I trimmed my brass too short.

[fastdadio]

Prepping up some 30-30s. I goofed up and trimmed about 20 pieces to 2.003-2.008. Book says min trim length of 2.029. Puts me a couple 100ths short. Now what? I'm just working up some plinking/mouse phart loads. Load em up and shoot them anyway? Maybe load em to full pressure and see if they grow back? Any harm that can result from these? What say the collective?

[chutesnreloads]

I'd just load them and not worry about it.If you're crimping them,keep them separate from any that are longer

[country gent]

You are roughly .025 to short is all. Load to same Overall length and they shouldnt be a big problem. Crimp will need to be readjusted for them also. Some High power shooters used to trim 308s to 1.980/ 1.990 intead of 2.005. When these cases needed another triming they were discarded.

[JSnover]

No problem. As you reload and resize, they will grow back a little.

[Motor]

Unless you are roll crimping you very likely picked the best cartridge to under cut. The 30-30 has soooo much case neck its not ever going to notice.

Another thing to consider is you very well could still be within SAMMI spec. I don't know what SAMMI min is for 30-30 but for .223 Remington the max is 1.760" The recommended trim is 1.750" The SAMMI spec is 1.760"-.030"

Motor

ETA: There is some kind of problem with the SAMMI web site. I could open the cartridge specs for 30-30, sorry.

[JSnover]

http://www.saami.org/pubresources/cc_drawings/Rifle/30-30%20Winchester.pdf
Here's the SAAMI drawing. Technically you're a little short but not enough to worry about.

[fastdadio]

Thanks folks. I didn't really think it was a problem but I just felt better bouncing it off you guys. I just got back in from the garage from loading them up. I set the col at 2.48" and that set the crimp right in the groove. This is my first batch of cast rifle boolits. I bought the Lee 170 rnfp. It was dropping small with 50/50+2% After honing it out 3 times and then finding out my Lee push through .309 was sizing at .308, I honed that out to .3095. I'm ready to hit the range and see what happens. Thanks for the replys!

[.22-10-45]

I think you would be surprised if you actually measured your chamber length on that 30-30. Winchester chambers in the 30-30 are typically much longer than max. SAAMI specs. Wayne Swartz ran into this problem when building a .30-30 Schuetzen rifle for a customer..bullets were expanding into this gap ruining accuracy. I think he said chamber was around .050" or so longer than case. Had to set barrel back then accuracy was OK. In my custom Shillen barreled Hornet..chamber is .030" longer than longest case. I think this is done on purpose for safety. Long ago I stopped worrying about SAAMI specs written in a book and based my handloading adjustments on MY firearms dimensions.

[Hick]

I've made the same mistake. The cases grow up again as you re-use them. My worst mistakes work fine and they are almost back to 'normal'

[waksupi]

Don't worry about it. I have factory .308s that are shorter than that by far.

[nagantguy]

Did the same thing on some 7mm brass once, used them for less than max loads and never had an issue, as I recall the accuracy was even a bit better than my full length brass, made a note of it and intended to do some 'xpermenting but then a nice shinny Blackhawk showed up for a good price and that rifle, a savage went down the road to someone who'd admired it for a while. It's in the regret pile. Got the rifle from a friend for a good price after a deployment, it shot everything well, my second longest shot on big game ever was made with ease, it wasn't finnicy, never hiccuped. ....I'm drifting sorry. Never should have sold that old savage, why one time me an Matt was hunting the Manistique national forest for black bear

[bangerjim]

Load 'em and shoot 'em.

banger

[fastdadio]

Load 'em and shoot 'em.

banger
I'm gonna. I loaded them with 5.5gr of Titegroup. Loobed up with my world famous triple secret home made loob. Should be about +/- 1200fps according to the data from leverguns. Yote were howling last night and we had a dusting of light snow. Heading out this afternoon to look for tracks.
Thanks guys!

[lobogunleather]

Slightly short cases should pose no problems in .30-30. The primary consideration is consistency, so keep that batch of brass segregated for future use.

[fastdadio]

Slightly short cases should pose no problems in .30-30. The primary consideration is consistency, so keep that batch of brass segregated for future use.
I will. It's only 22 cases so I'll use them for low pressure plinkers and check the length after each loading. As others have said above, I expect them to stretch as normal cases would any way. I wouldn't doubt given 1or 2 high pressure loadings and a full length resize would put them back close to spec anyway.

[waco]

Don't worry about it. I have factory .308s that are shorter than that by far.

Right? Like Hornady...

[Scharfschuetze]

I make 32 Special cases from 30/30 cases and they always come up even shorter than your 22 overly trimmed cases. They are often as much as .05" short as I recall, but it really doesn't matter. I just ensure that they are trimmed to the same length so that my crimps are uniform and then I use 'em as if nothing was the matter.

I do keep 'em segregated from factory 32 Special cases though as each length needs the crimp die adjusted specifically for it in order not to over or under crimp.

[fastdadio]

I'm gonna. I loaded them with 5.5gr of Titegroup. Loobed up with my world famous triple secret home made loob. Should be about +/- 1200fps according to the data from leverguns. Yote were howling last night and we had a dusting of light snow. Heading out this afternoon to look for tracks.
Thanks guys!
I'm back with the field report;
Partly sunny and 15 deg. outside. The fresh snow showed no new yote activity in the area. I did however encounter some overly agressive communist cow patties and caught up with one notorius Mr. Thuglife Gangsta Deadstump. Known to frequent dense woodlands in 5 western states and one back east. All were dispatched efficently and with malice. I convinced Mr. Deadstump (at gun point) to hold a paper plate for me while I paced off about 40 yds. From the kneeling position and resting on trees, I was able to print a couple 3" groups. Not too shabby for a first load/first casting. (thanks to all the advice from all the fine folks here) Back at the bench, a quick swab and bore light showed a glimmering bore with no sign of leading! Success! The short brass did not grow at all. Next loading is some 150gr. fp plain base loaded with 15.5 gr 296 sparked off with CCI 250 mag primers. The Titegroup worked so well that I think after these are gone I'll go back to it and concentrate on developing a load in the +/-1200-1300fps range and keep the 296 for the high pressure stuff.

[Scharfschuetze]

Not too shabby for a first load/first casting.

Good news that Fastadio.

[longbow]

I did the same sort of thing with my .303's except I decide to trim all to minimum SAAMI spec because my brass was all different lengths (and some over length by quite a bit) depending on brand. That part worked but it left the necks really short. Yes, I know it is only a few thou but it seems pretty obvious when compared to SAAMI max.

In the end I simply bought a Lee trimmer in .303 British and started using that. Gradually the short necks are lengthening. I only neck size though so it is taking time.

Full length sizing would speed it up (especially with .303 British in milsurp chambers) but I really don't notice much if any difference in performance when loaded to same OAL. I am sure a target grade gun and shooter would see a difference but for the shooting I do everything seems fine.

If you aren't annealing, full length resizing and using factory equivalent loads it may take a while for those necks to work their way back to where they were but I doubt it will bother accuracy enough to worry about.

Longbow