How often do you trim....?

[redneckmedic]

I know the obvious answer is when the case is too long due to specs, however....

Since I'm a feller on a working man's budget and piecing my reloading room together one item at a time, how soon do I need to buy a case trimming set?

I load for 308/243/223 in rifle, none even close to Max (yet). Pistol will be 9mm/357/45acp and those won't be hot either.

So how many firerings do you get before its time to trim?

 

[wsenefeld]

Personally I trim my .223 when it gets above 1.7575 but book says I'm allowed up to 1.760. I trim once and that will be good for the life of the brass (4-5 reloads) unless I run hot loads. The first trim I do takes my brass down to 1.750 which is minimun oal for the case only.

 

[Tydeeh22]

no need to ever trim pistol i think... someone fix my statement if i am wrong.

 

[billybob44]

It Depends--NO-NOT the Adult Dipers...

I know the obvious answer is when the case is too long due to specs, however....

Since I'm a feller on a working man's budget and piecing my reloading room together one item at a time, how soon do I need to buy a case trimming set?

I load for 308/243/223 in rifle, none even close to Max (yet). Pistol will be 9mm/357/45acp and those won't be hot either.

So how many firerings do you get before its time to trim?

If you have excessive(Or more than tight chamber)head space-quite often. Usually after 3-4 loadings of case.

If you can not make it to the Swap Meet II, you need to have someone to check out a trimmer there. There MAY be one show up at the Meet...Bill

 

[redneckmedic]

I'm looking at getting a prep station and threading a stud to make a case trimming station on it. Otherwise I can borrow IGW until then, thanks though BB.

 

[wsenefeld]

correct

no need to ever trim pistol i think... someone fix my statement if i am wrong.

Only need to trim bottle neck cartridges. Straight walled pistol cases are good to go, as are mag cases like 357 mag, 38 special, and 44 mag just to name a few.

 

[Tydeeh22]

Only need to trim bottle neck cartridges. Straight walled pistol cases are good to go, as are mag cases like 357 mag, 38 special, and 44 mag just to name a few.

thank you..

 

[Kory]

I shoot and shoot and still have yet to need to trim a pistol cartridge they where out before they stretch

 

[sloughfoot]

For your rifle brass it depends on how hard you are working it and how well you are lubing it, especially the inside of the neck.

I lube the crap out of my brass with spray lube and strive to only set back the shoulder .002. I never have to trim.

The primer pockets expand and the brass gets discarded long before they need to be trimmed. Anywhere between 10 and 30 reloads are normal for me for 223 and 3 to 5 reloads for 308 and 308 case based cartridges are the norm.

Pistol brass never needs trimming.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Pistol brass: never.

Rifle brass: it depends.

Check out the thread that CountryBoy19 and I have going regarding our brass life test on annealing:

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/ammunition_and_reloading/140337-new_brass_life_test_annealing.html

I rarely have to trim brass properly prepped. Neck sizing rifle brass I *might* trim once during its life. Full length resizing I *might* trim 3-4 times during its life if it's fired from a semi-auto with a lot of headspace, and maybe once in a bolt action rifle with a loose chamber and a lot of headspace.

The manual Lee trim setups that are $3-4 per caliber are well worth the money if you are just trimming occasionally which is what I have used for two decades of reloading many tens of thousands of rifle rounds.

I'm doing a lot of trimming now that I am making my own 300BLK brass from .223/5.56 brass so I finally bought a Forster trimmer since I have to do the initial trim on every piece of brass.

 

[Broom_jm]

Pistol brass: never.

Rifle brass: it depends.

Check out the thread that CountryBoy19 and I have going regarding our brass life test on annealing:

https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...ing/140337-new_brass_life_test_annealing.html

I rarely have to trim brass properly prepped. Neck sizing rifle brass I *might* trim once during its life. Full length resizing I *might* trim 3-4 times during its life if it's fired from a semi-auto with a lot of headspace, and maybe once in a bolt action rifle with a loose chamber and a lot of headspace.

The manual Lee trim setups that are $3-4 per caliber are well worth the money if you are just trimming occasionally which is what I have used for two decades of reloading many tens of thousands of rifle rounds.

I'm doing a lot of trimming now that I am making my own 300BLK brass from .223/5.56 brass so I finally bought a Forster trimmer since I have to do the initial trim on every piece of brass.

Every once in a while, someone makes a letter-perfect post...the above is one such instance! Rep'd

 

[billybob44]

Check out this tool...

I know the obvious answer is when the case is too long due to specs, however....

Since I'm a feller on a working man's budget and piecing my reloading room together one item at a time, how soon do I need to buy a case trimming set?

I load for 308/243/223 in rifle, none even close to Max (yet). Pistol will be 9mm/357/45acp and those won't be hot either.

So how many firerings do you get before its time to trim?

A fellow INGO'er got me onto this awhile back:

Sinclair Chamber Length Gage - Sinclair Intl

You may be surprised how little case trimming needs to be done-I KNOW I was???Bill

 

[U.S. Patriot]

I trim all of my once fired .223 brass to 1.750". I have yet to load any piece of .223 brass more than once. All of my reloaded brass goes into its own dry box. I'll then grab some more once fired brass for my next batch. As for my .308 brass. I have yet to trim it. I do measure it every time to make sure it's under max length. After three loadings it has stretched maybe .002" of an inch.