problem FL resizing starline brass

[A5BLASTER]

I have used Starline brass with 4 rifles now and haven't had the issue your having or that the company who made your upper says there is.

I feel you have a chamber issue.

I have been a member here a few years and I can't remember one time someone said they needed small base dies and shell holders for the grendel.

Do you have some pics of fired brass so we can see what your talking about.

[SCJim]

Eureka! I found the problem. There was a dumbass operating the press. I had picked the wrong die up and was attempting to resize using my universal depinning die. So now I get the Darwin award of the year I guess. Yesterday would have been a good day to stay in bed. The only upside would be that now I am sure my chamber is good. I went over every measurement on the SAMMI drawing using my calipers and micrometers on a fired case and all is well

[Jakal]

We were troubleshooting the operation not the operator!

Glad you got it figured out.

[Popeye212]

Anyone on here who says he hasn't made a mistake gets the Pinocchio award.

[Mad Charlie]

Now all we gotta do is figure out why that barrel maker says Starline is no good/won't work.

[LR1955]

According to a savvy AR friend of mine the use and need for small base dies is fairly common in AR match rifles. I guess that's why they make them, shrug. He figures there is 99.9% chance the SB die will cure the issue. My big question is how does it shoot? If I think a barrel won't shoot the way I want it to I replace it before it hits 500 rounds anyway. I have 4 factory Savage barrels sitting a corner that I need to sell. I know Criterions and Shilens shoot but even a custom barrel can be bad, I had one and the manufacturer replaced it with the best barrel I have ever shot

BTW Lee's internals are some of the best in the business. I use Redding bushings myself most of the time but have shot matches using brass that was body sized then the neck sized by Lee Collet neck dies. Very concentric ammo. Lees biggest problem in my opinion is their lock rings, I replace them as soon as I buy them.

SCJ:

A SB sizer won't have any effect on accuracy. It will wear out the web faster because it is working that part of the brass pretty severely. I never noticed a difference in brass life when using it with 7.62 or 5.56 but I also shot mostly Lake City which is thick brass.

It is not common in match rifles for someone to have to use SB dies. Many use them because they are either OCD or are scared that a piece of brass may not go into battery and then they have to go through the gyrations of a alibi string or lose time.

It is very common to use SB dies with the M-1A or when someone is trying to get some life out of brass shot from a machinegun. A body die also comes in handy when trying to get life out of MG brass. I have SB dies for 7.62 and 5.56. Also a body die for the Grendel and 7.62. I needed the body die because I bought a JD Jones Grendel sizer / bump die and seating die before anyone other than Lee was making Grendel dies and the sizer did not FL resize. So I would use the body sizer but found that it was only necessary for function once every six or eight shots with the Lapua brass.

Also had a M-70 Match Rifle that gave me fits trying to get it to chamber Lake City 7.62 brass that was fired out of bolt rifles. Real PITA that one. Ended up that I had to bump the LC brass pretty radically for it to go into battery easily. Didn't have to go through that process with Winchester brass. FL sizer, load, shoot. Maybe the LC stuff was rebounding too much after sizing. Not sure and didn't want to mess with it so stopped using it in that rifle.

LR55

[SCJim]

Now all we gotta do is figure out why that barrel maker says Starline is no good/won't work.

what he said was he had received one other complaint about the Starline not resizing correctly. Could have been a the reamer used to cut that chamber, the CNC equipment out of adjustment or simply operator error as in my situation. Over the years I have came to believe that shooters are like golfers, they tend to blame the equipment when in fact 99% of the errors are caused by the person holding the club or rifle

Since this is for a gas gun I won't be experimenting with neck tension so I am not overly concerned with getting a bushing die until I see how much runout I get with the Lee. I resized the Starline before loading and was getting .003 to .004. In my bolt rifle I like .001 or less so I may end up buying a Redding yet, depending on how much runout I get with once fired cases and see how accurate the rifle is

[Jeepster18_88]

I'm not a long range target shooter but I've never had a problem with Lee dies or starline brass in any gun. Early one I had SB dies because that's what RCBS said that I had to use. I was trimming after every shot. I got a Lee manual and read that it wasn't necessary and bought a set of their dies. It worked fine for my autoloaders and I haven't had to trim very often either. I've found no more run-out with the Lee dies than the conventional dies from other manufacturers either. I've had no problem getting sub MOA groups from my hunting rifles with the exception of the Winchester 30-30 brass because the neck thickness was paper thin on one side and very thick on the other. If I was shooting for max accuracy, max case life, or really long range, I but the best dies that I could. As far as function, I've never had a reason to replace a Lee die. I probably have close to 30 sets of them now.

[ricsmall]

The biggest problem with the early Lee Grendel dies was they were overworking the brass IIRC. I think that’s what LR55 reported years ago. Again, my memory hits foggy spots ow and then!!

[grayfox]

In interest of full disclosure I don't have any Lee dies but have heard reports of them over the years. If they are working for you, that's good. I have mostly rcbs and 2 hornady's, plus a couple of forster seating dies... they all work better than the shooter does that's for sure! For now I see no reason for me to change, unless I go to some bushing style stuff...
Glad the resizing issue you had is worked out.

[SCJim]

I tend to get all anal with by LR bolt gun ammo but went with Lee on the Grendel because A) I have also had great luck with their dies. All my handgun dies are Lee and have lasted for tens of thousands of rounds with no failures. B) The Lee Neck dies produce ammo that is every bit as concentric as a Redding S Bushing, problem is you have to FL resize with a Redding body die first if you shoot the same cartridge in more than one rifle so it requires one more step in the process. I actually tested that with 25 rounds of .260 Rem sized with a Lee Collet and 25 rounds sized with a Redding S bushing die. Then checked for concentricity with .005 dial indicator. Statistically the rounds sized with the Lee Collet were just as concentric as the rounds sized with the Redding. C) We are talking gas gun here not a single shot Panda action. A gas gun round gets a rough ride courtesy of the bolt up the feed ramp and the first part of that ride is trying to knock that bullet off perpendicular. Even if that round is perfect going into the magazine i doubt is still perfect when it gets in the chamber. When I get or build a 6.5 Grendel bolt gun and if I decide to use it in 300 and 600 competition I may upgrade the dies

[Popeye212]

Now all we gotta do is figure out why that barrel maker says Starline is no good/won't work.

ROFL...That will probably remain a secret.....

[Warlock]

I have a 264 Whatever small base die that I bought because I thought AR platform rifles kinda needed a SB die to function properly all the time.

No matter what lube or how much I used, I stuck both Hornady and Starline brass in the SB die.

When I didn't stick one in the die, the die would cut a rim around the brass about 1/16" above the case head.

I then purchased a regular 6.5G sizing die and have had no problem with the function in the AR platform.

I would be willing to send the SB die to anyone who would like to try it but I will say, the SB die didn't work for my reloading needs.

[SCJim]

I would be willing to send the SB die to anyone who would like to try it but I will say, the SB die didn't work for my reloading needs.

Thanks but I don't think I will need it now that I am using the correct die. Until the Grendel I had not used a Lee FL sizing die on rifle in 10 years on rifle. However I always decap with a Lee Universal Deprimer die before cleaning and sizing and the two dies look similar enough I just had a brain flactuation

[gwtx]

ROFL...That will probably remain a secret.....

I recently started with a Grendel, and had a problem FL sizing the brass. Not sure if it was Starline or Hornady or both. It was also "operator" error. I was not going all the way down with the lever on the press. Yes, it is a Lee, but I've been using it on 7 or 8 calibers for a number of years without a problem. I wonder if the Starline has a "tougher" web that makes it feel like the lever is all the way down. If I can remember, I'll check to see. I really like the Grendel, but at my age, learning new stuff takes a while