Pistol brass trim or not?

[Irishshooter]

I have never trimmed brass for 9mm or 40. An experienced reloader advised he neve did. What does the group think?

 

[spencer rifle]

Never yet.

 

[bocefus78]

Nope.

 

[Leo]

The only handgun brass I trim is revolver calibers to get a consistant roll crimp into the bullet grooves. Not needed on semi auto brass. Been playing with it for over 40 years, but still learning.

 

[Aszerigan]

No need.

 

[jstory]

Nope...but I have only been reloading a few months...

 

[Drail]

Pistol brass generally gets shorter - not longer. Most new brass that I have bought is under length when new. Don't worry about it. One thing that does need to be done with new pistol brass is light de burring because none of the factories will do that for you.

 

[Bennettjh]

Nope...but I have only been reloading a few months...

Same here.

 

[redwingshooter]

Never have.

 

[Irishshooter]

Thanks for all the input. I have been reloading for about a year and starting to load some pieces brass for the 4th or 5th time. Was starting to worry that I might be getting close to an epic fail.

 

[gabrigger]

Never needed to trim pistol brass in 25 years of reloading.

 

[87iroc]

I found this out after I bought a trimmer.

Tried the trimmer anyway. It sucked....

I do need to look in to my 357 brass...its odd how the crimp feels different each time.

 

[Sniper 79]

Never except roll crimped magnums

 

[Broom_jm]

Measure and find out? After 8-10 firings, your cases will be shorter, not longer.

I was reloading 44/40 and discovered that this is NOT like other pistol brass. Being a bottle-necked case, they WILL grow and need to be trimmed. This is especially important because you need consistent case length to ensure a good crimp on each round, when used in a lever action.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Waaaaay back when, when I started reloading I bought the Lee trim gauge set for .45acp. I never used it. The last few months I've been cycling a batch of 5 .45acp brass through my XD-s, load five, shoot, repeat. When a case cracks I cycle in a new one. I'm getting about 30 or so loads before they start to fail. I just found that trim gauge recently and decided to see what that brass looked like. One of them had a slight burr the trimmer took off but other than that most were a couple thou under the gauge.

Other than that I have never trimmed pistol brass in many, many tens of thousands of rounds loaded and fired.

 

[Robert Richardson]

Not

 

[ihammond]

Good to know that they dont need trimmed. I just resized 750 pcs of 45acp and was not looking forward trimming.

 

[Drail]

45 ACP brass pretty much lasts forever. I have brass that has been reloaded at least 40 to 50 times. Once in a while one will split. If you run hot loads the primer pocket will eventually loosen up. I have brass that is so old the headstamp has gone away (WCC match brass from 1967) but they still load and fire just fine. Most of my loads are lighter than hardball.

 

[Cynical]

The only time I've ever trimmed pistol brass was loading some .38s with a cannelure and trying to get the most accurate load possible. Don't have the patience for that business. Soooo pretty much never in the last 25 years.

 

[Whip_McCord]

In 34+ years of reloading, I've never trimmed straight wall pistol brass. I have loaded over 210,000 rounds, but some was bottleneck brass. I have only trimmed my bottleneck pistol and rifle brass. I sometimes neck turn my bottleneck brass, when needed. That was mostly my 7mm BR for my XP-100 pistol. It seems to have a tight chamber in the neck area.

Bottom line, don't waste your time trimming pistol brass. Spend that time shooting.