Trimming Rifle Brass

L

LBussy

New member
Let me preface my question with the fact that I am only trimming .223/5.56. I *might* add .300 Blackout in the future but that's far from a sure thing.

I'm looking to upgrade my brass trimming setup. I think I'd like an off-press setup, motorized (using a drill is more than fine) and not bench mounted. The Little Crow Gunworks World's Finest Trimmer is sort of what I am looking for, however ideally it would chamfer/debur at the same time.

Is there such an animal that's not a bank-buster?
 
Answering my own question here after some more research (just needed to ask Google the right way). The Giraud looks to be what I am looking for.
 
Yeah, I use the Little Crow trimmers but they don't champher/deburr. But they are really easy to use/fast trimmers.
 
The Trim-It II with 3 way cutter also accomplishes the task in one pass.
A table top drill press is what I use with mine.
 
How much is the Giraud? I was looking into one myself but was not sure I wanted to make that much of a project out of trimming. I don't want to make room for a bench drill.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
'Motorized' gets expensive for something that you do on an "As Required" basis only. It really isn't an up-grade.
The Giraud at $460 is just ludicrous. That's a commercial reloader's tool. And it needs a bench.
 
My Giraud Tri Way .223 was $100. Bought a Harbor Freight drill to go with it. Another $30.

I feel it's paid for itself many times over.
 
A couple more things. I leave it chucked in the drill. Also have a primer pocket uniformer that shares the drill.

The Tri Way trims, chamfers and deburs. It also comes with two extra carbide cutting heads attached to a triangular base. If you ever did wear one out, just turn the base to a new head.

I've trimmed between 7-8000 pieces of .223 brass in the last year and a half. No signs of dulling yet.

If I had to hand crank all of that I wouldn't be interested in reloading.
 
The Gerard Tri Trimmer is by far the best. Its simpler than the Trim It II (which I have one) and better designed.

If you have a vice, you can clamp your drill in that upside down, set the speed control and process brass like a machine. I can do 300+ large cases in less than 30 minutes.

The Little Crow is a well made unit, lower cost but does not tri trim.

Trim It II is ok, setting it up is a bugger and it has too many adjustments and hex wrenches (takes FIVE). Its better than it was.

If you tried to shift it with the kit (more than $20 now I believe) you have to redo all those adjustments. ungh.
 
I've got a Giraud tri-trimmer on order, was/is $98 shipped, they are designed to trim a "family" of cartridges. I load for 204 & 223, so we'll see how that goes.
 
I also had the Little Crow, very nice high quality unit per Gerard, just did not do all 3 trim ops.

If you load or plan to load 5 or more cartridges (and shoulders not the same ala 308 and 30-06) then the Self Motorize Gerard is the better way to go (lower cost)

Insert kits for each one is $25 or so.

Having done crank and motorized trimmers, the off the shoulder motorized work wonders.

Cranks work, but like a beam scale, there are better options out there if you want to process a lot and efficiently.

I don't even measure my brass singly anymore, every 3 or 4 firings it all just gets run thorough the trimmer.

Some is fine, some needs a little and some needs a lot. It all gets set back to length zero.
 
You all are speaking my language. :) Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

A question though for those of you using the Giraud. The manual says:
The preferred method of trimming using this tool is to orient the tool such that the case is pressed in to the tool using a straight downward or angled downward motion. This allows brass chips and shavings generated by the trimming process to fall away from the insert supporting the cartridge case. If the tool is used horizontally or angled upward, there is the possibility of chips and shavings entering the insert supporting the cartridge case between the removal of one case and insertion of the next. If this occurs, the next case may trim improperly or unevenly due to the debris preventing the case from fully seating or being supported unevenly.
Click to expand...

That seems to be contrary to what some of you are doing with the drill press. Have you had any issues?
 
Is there such an animal that's not a bank-buster?
Click to expand...

I do not know, I was looking at 2,800 30/06 cases that needed everything related to 'case prep'. I purchased the RCBS case prep center, Before that I purchased form/trim dies because the 2,800 30/06 cases were going to be formed to shorter cases and then there were chamber length gages, I sorted through the cases looking for the cases with the longest case bodies, my favorite case in the whole round world is the case that will not chamber/allow the bolt to close because it is too long from the shoulder/datum to the case head.

And then I never got into that thing with 'when to trim'; I did not care if the case was sized or not sized.

F. Guffey
 
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