Bad brass?

[steve101610]

Tried fire forming some new starline brass today for my 223ai and the cases are cracking on the case body. This is brand new brass. I normally use lapua brass and have never had this issue. There was zero signs of pressure and the cases are not fully formed. The shoulder is still rounded a little. Is there a chance that I got a bad batch of brass or is there something I’m doing wrong?

 

[spife7980]

Without any actual tangible info on dimensions or load the answer to both is "yes, it could be bad brass" but also "yes, you are likely doing something wrong"

Get out your calipers and compare it all. Write the measurements down. Compare it to a reamer print.

 

[AllenOne1]

Give us some load data. This seems odd to have multiple pieces doing this but if it was formed with thin wall thickness in the lot. Who knows. I've had good luck with Starline brass that doesn't mean anything in your case.

 

[steve101610]

The load was 60gr vmax with 23 grs of 8208 touching the lands. The headspace was set to a stiff bolt close on the new brass.

 

[steve101610]

The chamber also has a very long freebore to seat 85.5 Berger’s at 2.090” to the ogive

 

[spife7980]

Id contact starline and see what they have to say.
You dont lok over pressure and the neck seems to be sealing based on sooting.
Maybe bisect a few cases and throw a micrometer on to see if its got thin or uneven walls or something.

 

[White_Shark]

Those look like slip plane defects from the forming process.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Cut a case in half at the middle of the crack so you can see the thickness of the brass.

 

[jetmd]

I would contact Starline and send them a couple of pieces to analyze.

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

Curious to see the answer to this one. I've had very good luck with starline in 6.5cm and so far with 223 but I haven't been using it that long for 223. Definitely would cut one in half with a Dremel and measure and would call starline

 

[RLinNH]

Following

 

[Gustav7]

I have also had great luck with Starline in multiple calibers, but I know they've been ramping up production to meet demand so maybe QC fell out a bit. I don't know of anyone with bad customer service experience so I'd give em a call and hopefully they should make it right

 

[steve101610]

I emailed Starline. Will wait and see what they say

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

Tried fire forming some new starline brass today for my 223ai and the cases are cracking on the case body. This is brand new brass. I normally use lapua brass and have never had this issue. There was zero signs of pressure and the cases are not fully formed. The shoulder is still rounded a little. Is there a chance that I got a bad batch of brass or is there something I’m doing wrong?

Is it possible that your cas hit in the chamber or maybe your die did that ans caused too tight a fit? It looks like the case mouth is a little bit curled back on the edges or something? Hard to tell from the pics and just a guess

 

[40cal]

I’ve encountered similar with a tight fit on the FL die that stretched the case thin. Excess friction was caused by media residue left on the cases from vibratory cleaning. A good wipe down before sizing fixed my problems.

 

[jetmd]

@steve101610
Did you hear anything back from Starline?

 

[steve101610]

@steve101610
Did you hear anything back from Starline?

Yes they said they haven’t had any issues with 223 brass and want this batch back so they can see what’s going on. They sent me a shipping label to ship them back and they are going to replace them. Excellent customer service so far

 

[Haney]

Yes they said they haven’t had any issues with 223 brass and want this batch back so they can see what’s going on. They sent me a shipping label to ship them back and they are going to replace them. Excellent customer service so far

Good to see they are standing behind their product and have interest in checking out the issue .

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

Good to see they are standing behind their product and have interest in checking out the issue .

Yeah that is nice to see. I honestly kind if expected exactly that from Starline. Good outfit in my experience