357 Max Trim Length

[catmandu]

Does anybody know the Max / Min Trim length for 357 Maximum?

44 Russian too if you know it.

I looked in about 5 manuals with no success.

Paul in WNY

[NSB]

Paul,
Lyman gives a trim to length of 1.600, without giving min/max. The Hornady book shows max case length of 1.605 and a trim to length of 1.595. As you can see, it's kind of "all over the place". I don't know what gun you're shooting them out of, but here's my best advice......don't worry about trimming. I've shot countless thousands of .357mag and many thousands of .357max out of both handguns and rifles. I don't..repeat DO NOT trim straight walled handgun cases. It's not necessary. If you're using a single shot rifle it doesn't matter how long they are and if you're using a revolver and the cylinder turns it doesn't matter how long they are. I know that there's a mixed opinion on this subject, but for the most part most experienced shooters/reloaders don't trim straight walled cases used in handguns or single shot rifles. I've experimented with trimming and then shooting groups and I see no advantage to doing it. If the bullets crimp groove is wide enough to allow crimping with some really minute variation it doesn't appear to make any difference. If you don't believe this, try it out for yourself. When I'm shooting them in a single shot rifle I don't crimp at all, I just remover the flare at the end of the case. Hope some of this helps. FWIW, I have about three pages of data collected from shooting the .357 max out of two different guns and I'm about to start using a new barrel I just got yesterday. So far I've had some really good results "doing it my way". Good luck.

[catmandu]

Thanks for the great response NSB, I knew about the 1.600 from an article but not a reloading manual. Basically I'm making a table for all the cartridges I load for. I don't usually trim everything but once in the while you aquire some brass and need to clean up a crimp or lip.
Thanks again,
Paul in WNY

[dangitgriff]

Hey Paul—
FortuneCookie45LC on YouTube recently posted some videos on .357 Maximum.