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Thread: Hey Starline, start making primers!

  1. #1
    The Brass Man Four-Sixty's Avatar
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    Hey Starline, start making primers!

    My email to Starline...

    Hello,

    I wish Starline would get into the primer business.

    I guess it'd take a year or two to begin production, but it would seem like producing primers would really be in your best interest.

    To your advantage, your company already produces many cartridge cases. A core part of your business are reloaders, people who do need primers to. Don't you think we reloaders would be excited to buy primers direct from Starline who has a reputation for both quality, and affordable prices?

    We know Starline already has extensive experience both forming and shaping brass. Your company can even nickel plate brass. So, I would expect the physical components of the primer would be no issue whatsoever from a technical standpoint for your company.

    I expect the hurdle would be mixing the priming compounds, and engineering the primers. But, this is not a new technology here. There are several companies domestically, and globally producing primers. Perhaps no domestic company would want to share, or license their technology. But, I bet there is a foreign company who'd be willing to sell their technology, perhaps even produce some machines that could be used to get a production line in the US started.

    If Starline were to take the steps to begin production of primers, I imagine they would compete with other ammunition manufacturers. Starline has to, though, consider that their business could always be at risk from larger ammunition manufacturers seeking to expand into the components business. So in other words, doesn't Starline face risk from inaction as well? Another benefit of being a source for primers is that Starline could also contract out their capacity to produce their primers making their partners, and consumers, happy. Win - win!

    I hope you'll take the leap. The shortage of primers is absurd. Not being able to get components, and even ammo, is not healthy for the shooting sports. For too long too many of the legacy ammunition manufacturers have been poorly run, or too risk adverse. I hope Starline will explore production of primers and continue to expand their offerings to reloaders.

    Sincerely,

    Chris
    "...journalism may be the greatest plague we face today - as the world becomes more and more complicated and our minds are trained for more and more simplification"
    Nassim Taleb
    'Fooled by Randomness'

  2. #2
    Boolit Master

    LUCKYDAWG13's Avatar
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    That would be great if they started making primers
    kids that hunt and fish dont mug old ladies

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master


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    I'd rather see them improve the quality of their handgun brass first.

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by megasupermagnum View Post
    I'd rather see them improve the quality of their handgun brass first.
    Yes Please, you'd think new brass would have a little more consistency.
    Cargo

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    What troubles have you experienced with their brass?

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master Bazoo's Avatar
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    I bought a bag of 44 mag, some of it was below the trim to length after sizing. Maybe most don't trim revolver brass but I do, at least the first time I load it. Now I am fraid to buy any more of their pistol brass.

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I wish they would make primers too. I'd order some with every case of brass.
    KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.

  8. #8
    Boolit Grand Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by Martin Luber View Post
    What troubles have you experienced with their brass?
    I can overlook the trim length. All the brass I've bought from them is a little shorter than the trim to length, and then gets shorter as you shoot it. It is a minor issue. The big issue is their brass hardness is way too inconsistent. You can take 2 pieces of brass from the same box, both sized, one a bullet seats in nice and light, the next you feel like you are shoving it in the wrong caliber. Same with expanding. Some expand easy, some get the expander stuck on them so bad, I've just about flipped the bench trying to get it back off.

    It is unfortunate. I want to like Starline, they are a good company, but better quality brass is out there.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    Is this a recent problem? My impression (from admittedly more than just a few years back) was that they made really top notch pistol brass.

  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master Bazoo's Avatar
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    I didn't see any inconsistency with the limited starline brass I've used.

  11. #11
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    tomme boy's Avatar
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    There are other companies other than the ones you all think of that make primers. Local reloader does not use the CCI,Fed, Win, Rem primers. He gets them in a 3.5K box. They are loose not packaged like we get. He says they are not available to the general public.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bazoo View Post
    I bought a bag of 44 mag, some of it was below the trim to length after sizing. Maybe most don't trim revolver brass but I do, at least the first time I load it. Now I am fraid to buy any more of their pistol brass.
    I haven't bought any Starline .44 Magnum brass for years after I stocked up on a couple thousand but had around 80 laying loose and measured them and agree some were short as in 1.270. Some were 1.275 however I DO know they weren't from the same lot.

  13. #13
    Boolit Buddy
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    Explosives manufacturing holds quite a few more specialized requirements then just extruding brass cases... major ones being remote controled production machine operation, stringent secure supply storage and distance between bermed facilities and magazines... There are just Tons of hoops to jump through.
    It would be much more logical for an existing explosives manufacturer to learn primer making, then a brass extruder learning explosives work.

  14. #14
    Boolit Man
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomme boy View Post
    There are other companies other than the ones you all think of that make primers. Local reloader does not use the CCI,Fed, Win, Rem primers. He gets them in a 3.5K box. They are loose not packaged like we get. He says they are not available to the general public.
    I would hope they aren't available to the general public and I'm surprised they're available to anyone, packaged like that.

  15. #15
    Boolit Buddy

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    Handloaders are a very small piece of the pie. Before Starline or anyone else begins production of primers they will need contracts from big business.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master
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    Nice thought, of course, but...

    A startup in the explosives business (especially primaries) is a major undertaking. Regulations, insurance, building and operational distance requirements, safety, training and housekeeping costs raise overheads into the ionosphere. You can’t just use anybody down at the hiring hall on your production line, either.

    I remember a maker of boosters for mining explosives hired a bunch of college kids for part-time summer jobs, and bought themselves an explosion that wrecked their plant and put them out of business. And that was pretty insensitive material, nowhere near a primer composition.

    When I was working, even in general hiring slumps and freezes, whenever somebody in the energetics biz retired, the drums would beat, the smoke signals would rise and the telephone wires would hum as headhunters called around for possible replacements. Anybody knowledgeable in that field is in a very rarefied specialty.

    So I would say that there is no chance of Starline going into the primer business.

    My pistol size brass from Starline has been confined to .32-20, .44-40 and .45 Colt. I haven’t measured, but haven’t been troubled in loading by length variations. Especially .32-20, where many batches from the major outfits are short, and all over the place in length.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    Short is seldom an issue, too long however....bad news.

    New brass can be too clean and it sticks and squeeks in the dies and has nconsistent seating and pull force. Internal and external lube is required.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by megasupermagnum View Post
    I can overlook the trim length. All the brass I've bought from them is a little shorter than the trim to length, and then gets shorter as you shoot it. It is a minor issue. The big issue is their brass hardness is way too inconsistent. You can take 2 pieces of brass from the same box, both sized, one a bullet seats in nice and light, the next you feel like you are shoving it in the wrong caliber. Same with expanding. Some expand easy, some get the expander stuck on them so bad, I've just about flipped the bench trying to get it back off.

    It is unfortunate. I want to like Starline, they are a good company, but better quality brass is out there.
    My perceptions were that this wasn't a hardness issue, but the new clean brass is "sticky". It can be more sticky depending on how it was handled or how the bullet was handled/treated. I have given new brass a light coat of "
    one shot" and it completely fixed the seating tension variability on the first loading. On subsequent loadings, have you still seen the issue? I have not seen any of the "sticky" problem on 1x fired brass run through the vibratory tumbler with corncob. I have also run the brass through the corncob tumbler to get rid of the "sticky" problem.

  19. #19
    Boolit Man
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    I've been using Starline brass since they first opened. Never had a problem with any of it, from .32-20 on up thru .45LC. Just wish they'd start making .405 Winchester brass.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    ive never run a piece of new starline brass though a sizing die or done anything else to it before loading. I have used starline brass for decades and never had a problem, but I'm just a hobbiest not a professional. I've always thought of their brass as about the best there is and at the same time the least expensive when bought direct from them.
    I'm betting right about now they are more concerned with keeping up with backorders and fulfilling their stock before doing anything else like maybe adding 35 Remington or 25-20 to the line up of offerings.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check