The idea came from a conversation at a baseball game in the mid-1970s. Robert Hayden had just become general manager of Sierra Bullets —another brand we distribute— and Frank Snow, Sierra’s former owner, had become his friend during the transfer. That night they decided to enter the cartridge-case business. They brought in Paul Knepp, Sierra’s die maker, bought surplus military machinery and installed it in a rented sheet-metal building in Covina, California. Starline Brass was incorporated in 1976: Snow supplied the machines, Knepp the tooling and Hayden the sales.

The first case was the .38 Special, followed by .45 ACP and 10 mm Auto. For years the company did not sell under its own name: it headstamped cases to order for Remington, Winchester, Federal and Midway Arms. The turning point was the FBI 10 mm contract won by Federal, when Starline moved to 750,000 cases a month for that contract alone.

Hayden then saw the gap. Competing in 9 mm against factories making millions made no sense; making cartridges nobody else produced did. The company set out to make as many different calibres as possible —more than seventy-five— and in the early 1980s stamped its own star and began selling directly. That decision is why a .38 Short Colt, 7.65 French Long or the 9 mm Largo of a Star or Astra can still be reloaded today.

In 1992 it moved to Sedalia, Missouri, to expand the factory and leave California’s industrial climate. It remains a family business, led by Robert Hayden Jr.