Starline / IMI / CBC 44 mag & 44 special brass

I have become the owner of several hundred once fired cases in 44 mag and 44 special. Multiple brands, some of which I've not used before. Always had Winchester, Remington, Federal, and some PMC in both 44 mag and special. Are these other brands good cases or are any like the old 45 ACP AMERC, not made very well?

Really don't need them, probably have a lifetime supply already. Wondering how they would hold up under a steady diet of heavy H110 & 265 - 300 grain boolits. I never mix headstamps when loading.

Comments - Opinions - Experience

You can't go wrong with Starline IMO. I've noticed tight primer pockets in CBC (althought in 9mm, no .44)

All decent reloadable brass. Starline is my go to. CBC I believe is Brazilian and IMI is Israeli.

I shot a lot of IMI .44 Mag ammo about thirty years ago, I wasn't set up to load .44's at the time, but it seemed like good brass.

Starline is good.

CBC I never had any.

Robert

Thanks for the replies. Good friend of mine getting set up to load for 44 mag, so 200 pcs of Starline going to him. I've had 2 or 3 pcs of IMI & CBC before but now at least a hundred each. Got all of it sorted out this morning and put away. Going to set all my other aside for now and run the IMI, CBC, & Frontier until it fatigues. Probably will do as well the Winchester, Remington, Federal, & PMC I've been using.

My Ruger Super Blackhawk never a problem, however, my Rossi doesn't like it when I change brass. I've had several split cases, so I only use Starline in the Rossi and now I'm good to go.

Can't go wrong with Starline or IMI. I know one silhouette shooter that all his competitive loads were in IMI 44 Magnum brass.

CBC, I had no issues with in 9 mm.

Winelover

Although I too, am a Starline fan, the reason I went to all of their brass is having cases with the exact same length. When I mixed W-W, Remington, and lord knows what other brands, I wound up adjusting the crimp die during the reloading process. It is a blessing to have all your cases the same length to start with.

If I hit the powerball tomorrow, I'd likely ditch all the brass I have and buy 1000 new Starline cases for everything.

As it is, Remington, Winchester, Mil, etc. is "good enough".

I will say I've got a hundred pieces of .45 Colt CBC brass that has been loaded 7 or 8 times with 9.0 grains of H-Universal and either a 454424 or a 270SAA and it is still rocking along with snug primer pockets and no neck splits.

Starline is considered the gold standard of brass cases. You can't go wrong with it. CBC is also excellent stuff and every bit as good as Rem, Fed, etc. Not much experience with IMI, but I have used its Israeli cousin TZZ brass. All of it is good brass and will last you a long time.

I like Starline, bought a bunch of 357, 44, and 45 Colt recently.

Starline is decent brass, but it is a long shot from being called a gold standard. Blindly saying how great it is, will make it longer before Starline realizes where they need improvement. It is thick brass, and can last a long time, that is the good. They also seem to have very consistent primer pockets. The bad is their annealing, they only do it at the start to draw the brass, never after this. The internet is stuffed with reports of Starline brass splitting, which of course many jump on that person for doing something wrong. I've had problems with consistent neck tenstion in all calibers of Starline brass that I have tried, and it is frustrating. I have also had problems with it splitting.

Is Starline better than CBC, PSU, A merc, etc.? Absolutely. Is it as good as Winchester or Federal? No, plain and simple it is not.

My experience with starline, is that in 44 magnum it's short. I had some that didn't measure to the trim to length by .002. I trim 44 magnum brass for a consistent crimp, so I noticed. Other than that I have no complaints.

I'm not super experienced with CBC, but what I've loaded in other calibers I liked it. If I had a quantity of it you better believe I'd load it.

I've loaded IMI in 38 special and had no complaints.

MSM mentions split case mouths. I had bought 500 nickel 41 Mag pieces. 1/3 split by the time it was shot the second time. I called Starline and was told was normal for the nickel brass. Haven’t bought any more from them (nickel). Their other brass has been good to go. Splits no more or less than other quality brands in my experience. I was not aware of their annealing practices.

Yes, Starline trims to the very minimum SAMMI specification in every cartridge I've seen, plus their tolerance, and some can end up even shorter. Then after firing, they are even shorter yet. This is more an annoyance than anything.

As for the nickel cases, I've never had anything that bad, but nickel cases are definitely inferior to plain brass. I don't know why people buy them, but they pay more for them, so I'm happy to sell. I only use plain brass myself. The worst splitting problem I had was 327 federal, and I ended up loosing about 1 in 25. This was a commination of poor quality brass from Starline, a sizing die that sizes to minimum spec, and high pressures on top of that. I made great improvements by sizing with a Lee carbide FCD, and only "neck" sizing the cases, and this more or less cured the problem. I've never had a Federal brand case split in this cartridge, even fully sizing them.

I've loaded nickel plated CCI 357 Magnum brass (from Lawman line) so many times that the plating was almost gone. No issues with split necks. Same with S&W nickel brass (38 Special) from their line of ammunition. Still using that brass. IIRC, it's +P.

Winelover

After many years of loading with most of the common pistol cartridges my first choice for uniformity and longevity is Starline.

I just acquired some Hornady 44 magnum brass. Course they use two lengths, regular and short for their FTX bullets. Not sure how I'm going to attack that yet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by murf205

Although I too, am a Starline fan, the reason I went to all of their brass is having cases with the exact same length. When I mixed W-W, Remington, and lord knows what other brands, I wound up adjusting the crimp die during the reloading process. It is a blessing to have all your cases the same length to start with.

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For shame, for shame, FOR SHAME! You are supposed to not trim and sort that stuff, don’t you know? LOL!

You know just as I have found that it goes a lot smoother to batch according to headstamp. As you point out, crimping and such just goes better, etc.

To the OP, I like large enough batches of different head stamps so I can identify different loads which use the same bullet by the cartridges markings. I have good luck with CBC and really like Starline. I have no experience with IMI but what do the Israelis do that is third rate? So I would assume it’s good stuff as well.

Enjoy

Three44s