357 case length question.

[Muddydogs]

I figured out my belling problem. I set my expander up with the shortest case in the pile, luck of the draw I guess. I started measuring case length and I have a hole pile of short cases, I'm talking 1.250 with some as short as 1.230. Out of 50 cases I measured 25 were under 1.250 which makes it tough to expand for cast lead when there mixed in with 1.280 + cases. These cases are of unknown firings but I'm wondering if someone has trimmed them short or do cases actually shrink that much, .030 to .050?

[knifemaker]

Are the short cases the same brand and different from the standard lenght cases. I have ran into the same problem and the short cases were all Hornady cases. Only thing I can think of is that they had to shorten them for a paticular type of bullet so the overall case lenght would not allow the bullet to protude beyound the cylinder face. I wonder if they could have loaded their spire point rubber nose bullets into those cases and due to bullet lenght had to shorten the cases.????????????????????????

[Dusty Bannister]

I started measuring case length and I have a hole pile of short cases, I'm talking 1.250 with some as short as 1.230. Out of 50 cases I measured 25 were under 1.250 which makes it tough to expand for cast lead when there mixed in with 1.280 + cases. These cases are of unknown firings but I'm wondering if someone has trimmed them short or do cases actually shrink that much, .030 to .050?
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Looking up the numbers on an old RCBS chart, it shows the max length as 1.290 and the minimum trim length at 1.280.
Sometimes you need to think about when to measure the OAL of a case. What are you seeing for the OAL of a SIZED case?
Dusty

[Muddydogs]

That is the OAL of sized cases. This is a mixed lot of head stamps, Win, RP, FC among others. I did some more measuring of unsized cases this morning and so far I have 4 short cases for every 1 case that's 1.275 or longer. Out of 100 cases I only found 1 that was over 1.290 and it was 1.300. I like most never really measure pistol cases and this is the first time I have loaded 357, Loaded lots of 38 though. These cases are of unknown origin, I got some in a trade, some mixed in with 38 brass, range pickups and I think I purchased a few 100. I was using the multi fired cases to work up the load and try out the bullet then I was going to load some rounds in once fired brass.

I guess I'm going to sort out the cases into OAL groups then load from there. I don't think its to much of a problem when loading jacketed with no or a tapper crimp but with lead and trying to expand the case so it doesn't squash the bullet .030 to .050 is a lot of difference. Cases end up mushroomed or no expansion.

[kevmc]

sort by headstamp, you may find same headstamp equals same length....

[ku4hx]

I hate sorting brass by length, but I've done it and I'd bet most of us long term loaders have. Generally I've found varying lengths by lot which can be tied to head stamp. The only problem there is I've found varying lengths within a given maker.

Like a friend of mine said years ago, "Bag 'em and tag 'em ... and don't get 'em mixed up".

[williamwaco]

I would set my expander for the cases of the correct length.

When you expand a case, feel the mouth carefully. If it is expanded you can feel it easily. If it is not, you know it is too short without measuring it. Toss it in a box. If you get enough of them, you can load them as a separate batch..

[44man]

If they are range pickups, depends on the gun fired from. Large chambers will expand brass more and they shorten.

[GP100man]

I completely agree with 44mans comment , the brass for expansion has to come from somewhere .

But more than likely the 1.250" brass came from someone loading a 358429 Keith style & true length boolit in a cyl too short for full length 1.280" brass. In the past (workin on memory) I think I cut some back to 1.200" so the 357429 would fit in Cuz`s model 28 Smiff.

I`d set my trimmer up for 1.260-1.265 & unifom it all or sort it into batches according to length.
But you need to keep in mind shorter cases will affect pressures.

[BCRider]

I'd expect the majority of the stretch due to expansion to come from the thickness and not the length.

My Lyman reloading manual calls for a casing "trim to length" spec of 1.280 if this helps you at all.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I would set my expander for the cases of the correct length.

When you expand a case, feel the mouth carefully. If it is expanded you can feel it easily. If it is not, you know it is too short without measuring it. Toss it in a box. If you get enough of them, you can load them as a separate batch..


williamwaco, has the right idea at least for a single stage press. I can not feel the belling with my Dillion progessive, but maybe thats just me.