I needed to retire some of my Lapua brass due to loose primer pockets recently and decided to replace it with some Starline. I have had experiance with their pistol brass and always found it to be of excellent quality so I ordered 50 .260 Rem cases from Midway at .67 USD a piece. For comparison Lapua is 1.05 USD a piece.
The brass arrived yesterday in a plain white Midway bulk packaging box. A quick visual inspection found one piece of the 50 with a slightly out of round case mouth. There were also some small greenish specks on some of the brass. Cosmetic only and they polished right off with some nevr-dull. Inspection of the flashholes showed very uniform holes with no burrs. Starline says their flashholes are punched not drilled yet I found then to be as smooth and uniform as drilled flashholes. The case necks appear to be chamfered and deburred at the factory.
After the visual inspection I measured all 50 cases for length. All were either 2.026 or 2.027. SAAMI specs are 2.035 - .020
After a full length resize I weighed 15 cases and checked volume. Dry weight mean was 169.8 , low 169.1, high 170.7. Volume of water mean was 53.7, high 54.1, low 53.2
Before priming I uniformed the primer pockets. Primer pockets were very uniform and almost no brass was removed. Other than a normal full length resize this brass is ready to prime and shoot straight from the box. I am very pleased with the quality considering the price and if the necks and primer pockets hold up to a minimum of 10 reloads I will be buying more in the future.
The brass arrived yesterday in a plain white Midway bulk packaging box. A quick visual inspection found one piece of the 50 with a slightly out of round case mouth. There were also some small greenish specks on some of the brass. Cosmetic only and they polished right off with some nevr-dull. Inspection of the flashholes showed very uniform holes with no burrs. Starline says their flashholes are punched not drilled yet I found then to be as smooth and uniform as drilled flashholes. The case necks appear to be chamfered and deburred at the factory.
After the visual inspection I measured all 50 cases for length. All were either 2.026 or 2.027. SAAMI specs are 2.035 - .020
After a full length resize I weighed 15 cases and checked volume. Dry weight mean was 169.8 , low 169.1, high 170.7. Volume of water mean was 53.7, high 54.1, low 53.2
Before priming I uniformed the primer pockets. Primer pockets were very uniform and almost no brass was removed. Other than a normal full length resize this brass is ready to prime and shoot straight from the box. I am very pleased with the quality considering the price and if the necks and primer pockets hold up to a minimum of 10 reloads I will be buying more in the future.