45/70 brass, which to buy?

[koger]

I currently have 7-45/70’s and 8 molds, and doing a lot of load development and when I find a load that is a tack driver I like to load up 50-100 rds, which is running me low on brass. I am considering buying several hundred rounds of brass, anyone have any feedback on starline brass, pros and cons, have seen a few negative comments in the past. I have had good luck with both Winchester and Remington brass! All feedback welcome!

[RedlegEd]

Hi. I use Starline brass and I really like it. I bought 100 cases of nickel brass for my blackpowder (I can tell at a glance it's for BP,) and 250 cases of yellow brass for smokeless loads. One thing I do now that makes a difference is to anneal and size the brass before using. Before I did this, I had a few that didn't chamber properly. If you are buying 250+, I'd recommend buying directly from Starline. Hope this helps. Ed

[Tatume]

I use Starline exclusively. Also don't anneal them, as I've never had a problem. They hold up well to long use.

[marlinman93]

I've used Remington brass for decades. Haven't bought any in recent years as the stuff I have has never lost a case. I'm feeding five .45-70's with my brass.

[Kraschenbirn]

Was shooting .45-70 long before I stumbled across the forum and all my brass is either Remington (yellow) or Starline (nickel). Remington stuff gets used (mostly) for BP 'cause it has a squinch more capacity...like, maybe, 2 gr. of FFg...and the Starline for smokeless. Btw, I didn't buy the nickel Starline because it was nickel, I bought it because I snagged it at a good price from a fellow who'd just sold his Marlin 1895.

Bill

[MT Chambers]

W-W brass holds quite a bit more powder than the R-p stuff, but I have used all 3 and had no troubles.

[country gent]

I have used Starline, Rem, Win, and Norma 45-70 brass in my rifles. I prefer the starline brass then win rem and last norma. Te rem cases I have are slightly less capacity than the Starline and ww. I load strictly BP in 45-70 and do anneal cases. I also deburr flash holes and uniform primer pockets. O have noticed mt trimmer cuts smoother and a nicer chip in the Starline cases. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a couple hundred starline cases and use them

[Don McDowell]

Hornady brass is fast becoming my favored, followed by Remington.

[pworley1]

I have never had a problem with any of the mentioned brass, I usually buy which ever is cheapest when I need it.

[EDG]

I really dislike Starline brass because it needs to be annealed before I can use it the first time. However in .45-70 I have never had a case with damage or a manufacturing defect.

I have been using RP and WW brass for numerous 45-70s since 1972.
I like both brands. Between the 2 brands I have a few cases short of 1000 in 45-70.

I use WW, RP and FC reformed to 40-65 Win. These cases all need annealing after forming. I have about 450 of the reformed cases. RP annealed cases give the best accuracy in my rifle.

I also use Starline factory formed 40-65 brass in my rifle. Again the very hard Starline cases need to be annealed before use. I only have about 200 of these. Starline has problems forming these hard cases so I have been finding about 1 in 20 cases with forming defects. Starline has always been very nice to me and replaced the defective cases in about 2 to 3 days. I don't really get disturbed by these defects since they are not real easy for me to form either.

I also use WW and Starline in .38-55. Both are very good but the small SAAMI chambers work better with the thin Starline brass. All Starline cases (about 50) have been good. About 1 in 50 WW cases have defects. I have about 400 WW cases in .38-55.

In .50-70 Govt I have about 250 Starline cases. They also need annealing. All cases have been free of defects in workmanship.

[marlinman93]

Starline only recommends annealing necks if you shoot black powder in their brass. No issues or suggestion to anneal if you shoot smokeless.

[rfd]

i load bp in .45-70 starline brass and have never had a need to anneal new or fire formed cases. i have annealed starline before reforming the brass for a PPB chamber, though even that proved unnecessary and maybe even counterproductive.

[koger]

Thanks for all the feed back guys, I have never ha any problems with neck's cracking, never annealed any brass either. I have a bunch of Rem/Win/Federal and a few Starline, seems I had read some issues with Starline having too thick a rims on a forum, now to bargain hunt for brass!

[EDG]

Starline's generalization is wrong.
I use only smokeless specifically SR4759 loaded to BP velocities. As a result there is excessive soot and and leaking gas around the case necks with Starline brass.

Starline only recommends annealing necks if you shoot black powder in their brass. No issues or suggestion to anneal if you shoot smokeless.

[country gent]

I use starline brass in 38-55, 44-40, 38-55, 45-70 and 45-90 all loaded with soft cast bullets and BP.

[rmcc]

+1 for Starline!! I weigh my cases and sort by finding batches that are closest in weight. Starline wins this contest EVERY time!!

[EDG]

I have sorted brass for many different calibers. It is an educational process that permits you to learn a bit about the uniformity of your brass. To make the best use of the data you need to sort and graph the brass by weight. This will allow you to examine the shape of the distribution.

Any time you buy a lot of loose brass not sealed in the original bag you may be buying culled brass. Culled brass is the left overs after sorting the brass and picking out the most uniform cases from the middle of the distribution. Often the highs and lows are sold off and you will wind up buying those culled cases.

[marlinman93]

Every box of Starline I've purchased is in a cardboard box loose. So I guess all Starline brass is culled cases?

[EDG]

Even new brass in a sealed bag has the potential for being from multiple lots. If you weigh the brass and graph it you should get a normal distribution with one hump.
If you get a bimodal distribution with 2 humps you have 2 different lots of brass.
Just weighing everything and taking an average robs you of visualizing the shape of the distribution.

Every box of Starline I've purchased is in a cardboard box loose. So I guess all Starline brass is culled cases?

[Road_Clam]

I load for 11 different calibers and Starline, PPU , Hornady are excellent rugged brass choices. Brass to potentially avoid (soft primer pockets ) is FC and newer Rem .