Trimming .44 Rem Mag Cases for consistent crimp?

Case pressures that aren't too high don't stick the case to the chamber walls faster than the case backs up against the breech. When that happens, there is no case growth. The exact threshold varies with the chambering and how rough the chambers are inside. Right around 30,000 psi peak loads is the general rule of thumb with bottleneck rifle cases, but they have some forward pressure via their shoulders, so they don't back up as fast. Bottom line, it's not surprising to hear many have never seen the cases stretch. The 45 Auto rather famously gets a little shorter each load cycle. Around half a thousandth per cycle in my measurements.

As mentioned, if you have mixed brass or brass made by a manufacturer who just didn't bother to keep his manufacturing stations dialed-in to matching case cut lengths, and then combined their output later (common). Your best bet is just to sit there with a caliper and measure them all and sort them into groups by length before deciding to trim. As mentioned, this should be done after resizing.

Like the others, I assume you got a model 629 (stainless 29) or a model 69 Combat Magnum. Fingers typing faster than brain recall is all too familiar to me.
 
Cases for auto's very rarely have to be trimmed using a taper crimp just to remove flare . Cases for revolvers use a roll crimp and the only way to have a consistent crimp all the cases have to be trimmed to the same length . I'm sure the serious accurate hand gun shooters are , most of us aren't competing to take the time in making every handgun round exact . I do with rifle reloads and you can see the difference .
 
Hard to say without measuring. This group from my Redhawk was at 50 yards shooting big box store American Eagle 240 grain ammo. The low and right shot comes from one chamber that always puts them there. I considered reaming them all to match better, but decided I don't need 6 when I have 5. Not for accuracy work.

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Nice shooting Unclenick , what barrel length ? I have a S&W mod.29 44 Mag. Scoped with a 8 3/8 barrel and can't come close to that . I'll stick to 308 benchrest .
 
It was well worth the effort.
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I didn't conduct accuracy tests. At the load bench, crimps and lever effort are a lot more consistent now. When dealing with big magnum rounds with slow propellants, I figure that's gotta be a good thing.
 
Nick, sorry for yanking your chain a little bit, as I pretty much knew what the answer was going to be :) . All good.

Unclenick, That's good 50y shooting with a handgun! You can't get any better! With open sights, my eyes aren't that good even for 25Ys to hold'r that steady for a group like that consistently.
 
Real Gun said:
No one has a way to know that, but they can project that there are lots of others like them. Deciding to trim brass is not for lack of experience.
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From reading forums since 2008 and the posts on the subject of trimming revolver brass, it's an easy conclusion to reach. Most revolver reloaders do not trim their brass...
 
Cw308,

Mine has a 7.5" barrel. Blued. I see they are all stainless now except for a distributor special. The stainless version of mine has an MSRP of $1159 at Ruger's site. IIRC, I bought it in a gun store for about $400, new, if that gives you a hint about how long ago it was. My good fortune was they had three of them in the store that day and I got to examine them all carefully, doing the thumb drag check for timing (one failed on two chambers), looking at how well centered the chambers were in the back of the bore with the cylinder latch in its notch (the one that failed the thumb drag and one other both were slightly off center). I also looked that the crack of light in the barrel/cylinder gap was even, though that is of consequence only if it indicates the cylinder axis isn't parallel with the bore axis (bent or twisted frame), and all of them passed on that score. Anyway, I took it home and it turned out to shoot.


Rclark,

I confess I had a 1X Burris scope on it. With the short radius of iron sights on a handgun, I find it helpful. With rifle, I could group about as well with iron sights as with a scope on NRA targets when I was younger. Where that gets into trouble is when the target isn't a nice regularly shaped piece of paper.


Mikld,

I think it's true that most do not. It occurs to me that even with mixed brass since it doesn't all have the same wall thickness, the same trim length may not get you the same crimp hold on the bullet anyway. So, for precision loads, I think you are stuck with sorting by headstamp and then you usually don't have much length discrepancy. Still, I want to take the calipers out and confirm that.
 
While actual trimming is seldom needed because of case growth, this does not mean you shouldn't check, measure and segregate your brass.

Not only are you looking for a case that is too long (rare with revolver brass) but you should also bee looking for cases that are too SHORT.

I don't recall needing to trim .44 Mag or other revolver cases regularly, but I have trimmed them for uniformity of length. In my experience it is .38 special that seems to need it more often but it can happen with an y caliber, .44 Mag included.

Where do you get your brass? New ammo you shoot? range pickup? buy new or used from ??? While brass within a lot is usually pretty uniform, usually is not "always". Ever load mixed headstamp brass? If you don't at least check it, you could have ..issues...
Maybe its only one, or a dozen out of several hundred, but short cases are out there.

Now, what's the worst that could happen? too little, or no crimp? yes, possible. Also possible is using a case shorter than the rest to adjust your dies, without realizing it short, until you over flare or worse over crimp (and maybe buckle) longer cases.

You may not have to trim, but you should check for length and weed out those over long or over short to your average case length.
 
Unclenick
Stainless is easy to maintain but there's something about a blued firearm . Burn marks on the cylinder face takes some TLC to remove . The leadaway material wipes it away with no effort, great for SS but will remove the bluing . My S&W 29 the year I bought it S&W changed the locking cutouts on the cylinder cutout off center , was supposedly to help the cylinder lockup . Smith's I don't think are strong enough to take a steady of full loads , they do have nice triggers though . Don't shoot it much , maybe if I shot like you I would be tempted to show off alittle . Only in my dreams . I would trim all to the same length no matter what brand of brass and roll crimped with the same crimp on the bullet brass and lead
Again , nice shooting showoff .
 
Most revolver reloaders do not trim their brass
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That wasn't the context. The statement was that very few trim, which is a total guess, a projection, which I infer is to diminish any importance for precision in ones loading, whether consequential or not. It is the old "most people", when a person has no way of really knowing what "most people" do but wishes to add credibility to his position.
 
I don't trim much any more, I sort for length after they are resized. With new brass I measure everyone for anything longer than max length. I rarely find one.

I keep my straight walled revolver cases in increments of .010" in case length variances. I seat and crimp in one step and it makes it much easier to set the die up. I look for the longest case in the batch I'm reloading and set the crimp up to hit the upper end of the cannular. The rest will just follow suit.
Since the 1980s I still only have two different length batches of 357, all my brass falls into one of those two batches.
For high powered loads I use the longer batch and give them a good roll crimp, for the lower powered loads with plated or lead bullets I don't give them much of a crimp, pretty much just straighten out the flare.
The easiest thing to do is get a Wilson case gage, and check the longest and the shortest cases in the batch after crimping, you then know they will all work when you get the range and there's no guessing about it.
 
I knew a shooter that was know to be a cheapie. He would buy second rate guns on used
market and I never knew him to buy any brass. He would occasionally buy a box of ammo
but his specialty was range pickup. He loaded for a Hawes SA 44mg. He would load his assorted 44 brass, seat bullets then crimp. To crimp he removed seating stem and set die
to crimp by "feel". Being a cheap skate he used cast bullets made from range lead in the cheapest mold he could find. He would use about any powder he could get the cheapest and
get the most loads out of a pound. The only problems I saw him have was failure for case
to seal and occasional slug stuck in bore.
 
The easiest thing to do is get a Wilson case gage, and check the longest and the shortest cases in the batch after crimping, you then know they will all work when you get the range and there's no guessing about it.
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I don't see the point of using a gauge after crimping. You can simply look at the crimp and see if the case was noticeably long or short. It's already loaded ammo, so its "going to work" when you go to the range.
 
The question posed by the OP was "Trimming .44 brass for consistent crimp?". Regardless of what one has done for their whole reloading career doesn't change the fact, that for the most consistent roll crimps, one needs consistent case length. Most handgun shooters shooting at their standard 15-25 yards will probably never notice the difference. I practice regularly with my .44 revolvers at 70-100 yards for hunting. Between the distance and the slow burning powders I use, consistency of crimp makes a significant difference in groups and SD. While I do not trim my revolver brass all the time, I do trim virgin brass and once fired factory brass one time. I use that brass for heavy hunting type loads for maybe a half dozen loadings and then delegate it to everyday range ammo, where a consistent crimp is not as critical. It's easy to tell when crimping, which cases are long and which ones are short, compared to the case the dies were set on when using this mixed brass.

So, IMHO, does .44 mag brass need to be trimmed? No, it does not. Should .44 mag brass be trimmed? Depends on the application and what one demands from their reloads.
 
Real Gun said:
That wasn't the context. The statement was that very few trim, which is a total guess, a projection, which I infer is to diminish any importance for precision in ones loading, whether consequential or not. It is the old "most people", when a person has no way of really knowing what "most people" do but wishes to add credibility to his position.
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Them nits get picked quite a bit when it comes to semantics...
 
Is it the time it takes to trim that revolver shooters decide to eliminate the need for trimming . If your looking for accurate reloads with a roll crimp why not trim all to the same length for a consistent trim . It doesn't make sense to me . After sizing just trim to the same length is no big deal .

It's the same with rifle brass , I'm a benchrest shooter 308 caliber , every case I shoot is as exact as possible , I don't crimp my rifle cases but I trim every firing after full length sizing , some don't trim until it reaches the trim length . What is it with trimming that some shooters don't. until it's necessary.
 
What is it with trimming that some shooters don't. until it's necessary.
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Some shooters aren't shooting benchrest guns. A lot of us are shooting guns where those extra steps for maximum uniformity of rounds doesn't matter.

For my deer rifles, loading benchrest quality ammo is a bit OCD. Were I a competition shooter with competition level guns, it wouldn't be.

For a handgun, who's standard of accurate is 2-2.5 inches at 25yds, the work needed to produce ammo that will give small groups at 400 yds from a rifle is needless extra work.
 
44
I just wanted to know the reason and you answered it ," needless extra work ". Me not being a avid handgun shooter only for fun answered my question . Being a reloader with time I'll still trim I must say nothing will make a difference in my handgun groups , like I said just for fun , even my groups makes me laugh , my daughter on the other hand puts 7 rounds in the black at 25 yards with a Walther PPK/S 380 go figure that out.
 
I will admit there is no "needless extra work" when you are doing it for the love of the hobby. :D

on the other hand, doing extra things for a result you are not going to get seems rather pointless to me.
 
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