Nobody trims pistol brass......

nicky4968 said:
I trim pistol brass after every cleaning.
Do I gain anything from it?
No idea.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you gain personal satisfaction. There's a lot of reloading processes that many think are "unnecessary" but I haven't read any "laws" concerning them. Normally I don't trim handgun brass, and nope my crimps don't vary enough to be noticeable on the target, but sometimes when I have a half ton of reloads waiting to be fired,I'll do some "unnecessary" things just to be in the shop, playing with my reloading stuff. I have deburred nearly 500 flash holes in some HXP brass. Necessary, nope, but I was busy in my shop. I have even polished some of my Garand brass to look like little mirror tubes. Necessary? Nope, but I like my Garand brass shiny so I can find them in the dirt of my "range". So, if you wanna trim your .38 Special brass (or any handgun brass), by all means, trim 'em!;)
 
No I don't trim my straight wall pistol brass. With my 357 mag brass I only start out with new brass , I do deburr inside and out all new brass one time . I use once fired or new brass with 45acp,9mm and 38 special and also deburr once and will check length after 5-6 reloadings. I would trim if lengths are out of spec but so far I never had to.
 
You can probably "get away" without trimming or even checking.

To me, consistency is important in handloading quality ammo. Consistent crimp requires consistent length. If you don't check, you don't know.

For me, handloading is about making high quality ammo. There is no value to me in getting it done more quickly. I would (and do) take the time to check and trim ammo.
 
It's about reliability.....

I've had a lot of bugs in my 9mm reloading, but I believe that I have them all ironed out. I have five different 9mm semi autos, of different makes, one is a carbine and two of them are compacts. Some of my guns are easy to feed, others more picky. I should have mentioned this first. I'm not worried about growing pistol brass, just all kinds of brass, some short, some long to make a more consistent ammo that I can load in any gun without worry.
 
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I do it once for new revolver brass to get a good start on a consistent roll crimp. I hate fajiggering around with a crimp die in the middle of a loading run. I don't load max anymore, and see very little case stretch after multiple firings.
Starline has a reputation for excellent brass, yet on 200 new 45 Colt cases last week, I found a range of.020" on case length. All but two were within SAMMI specs, most grouped around .002" below the recommended trim length, none were above SAMMI max length and two under min SAAMI spec. I picked a trim to length .005" under the recommended trim length and tossed about 15 of the 200 that were under that. Life's too short to worry about a few dollars in tossed cases in return for straightforward, no hassle, good reloads.
 
With pistol brass, I only make sure that cases are under max length. I set my calipers for .008 less than max. I run each case through the calipers. Its quick. Takes 2 seconds per case. Prolly 95% go through OK. The very few that don't go through get trimmed. Not trying for consistency. Just staying under max.
 
If you have a lot of brass to trim, you might want to look at Lyman's EZ-Trim. It can attach to your electric drill and it really is easy.
 
I've got a Lee...

dmy said:
If you have a lot of brass to trim, you might want to look at Lyman's EZ-Trim. It can attach to your electric drill and it really is easy.
Click to expand...


Whatever old model it is it fits in my drill press so trimming is very easy. I would feel better investing a little time to take a variable out of the equation.
 
For cases that head space on the case mouth, you would do better to size all the cases, measure them, and save the very longest. All trimming does is increase head space (degrading accuracy) and taper crimps simply don't care about normal case length variations.
I can tell you that 0.376-0.379" 9x19 cases do give me better accuracy than the shorter cases (so I used to keep them separate for when I really wanted some extra accuracy). Did not find this with other rimless pistol cartridges I played with.
I have trimmed .38 Spl cases for my S&W M52 wadcutter gun and for .357 Mag and .44 Rem Mag back in the '70s. I found NO increase in accuracy using trimmed cases for "consistent" roll crimps—NONE. Others say they have. Maybe you will.
However, I will NOT trim cases that head space on the case mouth and increase head space. I have seen that hurt accuracy.
Since part of accuracy is confidence in your loads, do what is safe and makes you feel better.
 
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rwsmith said:
Well, I've decided that I'm going to trim all of my pistol brass...ONCE. Range brass is highly variable in length and it's hard to get consistent crimps with a lot of variations in brass.

I have a fast setup on my drill press to do this. A couple of hours of work will probably be worth it.

Does anybody see any merit in this?
Click to expand...

Consistent roll crimp is MY main reason for trimming cases, but there are many folks that prefer inconsistent crimping and the inaccuracy and other problems that can result.

Once trimmed, you can usually get quite a few loadings before it is needed again, if ever.

And you are right about that range brass.:D
 
" handloading is about making high quality ammo."

And consistency goes a long way toward high quality! :D
 
Range brass is highly variable in length and it's hard to get consistent crimps with a lot of variations in brass.
Click to expand...

That's all the reason you need to trim the brass.
 
rwsmith said:
Does anybody see any merit in this?
Click to expand...

I trim revolver Magnum brass that I'm going to be roll crimping.

As for semiauto brass I've always just sorted by headstamp. The differences in length and wall thickness will affect flair and in some cases will shave lead when deflairing/crimping.
 
Range brass is highly variable in length and it's hard to get consistent crimps with a lot of variations in brass.
Click to expand...

I was reminded this morning that regardless of whether or not you trim brass, you should develop a habit of measuring all 9mm brass that is "new to you" because reloaders with ex-Eastern Bloc guns using 9mm Makarov (9x18) will "convert" 9mm Parabellum brass into 9mm Makarov by trimming it and the time to discover that is not when you've just seated the bullet.
 
I trim .41 and .44 magnum cases once after a number of loadings. It makes for consistent roll crimps and in some instances prevents case neck splits as the case mouths become work hardened from use. .357 magnum, 10mm and .45 ACP cases don't get trimmed unless I come upon a major problem.

Bruce
 
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I trim all my pistol brass. I see no other way to get consistent crimps.

Also, most of my pistol loads are with cast bullets. I flare the case to better accept the cast bullets. Again, no way to get consistent flares if cases are random lengths.
 
Can I double like this?

revolver_ph said:
I trim all my pistol brass. I see no other way to get consistent crimps.

Also, most of my pistol loads are with cast bullets. I flare the case to better accept the cast bullets. Again, no way to get consistent flares if cases are random lengths.
Click to expand...

My point too. Consistency is hard to get with mixed brass and it would be worth it to me to take a little extra trouble ONE time.
 
My 38 Wadcutter brass does get a trip through the trimmer every few firings, but that's mostly to keep my 52 happy.

I also trim Remington 32-20 brass, but that's more to reduce the chance of messing up the case mouth when loading. Starline and Winchester 32-20 brass is already too short, so I'm not about to make it shorter.

I have a batch of 357 mag brass that I trimmed when I first got my lever gun and was hot on the Leverevolution bullets. For the unfamiliar, these bullets have a "pointy" polymer tip. The idea is that you can get the ballistic advantage of a spire tip without the risk of setting off other cartridges in a tubular magazine. As best as I can tell, it's the same material used Critical Defense hollowpoints. The bullets are longer than a regular 357 mag bullet, so need to be loaded in a shorter case in order to crimp into the cannelure. I've mostly quit messing with them since I can actually get higher velocities from SWCs. The Leverevolution bullets are also expensive. I ordered a few seating plugs from Lee and machined one of them to load the things also-using a standard plug will crush the polymer tip.
 
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