Revolver Brass: to chamfer or not to chamfer

[PS Paul]

I've played around with this for several years and thought I might offer up a few questions to the folk on the forum.

On the LASC.US website, there is a two-part article from Todd Spotti on .357 loads for FA Revolver where he works with a certain "Rick" (a man who I respect TREMENDOUSLY and who is a member of our forum here) who chooses not to chamfer or deburr brass in .357 cases in order to obtain greater boolit "pull".

For some years, I did it religiously with new revolver brass. Other times, with once-fired brass, I did not.

Rifle brass with jxted is an entirely different matter, but for use with revolver brass (.357, .45 Colt, 44 mag, etc......), the question is:

Do you chamfer and deburr your brass before reloading?

If you do or do not, please provide some reasoning behind your decisions......

I read an article from Mike Venturino where he displayed some .44-40 brass he did not chamfer, and some lead shavings were the result. I cannot recall if he was using a 3 or 4 die set? A majority of my cast boolit reloading is done with 3-die sets, performing seating and crimping in a single operation. I sometimes do the operations separately, but only a small percentage of the time WITH REVOLVER BRASS.

So, good men: what say you?
Paul

[timspawn]

I do not trim or chamfer revolver brass. Since you have to bell the case mouth, I see no need to chamfer it.

[Bucking the Tiger]

Never trim or chamfer my revolver brass. I do seat and crimp with separate dies. I really like the Lee deluxe dies with the factory crimp. I shoot revolvers with lead bullets almost exclusively.

[texassako]

I do not trim or chamfer revolver brass. I do not see why you would chamfer unless you trimmed it. Of course, I have never loaded brand new brass in a revolver either.

[williamwaco]

+1 +1 +1

I never trim revolver or pistol cases. ( almost )

Occasionally I will try it again just to see if it improves accuracy. It never has.

On those rare occasions - I trim before sizing.
The sizing die removes the outside burr and the expander die removes the inside burr.

[dragon813gt]

I trim, chamfer and debur all "new to me brass." I do wait until I have quite a bit saved up so I can take care of the monotony all at once. I load w/ four dies; sizer, powder through expander(set up to just throw the charge, M Die, Seat/Crimp at the same time. I trim all brass so I have uniform crimps and uniform case expansion. If the cases aren't the same length they can be all over. I chamfer/debur out of habit. Even after this upon first loading I will get small brass slivers after coming out of the seating die. I can't imagine what would come out if I didn't. It takes me very little time to chamfer and debur and since I haven't had any issues I continue to do it.

[HeavyMetal]

case preperation, be it pistol or rifle, is the most misunderstood and most neglected part of reloading ammunition!

Take a magnifiying glass to a new or once fired case and examine the case mouth throughly. You'll find it can be anywhere from a bit rough to down right saw toothed in condition. I firmly believe that this is a major reason for split case mouths!

Over the years I have tried a couple different techniques to deal with this roughness and, sadly, never came up with anything I'd consider production line speed, LOL! I have found my latest technique works best: a Lee collet case holder in a cordless drill a Lyman 11 degree inside chamfer tool and a standard RCBS out side de burring tool take care of smoothing the case mouth area up.

Great care should be taken not to overdue this chamfering as you can easily thin the case mouth and create the same issue your trying to avoid!

Case's are then run through a Lee Universal case expander, just enough to start the boolit without scraping lead, and then through a die with an expander plug .001 under boolit diameter. This provides enough boolit pull ( when using case's with the same headstamp lot number) This is how I do my 357 loads for my Contender barrel, don't own a wheel gun in 357, and I've had no issue with the same ammo in, a Ruger SS, a Dan Weson 15 and a 686 owned by a BIL.

I also do other "useless" things Like triming all my brass to one length, deburing flash holes, reaming primer pockets and cleaning my brass before loading.

Now many of these things only need to be done once, primer pocket reaming & flash hole deburring come to mind, while others such as triming or deburring need only be done as needed, once they've been done the first time!

All of this things add up to more consistant crimp, more consistant boolit pull, more consistant ignition which creates more consistant accuracy, as a general rule of course!

[James6406]

I always do a light turn with the chamfer tool on all cases to remove small burrs and the sharp inner edge. If you look with a magnifier you will see tiny burrs from stretching and compressing the case mouth. Removing the burrs eliminates stress razors (focal areas) and greatly extends the case life.

[Lefty SRH]

I've trimmed, deburred, and chamfered my big bore revolver brass when I am trying to keep things consistant. But not anything in the calibers that I load for volume.

[chsparkman]

Anytime I get new brass, either brand new or just new to me, and I know I'm going to load lead boolits in it, I de-burr the inside. Failure to do so in the past has resulted in leaded chambers and barrels. If I'm going to load jacketed, I don't worry about it.

[PS Paul]

So I'm seeing some of you do it in the same circumstances I chamfer: new brass with sharp or saw-like edges.

The article on lasc.us speaks to NOT chamfering the .357 cases so the reloader could maximize brass thickness in the IMI brass and realize maximum boolit pull with the use of the redding profile crimp die. Sort of a combination taper and roll crimp die.

I have a few cases in .45 Colt that I dedicate to use of Lyman's 452389 boolits. They are a button-nose wadcutter with a very sharp base and just getting 'em started a tad easier with a slight chamfer seems to help.

I am going to actually try some experimentation with chamfered and non-chamfered cases in heavy and light loads and compile some evidence to see what, if any, accuracy improvements and case life extensions I might see.

Keep 'em comin'!

[detox]

For easier slip fit in case mouth of larger diameter lead boolits i use my RCBS Cowboy expander/flare tool. It is .001" larger than standard RCBS expander. I also lightly chamfer just to prevent shaving lead during seating. Whenever i use jacketed boolits i use standard diameter expender/flare tool.

.001" Larger RCBS Cowboy expander:http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=000449906

Annealing your cases correctly will give more consistant neck tension.

[starnbar]

I trim and deburr just so the cases are all the same length in pistol calibers.

[ultramag]

I've trimmed, deburred, and chamfered my big bore revolver brass when I am trying to keep things consistant. But not anything in the calibers that I load for volume.

+1

Right or wrong this is how I do it.

I sure don't see how the revolver and/or roll crimping crowd gets away without trimming. I know many always say they don't. I've got .44 Mag brass that varies almost .020 in OAL. It seems it would be more tedious measuring and segregating and keeping all that straight than it is to just trim a few hundred uniform every so often.

[flintlock62]

I've never trimmed revolver cases. To me. if the brass is stretched out that much, it's time to discard for newer, less used cases. As others have stated, chamfering is not necessary.