Ballistic Products "Trim Doctor"

[rollmyown]

I just bought this hull trimming device from Ballistic Products who I found to be very good to deal with.

I Thought I'd share my experience and opinion. The tool does a fine job of cutting perfectly square mouths on the hull when removing the crimp. There is a significant delay in removing the cut of crimp from the machine due to as far as I can see each time the long nylon bolt (used to adjust the trim length) has to be wound out, the wound back in again after each crimp is removed from the machine. If you take it easy in front of the telly or with your brain somewhere else you will get about 30 or so perfectly cut hulls an hour. I doubt you would see 50 an hour even if you went at a cracking pace.

It is overall a good tool and does what is promised but I find it very slow.

If anybody has any ideas about speeding the operation up let me know.

[Cap'n Morgan]

It looks as if the design could use a little extra work. The length stop should be a two part adjustable unit which could be removed with a quarter of a turn - much like the hollow point pin or hollow base core in some molds. Are you sure this isn't the case? I can't tell from the photo on their website.

Perhaps you could use a chisel to slit and remove the crimp ring without removing the stop? A more sophisticated solution would be to add an external stop to act on the rear of the case head, hinged over an offset screw to allow for removal of the shell. Then rotating the shell from the front, using, perhaps, a dull drill bit in a power drill.

[rollmyown]

The tool is made from 2 pieces (nylon?), and there does not seem to be any other way to remove the crimp cut off. I think the existing design could do with a revamp to allow for easier crimp removal from the tool.

Cutting the crimp or section of hull left in the trimmer cross ways would lead to damage of the nylon thread.