven't been shooting them a lot recently for various reasons, but just measured another 36 at 4x. 7 failed, which is 19.4%. Statistically intriguing- brings the total to 60 of 318 or 18.9%.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - Lemonaid - 02-16-2022
Stonehenge, with the amount of brass you are discarding just because of primer pocket expansion, I would look at primer pocket repair methods. If it just let you get 2 or 3 more loads it might be worth your time. I've done this on some 22-250 and 6 PPC converted from 7.62x39 brass and so far it works pretty good. Klem on the 6.5 Grendel forum mentions a way to use the RCBS crimp removal tool to fix primer pockets, take a look there for his results.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - StoneHendge - 03-19-2022
The last 52 did slightly better -only 8 are loose which brings the grand total to 68 of 370 loose, or 18.4%. I'll note that 75% of the loose should be fine for one more firing - I'll probably use them for load development if Nosler doesn't decide to make any 105 grain RDF's in the next 6 weeks or so and I have to find another bullet.
Got my scope back from Vortex and it tracks once again so I'll be using Rubin for a match next weekend (yes, it does really suck when the disc that connects the turret with the gears wears out and you didn't actually dial the amount of elevation you thought you did for the last stage of a match where you were in the hunt). Between that and some practice sessions I'll likely have 150 or so at 5x in a little over a week. It should be interesting to see how they fare.....
RE: Starline Pocket Life - Dino11 - 03-20-2022
(03-19-2022, 10:40 PM)StoneHendge Wrote: The last 52 did slightly better -only 8 are loose which brings the grand total to 68 of 370 loose, or 18.4%. I'll note that 75% of the loose should be fine for one more firing - I'll probably use them for load development if Nosler doesn't decide to make any 105 grain RDF's in the next 6 weeks or so and I have to find another bullet.I have not seen any vendors recently selling the Nosler RDF's. I got lucky the other day and came across a posting on the S&W site for 440 of them for 160 shipped, so I jumped on them. still had a 1000 of them but figured I better get while the gettin was good. My next choice, a little more pricey is the 109gr Berger Long Range Hybrid Target. They actually out perform the 105 RDF, but at a cost. You can pretty much use the same load data for both bullets.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - r.tenorio671 - 03-21-2022
(03-20-2022, 10:40 AM)Dino11 Wrote:(03-19-2022, 10:40 PM)StoneHendge Wrote: The last 52 did slightly better -only 8 are loose which brings the grand total to 68 of 370 loose, or 18.4%. I'll note that 75% of the loose should be fine for one more firing - I'll probably use them for load development if Nosler doesn't decide to make any 105 grain RDF's in the next 6 weeks or so and I have to find another bullet.I have not seen any vendors recently selling the Nosler RDF's. I got lucky the other day and came across a posting on the S&W site for 440 of them for 160 shipped, so I jumped on them. still had a 1000 of them but figured I better get while the gettin was good. My next choice, a little more pricey is the 109gr Berger Long Range Hybrid Target. They actually out perform the 105 RDF, but at a cost. You can pretty much use the same load data for both bullets.
...Dino11, have you tried the 107 SMK's? If so, load data you have used in your gasser and your gasser specs, please.
Thanks in advance.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - Dino11 - 03-25-2022
(03-21-2022, 03:37 AM)r.tenorio671 Wrote:No i have not tried the 107's, but have gone to the other side of the spectrum with 105's and 109 Long Range Hybrids. The Hybrids were loaded for the bolt gun and used to shoot the mile, they were loaded on the hot side. I did do load development with them shooting 500 and 600 yards out. My load is 30.4 of Lever and 2.295 OAL with a CCI 450 primer. I load to CBTO, but they come out pretty close to the OAL of 2.295. My 105 load is 29.4 Lever with 2.295 OAL for the gas guns and I have shot a ton of those and get .5 MOA or better @100 yards. You really need to do your own load workup, your rifle may like something different than mine do. I am fortunate enough to have multiple rifles with very similar barrel specs.(03-20-2022, 10:40 AM)Dino11 Wrote:(03-19-2022, 10:40 PM)StoneHendge Wrote: The last 52 did slightly better -only 8 are loose which brings the grand total to 68 of 370 loose, or 18.4%. I'll note that 75% of the loose should be fine for one more firing - I'll probably use them for load development if Nosler doesn't decide to make any 105 grain RDF's in the next 6 weeks or so and I have to find another bullet.I have not seen any vendors recently selling the Nosler RDF's. I got lucky the other day and came across a posting on the S&W site for 440 of them for 160 shipped, so I jumped on them. still had a 1000 of them but figured I better get while the gettin was good. My next choice, a little more pricey is the 109gr Berger Long Range Hybrid Target. They actually out perform the 105 RDF, but at a cost. You can pretty much use the same load data for both bullets.
...Dino11, have you tried the 107 SMK's? If so, load data you have used in your gasser and your gasser specs, please.
Thanks in advance.
RE: Starline Pocket Life - StoneHendge - 03-27-2022
164 at 5x with 64 accepting the gauge, or 39%. If I'm doing my math right, the overall survival rate after 5x is right at 50%.