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Cheaper alternative to lapua 223 brass???

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Baron85

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Looking for some recommendations for a cheaper alternative to my lapua brass? I have 500 pieces of 223 lapua that I would like to set aside for match ammo and then load some cheaper brass and bullets in bulk for positional shooting and prarie dogs. Have tons of 55gn bullets that shoot great and are cheap I just hate having the lapua brass broke up into 2 different loads/lots.

I was thinking starline if its decent, any feedback or other suggestions? Looking to pick up atleast 500 maybe 1k so I’m not loading all the time for pdogs and practice. Would be nice to have a bucket of loaded ammo.
 
Any recommendations for good places to buy it that would be matching year or am I going to have to weight sort or sort by headstamp?
 
Winchester does my 55 grain PD loads great at 3200 fps
Hornady holds up to 3050 fps w a 75 ELD

I recently switched TO Lapua for more consistent velocities for my long range ELD load but will keep using win/hor for my AR15 loads
 
I've been pretty happy that far with my starline 223. I got it for $160/500

I've shot it in 6.5cm for years and just started with .223 for the same reason as you. I have about that many lapua as well but I'd like to keep them foe bolt gun only, so I bought 1000 starline new from this place I found and have been very happy. I did some H20 testing and got my speed identia to lapua with .1gr leas powder using TAC.

Had some anomalies with grouping but not related to starline brass really just a different neck tension and some other things I overlooked but the brass is great and now if I miss one or two I don't feel bad it and waste 30 min of range time trying to find one or two missing cases...

Also, another poster here showed me that starline also makes 556 brass.
 
I think a popular choice is going to be once fired LC. Back in the day when brass was everywhere you could even find new LC. I hate removing the crimps on the once fired LC so I just buy once fired PMC.
 
rweaver00geo said:
I think a popular choice is going to be once fired LC. Back in the day when brass was everywhere you could even find new LC. I hate removing the crimps on the once fired LC so I just buy once fired PMC.
Click to expand...

You can buy LC and starline brass new. LC is like $95/ 500. No reason to go through the task of removing crimps imo
 
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www.creedmoorsports.com

Starline .223 Rem Brass Cases

Starline .223 Rem Brass Cases 100ct Starline Brass .223 Remington (Small Rifle primer) .223 Rem, .223, 5.56, 5.56mm Nato, 5.56x45mm 1.745 - 1.750 O.A.L. The .223 Remington is one of the most widely used centerfire cartridges today. Tracing its roots back to the .222 Remington, the...
www.creedmoorsports.com
 
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Okay, thought you were meaning new LC at that price. This stuff looks to require full prepping, not a big deal and fair price. But new stuff that cheap I’d be all over.
 
mjspeers said:
Okay, thought you were meaning new LC at that price. This stuff looks to require full prepping, not a big deal and fair price. But new stuff that cheap I’d be all over.
Click to expand...

It looks like some things have changed or something. I could have sworn they did. I bought 1000 new starline from them and only the primed new starline is showing up now. I thought they had new LC too. I guess I am mistaken, but i thought they had LC brass you could buy that didnt need to be processed. Now I don't even see the starline i bought listed so maybe thay happened with the LC too? Might have sold out for now.

Creedmore has new starline for the same price though. I know some prefer LC for durability.
 
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I'm a pretty big fan of Starline brass for general use. Testing a bunch of virgin cases in both 6.5 Grendel and Creedmoor showed consistency that wasn't far behind my Lapua stuff.

I've bought and used several thousand LC cases in .223/5.56 over the years. In my experience, I had better luck doing all of the prep myself (swaging the primer pocket, trimming etc...), and the result was fewer unexpected fliers... not that there were many anyway. However, that stuff was going cheap enough for fully prepped 1x fired cases that I did pick up another thousand for my gas guns.

I'm sitting on a bunch of Norma too, currently loaded with 55gr FMJ. At some point I'll give those a try.
 
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Which has the best primer pocket durability with warmish 223 Ackley loads, or are they all about the same? My LC 17 isn't holding up too well. < am looking at backing the load down, and currently testing old stock lapua in same>
 
I’ve been really happy with the 1000 cases of Starline 5.56 brass I bought. on the 4th loading of the first 500. Most of it had been loaded pretty warm with 85.5gr Berger and 8208
 
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DIBBS said:
Which has the best primer pocket durability with warmish 223 Ackley loads, or are they all about the same? My LC 17 isn't holding up too well. < am looking at backing the load down, and currently testing old stock lapua in same>
Click to expand...
223AI is tough on primer pockets. I've gone through a batch of Winchester brass and have moved on to Lapua.
 
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Baron85 said:
Looking for some recommendations for a cheaper alternative to my lapua brass? I have 500 pieces of 223 lapua that I would like to set aside for match ammo and then load some cheaper brass and bullets in bulk for positional shooting and prarie dogs. Have tons of 55gn bullets that shoot great and are cheap I just hate having the lapua brass broke up into 2 different loads/lots.

I was thinking starline if its decent, any feedback or other suggestions? Looking to pick up atleast 500 maybe 1k so I’m not loading all the time for pdogs and practice. Would be nice to have a bucket of loaded ammo
Click to expand...

Lake city, i don’t know how many thousands of LC 556 I have just picked up off the ground, free once fired brass goes a long way, it’s actually pretty good too
 
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like with most things we are going to be using the brass that we shot from hornady and others for the 223 . I am doing that now with the creedmoor now and the allotted brass I am using is on it's 9th reload and still going also without annealing yet w have an annealer but have not used it as of yet . figured Id run the next group of brass that way and see if there really is any difference for myself .
 
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I’ve bought a fair bit of Australian outback ammo and more recently ADI branded 223. The Aussie outback stuff had a different headstamp and measures out more consistently than lapua and has a little more case capacity. My buddy has been raving about it for a while and I’m going to start reloading it soon. Pre-Covid 400 rounds of Aussie outback 223 with 55 SBKs and extruded ADI temp stable powder was $200.

Unfortunately it seems they only sell the ammo under ADI label now and the brass doesn’t seem quite as consistent. You can still get the loaded ADI loaded ammo with 55 SBK or 69 SMK for cheaper than lapua component brass. I see no reason to buy component brass when I can make it out of such cheap factory ammo.
 
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If some one covered your eyes and gave you Lapua and say PMC brass both annealed would you know the difference when you fired them without looking. Annealing is the voodoo to making a level playing field brass wise. 2C.
 
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BuildingConceptsllc said:
It looks like some things have changed or something. I could have sworn they did. I bought 1000 new starline from them and only the primed new starline is showing up now. I thought they had new LC too. I guess I am mistaken, but i thought they had LC brass you could buy that didnt need to be processed. Now I don't even see the starline i bought listed so maybe thay happened with the LC too? Might have sold out for now.

Creedmore has new starline for the same price though. I know some prefer LC for durability.
Click to expand...
New virgin LC brass has not been sold from the factory in more than 5 years as far as I am aware.

If it has popped up within that timeframe, it has been sitting someplace.

It remains to be seen if the new operating hosts see fit to sell any virgin brass to the general public.
 
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RegionRat said:
New virgin LC brass has not been sold from the factory in more than 5 years as far as I am aware.

If it has popped up within that timeframe, it has been sitting someplace.

It remains to be seen if the new operating hosts see fit to sell any virgin brass to the general public.
Click to expand...
I will have to look. I think the last new LC brass I bought is stamped 18. Which was the last time i saw new for sale right about 5 years ago now.

I like LC brass, 1x or new. Its usually cheap, and its decent brass.

I didn't like LC 1x until I bought a stand alone tool to swage out the primer crimp. Now i question if I would even buy new, it would have to be a pretty good price anyway.
 
  1. I took some weights of the norma 223 rem brass (made in Sweden) I have for sale for anyone interested. Random sample of 20 cases in grains
  2. Standard Deviation, s: 0.2425739171122 Count,
  3. N: 20 Sum,
  4. Σx: 1833.8 Mean,
  5. x̄: 91.69 Variance,
  6. s2: 0.058842105263157
  7. Sample: 91.7, 91.4, 91.8, 91.9, 91.6, 91.7, 91.8, 91.6, 91.8, 91.4, 91.7, 91.5, 91.8, 91.2, 91.4, 91.9, 91.8, 91.9, 92.3, 91.6
I can't post it for sale outside the px, but you can check it out at our website: RavenRocksPrecision.com
 
RegionRat said:
New virgin LC brass has not been sold from the factory in more than 5 years as far as I am aware.

If it has popped up within that timeframe, it has been sitting someplace.

It remains to be seen if the new operating hosts see fit to sell any virgin brass to the general public.
Click to expand...

Yeah I misfired on that. I should have said virgin starline and LC brass you can buy, which is once fired. I prefer the virgin starline.
 
I think the reason most people like LC brass is because it holds up to hot loads.

I've been shooting a lot of mil FC brass lately because I was given buckets of it. The newer headstamps weigh super consistent, but the brass is soft. A hot load will kill the primer pockets in 1 or 2 firings so I turn it down a notch and get 4 or 5 firings out of it.
 
I just came across a sale of (750) pieces of new Starline .223 brass. I paid about a third of what I also just shelled out for 5K Federal GM205MAR 😐. I think I'm set for a while on components for my trainer build at least though.

It isn't Lapua brass, but it is .50 cents cheaper per case. Like I said in an above post a while ago; I've had good results with Starline brass in 6.5 Creedmoor and Grendel.

I had good results with LC brass in the past too, although I was running it hard and only getting 3 reloadings per.
 
if LC 223 brass is anything like the 308 brass i have.... trimming is beyond a task.
I guess i will be the first person to suggest Nosler Custom brass. currently instock at Midway for the same price as PV
 
So, just sitting here, screwing around with some virgin Starline .223 cases and decided to take a few measurements:

I did not include case weights, or H20 capacity. Those are important figures, but all I have at my disposal at this desk is a caliper and headspace gauge. I'll probably do the weights within the next few days.

Measured a sample of 20, randomly pulled out of the bag.

-Average length was 1.747, ES of .003, and SD of .0009.

-Average headspace was 1.458 * but the datum point is lower on the shoulder in my case (my smallest insert is the A330), with an ES of .002, and SD of only .0004. 17 of the 20 cases were 1.458, with one at 1.457 and two at 1.459.

-Average primer pocket depth was .1189 with another ES of .003, but the SD was only .0007.

So not too bad for brass that was .30 cents per. It might not pass the benchrest sniff test, but for informal target shooting my money is that it is going to be a pretty solid option.

FWIW, my 6.5 Creedmoor Starline Brass had an H20 weight ES of .4gr and an SD of .158gr. My 6.5 Grendel's H20 weight ES was .3gr (with maybe one far outlier) and SD was .112gr...So I'm kind of expecting weights to be pretty good with the .223 stuff too.
 
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diggler1833 said:
So, just sitting here, screwing around with some virgin Starline .223 cases and decided to take a few measurements:

I did not include case weights, or H20 capacity. Those are important figures, but all I have at my disposal at this desk is a caliper and headspace gauge. I'll probably do the weights within the next few days.

Measured a sample of 20, randomly pulled out of the bag.

-Average length was 1.747, ES of .003, and SD of .0009.

-Average headspace was 1.458 * but the datum point is lower on the shoulder in my case (my smallest insert is the A330), with an ES of .002, and SD of only .0004. 17 of the 20 cases were 1.458, with one at 1.457 and two at 1.459.

-Average primer pocket depth was .1189 with another ES of .003, but the SD was only .0007.

So not too bad for brass that was .30 cents per. It might not pass the benchrest sniff test, but for informal target shooting my money is that it is going to be a pretty solid option.

FWIW, my 6.5 Creedmoor Starline Brass had an H20 weight ES of .4gr and an SD of .158gr. My 6.5 Grendel's H20 weight ES was .3gr (with maybe one far outlier) and SD was .112gr...So I'm kind of expecting weights to be pretty good with the .223 stuff too.
Click to expand...
I've weighed 50 at random and been very happy as well. There's a YouTube video of a guy who did pretty good capacity testing and Starline barely outdid lapua in that one metric. It's pretty dang good brass for the money IMO. I shoot it in 6.5cm and have for a while now and just started with .223 and am very happy thus far. I've got 8 loads on about 500 6.5cm cases and no sign of any issue.
 
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BuildingConceptsllc said:
I've weighed 50 at random and been very happy as well. There's a YouTube video of a guy who did pretty good capacity testing and Starline barely outdid lapua in that one metric. It's pretty dang good brass for the money IMO. I shoot it in 6.5cm and have for a while now and just started with .223 and am very happy thus far. I've got 8 loads on about 500 6.5cm cases and no sign of any issue.
Click to expand...

I think it was on the "Bolt Action Reloading" channel. I've watched that video a couple times. 😄

Lapua did better, but Starline was pretty impressive.
 
Kadams1563 said:
Anywhere to buy processed once fired lake city?
Click to expand...

Hahaha I'm processing about 15k to run in my Super 1050 as we speak because I cant find anymore processed ready to load.

I was getting primed new pulled LC from American but they are OOS... just ran my last 2000 on my XL650 before switching 5.56 loading over to my new 1050.

Gotta clean and process myself now....

 
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MTRecon said:
There are a number of places that sell processed LC if you search for it. Last time I checked they were all out of stock. Also, LC isn't as plentiful now that the military scraps their brass.
Click to expand...

Good thing I have a metric ton of 1xLC.. I just wasn't using it because I was getting 1x fully processed ready to load for cheap for so long...
 
Yep, the good Ole days...I'm 100 miles from a base and they used to auction it off by the semi truck load.

Fortunately, local law enforcement uses allot of it in their M4s so I now get it that way.
 
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