The Brass Prep Blues - triming, deburr, chamfering

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Been getting at a lot of case prep lately as I'm up to my arse in snow...
Getting a little tired of manual trim, manual chamfer and manual deburr tools.. After about 500 .223 cases, and another 3000 or so to go, I'ts going to be hard on my fingers before long.... hell, it already is... Havent even looked at my other calibers yet....

I need tools that automate the process, like the RCBS trim pro setup. Also, I see various "stations" that help chamfer, debur and clean primer pockets.

What do you guys use? Pro's, Con's.

Cheers
 
RCBS trim-pro is awesome cuts way down on time spent i only wish someone made a steeper angle inside chamfer cutter for it
i keep waiting for Sinclair or Rcbs to do it....
 
I've had reasonable luck hooking my trimmer to a variable speed drill turning at dead slow speed. Same thing with the chamfering tool, a Sinclair driver takes care of neck turning and a stainless bore brush chucked up cleans inside necks. The drill only needs to barely be turning.
A much nicer solution is just to get Nosler matched prepped and weight sorted brass, use a bushing or collet die to eliminate stretching and spend the rest of your time bothering your wife. Playing with cases is boring.
 
I use the Giraud. This is the best trimmer money can buy to trim and chamfer case mouth. It is very fast. For primer pocket, I use the Sinclair pocket reamer in a low speed hand drill.
 
The RCBS 3-way cutter mounted on the trim-pro case trimmer is the cat's ass! It does make it a lot easier on the hands if the trimmer itself is mounted on a piece of 3/4" plywood to raise the handle up above the table top.

49trim_pro_3_way_cutter.JPG




The Forster deburring tool and holder is also very fast and very easy on the fingers. It is one of my favorite case prep tools.

49Forester_trim.JPG
 
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Janeau said:
Boo you are wasting your life away with those.... they are Ok by slooooow..... :runaway:
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I only reload for rifle so doing hundreds of cases in one sitting is not common. With that said using these manual prep tools is not a lot slower than using a powered tool. It does give a bit more exercise however. ;)
 
I use Lee case length trimmers mounted in my drill press, works like a darn, no adjustments to make and fast. De-burr with RCBS trimmer.
 
Yes the Giraud can do neck sized or fully sized case. They are fast. A few second each case. The quality of the cut and chamfering is consistent and well ...perfect.:)
 
The Gracey uses the shoulder as a datum so it does work better if full length resized to start. However I have run neck sized only through with out a problem. I run 3 different .308 target rifles, althought they are all chambered with an Obermeyer reamer they are slightly different. At the end of the season everything gets full length resized and trimmed. If some cases make 2-3 trips you don't need to trim every time. Some cases make 5-6 trips before trimming.
 
Yes the Giraud can do neck sized or fully sized case. They are fast. A few second each case. The quality of the cut and chamfering is consistent and well ...perfect.:) The OAL variation are less than .001 on my Lapua brass.

As for other..some are nice trimmer ( Wilson !!) but cannot compare to the Giraud. The Lee is the cheapest way to do it but OAL variation from case to case is just too great. I class the Lee as -better than nothing - category but definitely not a precision tool.

In the trimmer - my own evaluation is from best to lowest :
Giraud ( of course !!)
Gracey
Wilson
Forster
Redding
Hornady
RCBS
Lyman
Lee

And yes I tried and used all of them except the Gracey...
I understand that such a rating might dissapoint some and even start a mini war but so what..we are here to have fun..:evil:
 
Just FYI - I picked up what I could afford for now, which was the RCBS trim-pro with the 3 way trimmer head. Greatly reduced my case prep time so far, and is modular, so, when I can afford it, I can add on the electric motor to speed it up even more.

Thanks for all your input guys. I want a pencil sharpener, but this will do for now.. :D
 
maynard: The Gracey uses the shoulder as a datum so it does work better if full length resized to start. However I have run neck sized only through with out a problem. I run 3 different .308 target rifles, althought they are all chambered with an Obermeyer reamer they are slightly different. At the end of the season everything gets full length resized and trimmed. If some cases make 2-3 trips you don't need to trim every time. Some cases make 5-6 trips before trimming.
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So would you need to adjust the trimmer to account for the differences between the shoulder on a FL-sized case versus a Neck sized case? Can you do this on a Gracey or a Giraud?

I am asking because on some chambers (303 British comes to mind) the shoulder between a FL and NS case is quite a bit different.
 
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