.38 SPL Wadcutter Trim

[sgt.mike]

sorry ever posted

[Westwindmike]

I never trim my .38's.

[ReloaderFred]

I've never trimmed a .38 Special case, and I've probably loaded over 300,000 of them. I loaded another 1,000 of them this evening, and they weren't trimmed either.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[remy3424]

Also have never trimmer a 38 Sp., they always seem to be close in length, although my 44 mag brass is going to get trimmed, I must have added some shorter ones to the batch and my crimps were all over.

[texassako]

I don't trim them, just load and shoot. Only split mouth cases get trimmed back to a uniform length(usually .38 LC length to make record keeping easy) when I collect enough, but that can take a while.

[ReloaderFred]

I shot PPC matches on a regular basis in the late 1970's and early 1980's, and went through many, many thousands of .38 Special reloads with HBWC bullets. I never trimmed a case, and if there was a difference, it would have shown up at the 50 yard line, but it didn't.

I used to have a target fired at 50 yards from a Ransom Rest with my PPC revolver that had 10 shots into 1 3/4" with my reloads. That's 10 shots, using all six chambers, and untrimmed brass. Unfortunately, I lost that target, and just about everything else I owned, in a divorce. I sure miss that target.......

Hope this helps.

Fred

[shooting on a shoestring]

I trim mine to just clear up the mouths on the shortest of the lot i'm working. Usually in the neighborhood of 1.040 to 1.030. Although I do have a batch of military brass i started shooting when I was a kid in the 70s. It was Dads, but I used it a lot and wound up with it. Those are now about an inch long. They don't take wadcutters anymore but still do SWCs.
Main reason I trim is to get the crimps to be the same.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

The only time I trim(med) 38 special cases is/was for my S&W M52 which has to be fed flat faced wadcutters or else there can/will be problems which no one would want when shooting BE comp. So I always made sure that cases for this particular pistol are/were uniform in length. LLS

[Newboy]

I trim all of mine to match the shortest one. It is a one time thing.

If the cases aren't uniform, you will not get a uniform crimp.

[wonderwolf]

The only .38 spl I've seen or heard of being trimmed are those for the S&W 52. I wouldn't mess with trimming them unless its messing with seating and crimping for revolvers.

[BruceB]

Our two M52-1 pistols between them have fired upwards of a QUARTER MILLION rounds, and the vast majority were handloads with my own cast wadcutters.

The pistols are VERY accurate, and VERY reliable. They are still perfectly capable of 50-yard Bullseye target competition.

I have never trimmed a single .38 Special case. and I'm not about to start at this late date.

[rintinglen]

I'm another veteran PPC shooter who has seldom trimmed brass. Two or three years ago, I did trim a 500 round carton of Starline brass that was new, but varied from 1.134" to 1.150" in length. I was working on a test of absolute accuracy between Bullseye and WW-231 under H&G 50 WC's and I wanted to be sure I eliminated as many variables as possible. I do believe that those were the only cases I trimmed in loading some 200,000 rounds over a 35 year period.

[Petrol & Powder]

I'll add myself to the "never trimmed" 38 special bunch. The case mouth will split long before the case stretches enough to be an issue. With light loads those cases last a long time. In the FWIW category, I find that nickel plated cases don't hold up as well as plain brass.

[Lloyd Smale]

havent trimmed a single piece of handgun brass in the last 20 years

[Sax.45]

I trim all pistol brass one time to a uniform length. After that just load and shoot. For big bore revolvers I like to have everything the same for crimping purposes. Neck tension in my opinion is even more important than crimp. Just my opinion..

[ryan28]

I'm another veteran PPC shooter who has seldom trimmed brass. Two or three years ago, I did trim a 500 round carton of Starline brass that was new, but varied from 1.134" to 1.150" in length. I was working on a test of absolute accuracy between Bullseye and WW-231 under H&G 50 WC's and I wanted to be sure I eliminated as many variables as possible. I do believe that those were the only cases I trimmed in loading some 200,000 rounds over a 35 year period.
What were the results of that test?