After a year of few hogs on the ranch (you hate them when they are here and are bored when the boars are no here), my place all of a sudden was loaded with hogs. So, it was time to get busy.Ranch Dog wrote:From a post dated 07 Oct 2016... I've started using Starline's long (2.125") 38-55 Win brass in my 375 Win with my TLC379-235-RF cast bullet. That cartridge has an enormous amount of freebore cut into the chamber and short brass, an effort to relieve chamber pressure, but that also makes the cartridge a lousy cast bullet shooter. The 375 Win sizing die is too short for the 38-55 Win long brass. Rather than rob my 38-55 Win set of its die, I simply wanted another sizing die and not a whole set of 38-55 Win dies.
I haven't been doing much reloading; I decided to shoot put much of the ammo I have in storage, anything that has been sitting over two years. I had just started in on my Marlin 375 when the hogs appeared and immediately had success.
My wife walks every day and had some problems with a sow, not letting her down the road. I went back out and did see her, but it was now several hours later. I told her that when I got back from patrol the following day, I would take her walk and wanted her to stay at home. Sure as the sun comes up, I'm about 300 yards from the house at 4:00 pm and there is the sow giving guff. I busted her with the Marlin 375 and about 35 yards.
The hog killing came on hard and then the Marlin choked, a Starline case split and separated in the chamber. The failure was my third strike with Starline, but I wasn't surprised honestly. I left the pasture, got the case out, and cleaned up the chamber. I went through the ten or so remaining rounds and found a couple with light splits at the case mouth and disassembled the cartridges. The Starline 38-55 Win Long brass is very thin at the case mouth, after being fired two times they mic .007" thick.
So it is what it is, and it was back out there to shoot hogs with the remaining cartridges. I'm starting to stalk a hog in about 1:00 in the morning and remember that the rifle was at the rack by the back door of my house, unloaded, so I slowly chamber a cartridge. It doesn't feel right, and it isn't. I can't figure it out in the dark, so I head back to the house, hog opportunity lost.
What happened is that as the cartridge comes up the lifter and starts into the chamber, the case bends. Yep, a dimple in the case begins below the bullet base, and if you continue to actuate the lever, the case collapses and the bullet tears through the side of the case.
It happened again on a reload out in the dark, trying to shoot a second hog. Luckily it was running from me and not toward me.
The Marlin 375 is one application where I like the Starline brass. The long brass solves a cast bullet problem with Marlin's chambered in 375 Win; eliminating a heck of a bullet jump. I've looked for an alternative for the long brass, and the only thing that I've come up with are cases that Buffalo Arms makes for this need from 303 British brass. Unfortunately, they are costly. I did anneal the cases after the second time fired and that no doubt was a mistake. I think annealing is a mistake with any Starline brass from my experience. What I'm going to do is continue with the Long Starline and chuck it or leave it in the field after the second firing.
I moved on to the Ruger Mini 30 shooting the Speer 123-grain #2213, and it has taken four hogs in six nights. I want to run this stock of ammunition down as the Speer bullet was discontinued, but I now have the PPU 123-grain B210 on hand . That bullet looks identical to the Speer, but the PPU has a cannelure.