Have always used Lapua Brass for my 223 Rem loads but interested in the Starline product. Just curious what the neck wall thickness and how uniform the neck wall thickness is. All the Lapua brass I have used typically runs at .013" thickness so my loaded rounds typically are .250" neck diameter and my runout is typically < .002". Any input from someone who has used their brass in 223 Rem would be helpfull.

i am out of town on vacation but I can do this for you if you'd like when i get back next week. I have some 223 starline brass that i prepped and primed. FYI, I do run all my new brass through and expander mandrel.

I buy Starline brass regularly, it's good quality brass. Catches more crap for being a "cheap" brand then it deserves. I just pulled out 5 random pieces and tested 4 sides of each piece and got 0.0131 - 0.0135 ... about 80% of the readings were 0.0131. This is straight out of a bag of brass I received a few months ago and haven't done anything with yet - well, pieces that I haven't done anything with yet.. I've processed about half of what I ordered, but this is from the remaining untouched pieces.

Thanks HenryL for the measurement and Korean Redneck for the offer. This answers my question. It's strange though as I decided to give Starline a call and talked to someone called Hunter. He told be the neck wall thickness runs .0115" - .012" which would be a little thinner than I would like to deal with. Hopefully he was thinking about some other cartridge than the 223 Rem ? I prefer to not use the expander button in my type S Redding resizing die. With a .013" neck thickness I use a .248" bushing and this keeps my runout on reloaded rounds under .002" max. Most are .001" and under. The runout numbers I am quoting are referenced off the bullet and after using a slight taper crimp. My fired cases out of a NATO chamber typically have a neck diameter of .255" to .2555". When I use the expander button my runout increases to as much as .005" runout.

I just hope Starline holds the .013" thickness that HenryL quoted for their different production runs of the 223 Rem brass.

This is actually my first brass of this caliber from Starline, so I don't have any other brass from them from other productions to compare to but that would be interesting to know, esp. given the recent info their support provided to you. Would be interested to see if KR's 223 brass is the same.

I can say that other Starline brass that I have for other calibers, where I have had ordered the same brass from them previously - It's all been the same specs... Starline brass that I have a bunch of from multiple production runs would be:

Rifle: 30-30, 308, 300 BLK, 7.62x39, and 6.5 CM
Pistol: 9MM Luger, 40S&W, 45 Auto, and 45 Schofield

Thus far it's all been consistent over batches for me.

I try to buy good brass from the get-go and usually base my selection on what I have experienced myself or word of mouth, and do not measure components before use other than routine brass prep (unless some unusual problem crops up). That said, I've never had any issue with Starline brass and I've used plenty of it. I bought Starline's .223 brass as soon as I saw it available some years back and it did not disappoint me. I was able to achieve 5-shot sub-half MOA groups in both rifles I use it in--which is my standard--without any drama. Lapua may be better brass, but if it is I think you'd have to be a pretty good shooter, shooting a pretty damned fine rifle to see the difference. I doubt my rifles or myself qualify in that regard.

First of all, I got stuck in Tulsa an extra day because of flight issues.

Turns out I have both 223 and 308 starline brass. Both have been ran through an expander mandrel and primed. No other prep I've noted. I measure 2 sides of the case mouth and got rhe following results.

For 223
1) 0.0125. 0.0130
2) 0.0128. 0.0132
3) 0.0121. 0.0134
4) 0.0130. 0.0120
5) 0.0128. 0.0128
Ave 0.0126. 0.01129


For 308
1) 0.0150. 0.0144
2) 0.0152. 0.0150
3) 0.0149. 0.0142
4) 0.0144. 0.0153
5) 0.0153. 0.0147
Ave 0.0150. 0.01147