Case Length and trimming.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I have been reloading and casting for over 40 years. My case trimming process is when I get some range brass or new brass I size and trim all the cases. After I have fired these cases four or five times I check to see if they need trimming again and if needed I trim again. I have got cases that I have loaded as many as 8 or 10 times, pistols even more. I shoot almost exclusively cast boolits, and most of those were mediam pressure loads. In the last 10 years I probably haven't shot more than a dozen or more J-words in rifle or pistol. What I am woundering is how many times do most of you shoot a paticular case and reload it? I have had probably less than 10 case seperations in all the years I have been casting and reloading.

[detox]

Remington brass is softer and will not work or age harden as easily as older Winchester brass. I hear Winchester just recently started using softer brass. I have witnessed my 18 year old 223 Winchester necks splitting when fired in my Colt AR15.

Remington soft pistol brass will hold same consistant neck tension over and over.

Annealing does wonders for aged or work hardened brass.

[243winxb]

What I am woundering is how many times do most of you shoot a paticular case and reload it? In 243win with full power loads, so far 18 loadings with FL bushing die. Still good for more loadings.

[Kraschenbirn]

Bought a few hundred rounds of LC 'match' 7.62x51 brass about 15 years ago...most of which appeared to have been fired in a machinegun. Full-length resized and trimmed cases to the recommended 2.005 and have been shooting it in my .308s ever since. I've currently got (3) .308s and each rifle has its own dedicated lot of brass. The cases for my McGowan M700 are usually loaded to M118 levels (JBs) and get neck-annealed, full-length resized, and trimmed every 4-5 loadings. The cases for my milsurps...an Israeli M98 and a Spanish Civil Guardia 1916 carbine...are loaded almost exclusively with CBs (neck-size only) and are gaged and trimmed 'as required'. Some of these cases have been loaded a 12-15 times but I doubt I've had to toss out more than three or four dozen...usually for loose primer pockets...in all the time I've been shooting them.

Except for .44 Mags for my Marlin 1894, I've never really bothered with trimming pistol brass. Whenever I've got a couple of 2# coffee cans of .45 ACP empties, I'll sit down and gage cases while I'm watching college basketball on the idiot box but I just chuck the bad ones in the recycle bucket.

Bill

[williamwaco]

I load handgun cases until they split.

I don't shoot rifles enough for that to be an issue.

[waco]

I load handgun cases until they split.

I don't shoot rifles enough for that to be an issue.

That's right were I'm at. I have .38 brass I've been loading for over 10 years.

I don't shoot enough rifle to wear it out.

[mac60]

I check my cases for length every time I reload them. I have a lot of R-P '06 brass that I've loaded 27 times, trimmed 3 times and annealed 6 times. No sign of a problem with them. Like a lot of others, I've got .38 spl. brass that's been loaded so many times the headstamp is almost gone. If I got one split case I used to scrap the whole lot, but anymore I just scrap the split case and keep on goin' with the rest.

[243winxb]

Range brass & Trimming. Each may grow at a different rate. I would check before 5 loadings for safety. Only takes 1 long one to cause a problem. May not be a problem with light cast load, only full pressure J loads.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I have never trimmed a pistol case in all the years I've been loading, even though I have Lee case length gages and a trimmer for 38, 357, 44 and 45 Colt.
Thanks for the responce.

[Shiloh]

Handgun brass till it splits. I have .30-06 and .30-40 Krag brass that gets annealed when the necks get springy. There is 68 LC match brass with
too many loads to count on them. Lower pressure cast boolit loads makes it last a LONG time.

Shiloh

[runfiverun]

if you measure your chamber necks you might find that trimming back to MAXIMUM length is a better option.

[brotherdarrell]

if you measure your chamber necks you might find that trimming back to MAXIMUM length is a better option.

Having done impact casts on the majority of my rifle chambers in the last year I agree totally. Except to get cases the same length I have no brass I NEED to trim due to excess length. Every chamber neck I have checked is longer than max trim length as listed. In the case of the mil surp rifles (6.5 & 7mm) I form from -06 brass just to get formed brass that will come close to the end of the chamber. I would also add that in all cases with the mil surps none of the necks needed to be turned, contrary to "common knowledge".

Darrell

[BABore]

Most stock rifle chamber reamers have about 0.030" excess ahead of a nominal length case. This is potentially an unsupported boolit area when the boolit base exits the case mouth. Trimming your cases to the recommended 0.010" under nominal now results in 0.040". Best to do a pound slug and then let cases grow. Trim them to 0.010" or less under maximum measure neck length.

A trick 357Max showed me was to cut half the case neck off of a case with a Dremel cutoff tool. Square it up in short neck and debur. Debur the cutoff ring as well. Seat a bullet in the case to a normal depth. Slide the ring over the bullet to get it started, then chamber it. The front edge of the ring will contact the end of chamber's case neck as reamed and push it farther down on the bullet. Faster than a pound slug if your only after this dimension.

[s mac]

Most stock rifle chamber reamers have about 0.030" excess ahead of a nominal length case. This is potentially an unsupported boolit area when the boolit base exits the case mouth. Trimming your cases to the recommended 0.010" under nominal now results in 0.040". Best to do a pound slug and then let cases grow. Trim them to 0.010" or less under maximum measure neck length.

A trick 357Max showed me was to cut half the case neck off of a case with a Dremel cutoff tool. Square it up in short neck and debur. Debur the cutoff ring as well. Seat a bullet in the case to a normal depth. Slide the ring over the bullet to get it started, then chamber it. The front edge of the ring will contact the end of chamber's case neck as reamed and push it farther down on the bullet. Faster than a pound slug if your only after this dimension. Now that is a good idea.

[357maximum]

Now that is a good idea.

Most here know about dimensional chamber issues, but I will get wordy just in case someone that does not "know" is reading this.

My Dad showed me that trick when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Dad actually has at least one cartridge like that for every gun he owns right in the box with the dies( I just record the measurment)...he uses red lock-tite to make the brass ring permanent as he mostly shoots them slippery shiny copper colored heathen bullets that come 100 to the box. A cast bullet is normally fat enough to require no adhesive for "permanent".

You will be shocked how much "extra" brass length in the neck most factory chambers can take once you start checking. Alot of my factory chambers get reformado brass with the "wrong" headstamp so that I can fill this void. Filling this void can drastically reduce cast boolit groups, sometimes it makes little to no difference though. I have never seen making your brass FIT the chamber make it group worse however.

Now that you have the "real" maximum case length/neck length thing sorted out...next comes doing the same in neckwall thickness as BrotherDarrel has already pointed out....for instance making your X57 brass from 06 brass, or making 35whelen brass from 270/280 instead of 06 will help solve both dimensional issues at the same time. My Dad has a custom 308 encore pistol and he still used new 30/06 brass to make his rounds in order to make it "right"...shrunk groups by 1/2 inch at 100 yards using the longer/thicker neck...and that was a "custom" barrel.....worthe the effort?...you betcha. :mrgreen:

[glockky]

I like to trim my 44 and 357 mag brass used for heavy loads due to getting a perfect crimp in the same location of the crimp groove.

[montana_charlie]

Because a lot of brass for BPCR rifles is shorter than the 'cartridge name' implies, and because many BPCR rifles have chambers deeper than 2.1", 2.4", or 'whatever', I envisioned a tool that will stretch straight-walled cases enough to make things fit. Rick Kalynuik (Red River Rick) and I played with the idea for a year (or so) and that tool is available on his KAL Tools webpage.

Brass that matches chamber depth prevents leading in the front of the chamber, and prevents 'paper rings' left in the bore with paper patched bullets.

CM