Starline Brass - Handloader

Guns Magazine, August, 2003 by Charles E. Petty

One of the neatest stories for shooters and reloaders is the rise of Starline Brass. It is hard to overstate the effect they have had on our sport.

Starline began in 1976 when Bob Hayden and Frank Snow, both from Sierra Bullets, recognized a need for brass that was not being met by the major manufacturers. They didn't want to sell brass in the first place and generally only sold it when they had over-runs. Starline was incorporated in 1976 and began the process of acquiring equipment and making tools. "Frank Snow was a wizard with machinery," said Barbara Hayden, CFO of Starline. They sold their first piece of .38 Special brass in 1978.

Starline's market was to smaller commercial loaders such as Zero Bullet Co., Pro Load Ammunition and Master Cartridge. But they were also the secret supplier of cases to some of the major manufacturers who simply didn't have enough capacity or, more commonly, only needed relatively small quantities of a specific case. Starline always has, and will today, make brass with custom headstamps. So if I wanted to have some, "Charlie's .45 ACP" and was willing to order 100,000 pieces I could.

Providential Meeting

But the course of reloading as we know it was set when Bob Hayden of Starline and Larry Potterfield of Midway got together. Midway Arms was a small gun shop that was doing a brisk business in 8mm Nambu ammunition loaded in reformed brass. Potterfield wanted Starline to make some brass for him.

According to Potterfield they couldn't do that, but they did have some .357 Magnum brass if he was interested. An ad in Shotgun News produced a demand far greater than expected and the business of selling bulk brass was born.

Of course this didn't happen overnight, but gradually Starline added more and more cases to their product line. And, seemingly all at once, the public learned their name. In a way Starline had been one of the industry's best kept secrets because much of their work was done for the big ammo companies and did not bear the distinctive Starline *--* headstamp. The first time I saw it was in the earliest 10mm ammo that Federal made for the FBI's development of their new service pistol.

Starline and Sierra moved to Sedalia, Mo., and operate out of separate buildings next door to one another. Gradually new calibers were added to the catalog and then they went public and small ads began to appear. With that came direct sales to the consumer which continue today.

If The Demand Is There...

The coolest thing is their willingness to manufacture cases for cartridges that are either obsolete or nearly so. I learned this after spending several months forming .30 Mauser cases from 9mm Winchester Magnum brass. The article was about loading the Mauser so you could shoot the abundant new supply of Broomhandle Mauser pistols coming from China. Just as I completed the work I learned that Starline was to sell brass. Just bad timing on my part I guess.

The other thing Starline does is work with smaller amino companies in the development of new cartridges. They are also responsive to what customers want, and the huge demand generated by the blossoming Cowboy matches has led them to make a whole range of obsolete and semi-obsolete cases for this trade. Examples include .32-20 Winchester, .38 Short and Long Colt, .38-40, .44-40, .41 Colt, .44 Russian, .44 Colt and .45 S&W (Schofield).

The availability of brass for these oldies makes it possible to shoot some vintage guns that might otherwise be neglected. Recently they've begun to make some cases for old black powder rifles in .40-65, .45-70, .45-90 and .45-100, which will breathe new life into lots of nice old Winchesters.

Starline's business is bulk brass so if you just want a small quantity they can't help you. Most calibers are sold in packages of 500 although the rifle cases and some such as .38-40 and .44-40 are sold in packages of 250. That really isn't too many for most of us.

Indication Of Quality

To me the best measure of the quality of a piece of brass is how easy it is to load and how long it lasts. Much to my chagrin, I rarely keep track of the number of times I load a piece of handgun brass. However, I shoot .44 Special and .45 Colt quite a bit for fun and haven't lost a single piece of the original 500 that have been around for a couple of years now. My best guess is that all have been loaded five times and some doubtless more.

Another, even more impressive accomplishment is with Starline's .38-40 and .44-40 brass. Everybody knows that those cases are quite thin at the mouth but there have been no losses there either. This says to me that they make good brass. And since they're celebrating their 25th Anniversary other folks must think so too.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Starline Brass

[800] 280-6660

www.starlinebrass.com