upgraded case trimmer

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brasscollector

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More of a rave than any type of question. Always nice to hear everyone chime in and give their take.
I finally upgraded my case trimmer. I had been using a Lyman Accutrimmer which I enjoyed for about the first 5 minutes I owned it. The accutrimmer flexes around as you crank on the handle and generally does not do the best of jobs. I just got my Lyman Universal today and already have it mounted where the accutrimmer used to be. A bit more weight with the cast base vs the extruded aluminium. With the accutrimmer I could see as much as .002-.003" difference in final trimmed length due to the fact that it "zeroed" off the extractor groove. The Universal "zeroes" off the base of the shell which is much better practice and gave me less than .001" variation :).
 
RCBS Trim Pro-2 Power Case Trimmer

I got one of these last year and have been very pleased. Accurate and much faster and easier than a manual trimmer.


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I oogled those before, great setup. RCBS makes some truly enjoyable tools. I ordered the power adapter (before the case trimmer arrived) so I should be enjoying accurate, battery-powered trimming soon :D
 
A power trimmer that is fast, and easy to use makes reloading more enjoyable, that's for sure.
I got there a diffrent way with the cts trimmer I have.
I'm still enjoying it everytime I use it a year later.
I'm glad you found something to make the tedious tasks easier

A power trimmer, media separator and case prep center were the things I'm glad I bought,
They took a lot of the tedious aspects from loading away and made it more enjoyable to me.
 
I had a Lyman and found it to be frustrating. Picked up an old CH4D in a lot purchase and sold the Lyman. Easy ,consistant and cheap. I think one or 2 other company's make a similar unit that t shell holders interchange with the CH4D.
 
Just got this one a month ago, love the micrometer but hate spinning the little handle.
 

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I've got a couple of "world's finest" trimmers from Little Crow Gunworks. I just mount one on my drill press and trim away. It's so fast that I don't even bother to check if a case needs trimming anymore, I just stick them all in. It trims faster than I can measure and it has been absolutely consistent so far. I trim 2-3 thousand 223 cases and a thousand or so 308 cases per year. I keep an RCBS around for odd jobs, like cutting down 9x19 brass to Makarov length.
 
brasscollector said:
The Universal "zeroes" off the base of the shell which is much better practice and gave me less than .001" variation .
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That is what you want if you crimp your cartridges, as it will drive the case mouths the same distance into the crimp die every time. If you don't crimp, though, and are using a rimless bottleneck case and are trying to control how close to the lands the bullet gets, then you want a trimmer that registers on the case shoulder. The shoulder is what the case stops against during firing, and therefore is what determines how close to the lands the bullet gets. If you register off the base, but your sizing doesn't put the case shoulders all the exact same distance from the head (common sizing brass with different load histories or headstamps), you wind up adding that variation to bullet distance from the lands.

The CTS, WFT, Possum Hollow, Gracey and the two Giraud Trimmers all register off the case shoulder. The Gracey and Giraud trimmers also chamfer and deburr the case at the same time as they trim it. Very quick brass work.
 
I oogled those before, great setup. RCBS makes some truly enjoyable tools. I ordered the power adapter (before the case trimmer arrived) so I should be enjoying accurate, battery-powered trimming soon
Click to expand...

That power adapter, generally gets fairly poor reviews.

The spindle will come with a hand crank. That crank simply unscrews off the spindle. If you have a drill with a 1/2" chuck, you can just chuck the whole spindle in the drill and forego the adapter completely.

You didn't mention if you got the three way cutter head. You really want that, otherwise the RCBS unit is just another trimmer. With the three way head, it's among the best.
 
As noted by Unclick, I could not set my hand trimmer to a setting and have the COL come out consistent.

I bought the Little Crow off my brother, it works very well and I get within a couple of thousands on the COL.

As noted by DarthNel, I just run em all through

I now have a 308 (closest I can get to 06 in a heavy barrel) and I have the Gerard Tri Way Trimmer on the way.

I would have gone with the Little Crow but it does not do the case mouth chamfer (I get to use my brothers power Gerard for that from time to time)

I can and do the in between lots of 30-06 with the RCBS prep station but the auto chamfer is nicer and for the difference in price and all the use it gets the Gerard is more better me things.
 
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