Glad I'm not the only person trimming 44 magnum brass.

[Lloyd Smale]

I like to make better ammo too. but I like to shoot it not admire it and I can make handgun ammo just as good on a progressive press as I can on a single stage. Spend one hour loading and 2 hours shooting instead of 6 hours loading and one hour shooting. I load mostly because at the volume I shoot I couldn't even begin to afford to buy ammo. Id have to live in a pup tent and eat spam! Believe one thing. If Hornady wanted to give me factory ammo id take a truck load! I load and cast to be able to afford to shoot PERIOD. I sure don't dislike doing it but id much rather be shooting.

In 44 special I size .431 which is a bit oversize and I've found chamfering essential on the new starline brass which has a square edge. When you go to crimp it it will ride into and scarf off lead and lube if you don't.

I enjoy making very nice bullets and ammo. I'm not in it for speed, and I would just buy loaded ammo if I didn't want to make something better than loaded ammo.

With 38/357 I have never needed to chamfer since I side that .357 or .358 and it never needs it.

Attachment 264469

This case has been reloaded 6 times, always full length sized. It has never been tumbled.

[winelover]

I don't load for speed. I batch load on a single stage. Always did and always will. Even my Senior Turret is set up for single stage batch loading......just don't have to change dies as often. I use a Chargemaster to weigh each and every charge. Even most pistol ammo. I will put my reloads up against anyone else's, as far as accuracy goes.

Winelover

[Bazoo]

In my experience it makes more difference if you are seating and crimping in the same die the longer cases may scrape the bullet when being crimped while seating with a separate crimp die the mouth of the case will be over the crimp groove so no scraping when crimping , yes some of the crimps will be a little heavier than others but will not have a practical impact on accuracy for my use. And there are people here that have much more knowledge and experience than I have whose opinions i very much respect that say the same thing.
I have done it both ways and gave up trimming straight wall pistol cases when I went to separate crimp dies.
If for some reason you wound up with some really short cases (like some Hornady) they are in a separate batch.
The Lee carbide factory crimp die does the same thing for me on auto pistol rounds about 90% of the time.

Like win94ae said if it makes you feel better , or what you are loading for demands the extra precision trim them.

Ah. I think you might have touched on the reason I have issues if I don't trim my brass (once). I seat and crimp in the same operation.

Course I load on a single stage press. If I loaded on a Dillion or whatever I could seat and crimp in separate operations without undue work. That brings me to why I load, to save money, self sufficiency, and because I enjoy it.

I also don't use lee die sets mostly, so I don't generally use a collet crimp unless I've bought it separately for rifle calibers.