Trimming Brass Cases for Swaging Bullets

[Bonz]

I got my BTSniper dies and they do work great. One thing that I didn't realize was that the brass cases would need to be trimmed to a specific length for swaging bullets. With my .40->45 swaging dies, to get a 200 grain JHP, I need to trim the .40 brass case to 0.6". Tried everything but the only thing that I could find to get consistent brass case lengths was to use the trimmer for rifle brass, you know the one with the crank handle.

Then I remembered a post from DukeInFlorida when he was talking about a custom chopsaw that Chuckbuster built that had special brass holders. I contacted Chuckbuster and he told me that they happened to be making a few right now and said that I could get on the list. Mine just arrived a few days ago and I decided to make some .40->45 200 grain JHP bullets. It took me a couple of minutes to adjust it so that it cut the cases to the needed 0.6" length. I'm so impressed with the concept and machine work that I had the wife help me video some of it so that I could share it on our site.

If you have questions, you will need to ask Chuckbuster. I have major surgery scheduled for tommorrow 9am and I'm sure that it will be a while before I sign on again.

The following are the videos that I posted on YouTube

http://youtu.be/6wUajXH5m-E

http://youtu.be/_RE84Bxgerk

http://youtu.be/uUuY3y1usO8

[gloob]

One cheap method would be to use Lee trimmer. Take the 45ACP trim guide and chuck it in a drill. Then using a dremel tool with a cutoff disc, you turn it down in your redneck lathe to bring back the shoulder, sufficiently. Then you trim the stop pin until you get your desired length.

Then you chuck the cases in a Zip trim + Zip trim spindle adaptor in a drill, and go to town. Dunk the cutter in water between cases to keep it from overheating. You should be able to cut a couple thousand cases with each $5.00 cutter.

I have personally made this guide for a friend, who cut down thousands and thousands of 9mm cases this way for a custom application. I think he was taking off more than 0.6" even. All he had to do was order a couple new cutters every now and then. He never used any coolant, and just kept the cutter smoking!