Brass Trimming

I only load for handguns. And I only trim 357 Magnum. I trim after flairing the case mouth. Otherwise, that trimmer guide thingy that fits in the mouth won't fit.
 
Wendyj, I trim my brass after sizing as the brass flows toward the case mouth, usually try to tr .010 below saami case length.
 
Well that's good. Man at bass pro told me trim before sizing. I've been trimming after fl sizing. I'm glad this forum is here. Ever gun shop has told me about 20 different things than my Lee manual. You all are great help. I thought I might have been doing it wrong.
 
Wendyj, regarding your comment about twenty different things, remember what people say about opinions...

Nick C S,

You've come up with a new reloading term, "trimmer guide thingy." You could have used a more sophisticated word like, "gizmo." What's interesting about thingy is, spell check recognizes it.

I'm going to Cabela's, this morning. I think I'll go to the reloading department and ask a clerk if they have any "trimmer guide thingys" and see what kind of response I get.
 
As noted after,

Good fairly low cost tool that is accurate and works well is the Little Crow unit that is drill run

I just trim them after each shooting, some need it some don't but soring through it all is easier just to grab and run through.
 
Wendy,

On the card that the Lee case length gauge is packaged on, it tells you to size first then trim.

Read the whole loading manual, not just look up what powder/weight/bullet for your particular cartridge. They are very informative.
 
That's what I was doing. Per instructions from Lee. Pokey at bass pro in Ga says he has 60,000 acre cattle ranch in west Texas and takes 500 to 1000 yard shots at Muleys all the time. Also has $45,000 worth of reloading equipment way more precision than I'll ever get from Lee. If you ask for powder or primers this is the reloading expert they send me too. Have to laugh as my second favored thing to do is hop on my cutting horses and work a few cows. And I don't own them. They are just where I keep my horses. If I owned that much land in west Texas I wouldn't be working at bass pro shop. Lol.
 
usually try to tr .010 below saami case length.
Click to expand...

Generations of reloaders using the Lyman manual can tell you their "trim to length" is 0.01 less than their "max case length".

you can trim before sizing if you want to, but check your case lengths after sizing, you might find they have grown a mite...

The rational behind trimming after sizing is that, at that point the case is as long as it is going to get. Cases stretch when fired, and then when sized, are squeezed down (diameter) and can "grow" a little more from that. And bottlenecked cases have the expander ball drug through the necks (and despite lube) can stretch a bit from that, too.

So, it makes the most sense to trim AFTER all the stretching is over, not halfway through the process, where you might have to trim a second time to get back to the correct "trim to" length.
 
The difference between trimming before or after sizing is a matter of the pilot size. Back when, so it has been said, pilots were sized to the dimension of the fired case neck before sizing, but now pilots are sized to the dimension of the sized case neck. So trim after sizing so the case will be centered properly on the pilot. If you were to trim a .30 caliber case before sizing, it would probably require a .32 caliber pilot, rather than a .30, to properly align the case to the cutting tool.
 
I've been fl sizing and trimming with Lee trimmer in a drill chuck. Deburring and chamfering the case. Cleaning neck with brush. I measure them all and also check in Lyman headspace guage. Still new. I don't think 5 or 6 weeks of this has my confidence level too far yet.
 
“A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.”

Yeah, all the information and opinions on the internet do make for a double edged sword. You find out a lot of neat stuff but some of the neat stuff might be wrong.

I learned to reload many years ago from ‘The ABCs of Reloading’ and a Lyman reloading manual and the directions that came with the equipment I bought.

That was about it.

I learned to reload pretty much just one way. Same for ‘recipes’, I tried a few different loads and quickly settled on a very few that worked for me and never much tried anything else.

I never saw the need to experiment.

I missed out on a lot of stuff.

The reloading section here has exposed me to a lot of new things and in many ways opened my eyes to stuff I never even thought to think about or question.

All in all I really do think it’s good to see all this stuff. It's obvious that stuff written in a book and published is bound to be more accurate than stuff heard at gun shops and on the internet. Sure there are exceptions but I kind of weigh the odds and almost always go with the books.

It’s up to you to find a balance. I was too conservative however the penalty for being too ‘innovative’ when dealing with reloading stuff can be sever.

Good luck.
 
But I might ask why are you chamfering? Yes, it is usually necessary to deburr after trimming but chamfering implies going deeper with the deburring tool and perhaps ending up with a knife edge ridge around the case mouth. This small amount of flaring is not at all necessary or desirable with jacketed bullets and bottle neck rifle cartridges. If flaring, or belling, is necessary for some odd reason, use the Lyman M die for that purpose. These are available per caliber like .30 or 7mm and priced around $20. About the only times flaring is really necessary would be if cast lead bullets are being seated or any bullet seated in straight walled rifle cases like .45-70s or .458s. If you are lacking equipment catalogs, start by contacting MidwayUSA and requesting one of their catalogs.
 
After flaring the case mouth doesn't give you the right length. Extremely rare to trim handgun cases anyway.
"...chamfering implies going deeper with the deburring tool..." Nope. Nothing whatever to do with depth. It's deburring and putting a slight taper the inside of the case mouth on a bottle necked case to aid bullet seating. There is no flaring.
 
Before, because I use a progressive press.

I measured the average amount of stretch the dies cause & reduced my "trim at" measurement by this amount by caliber.
 
Wendy,

There have been books written about what Bass Pro Shop clerks don't know about reloading. You have one by Lee. ;)

Trim after sizing.
 
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