Case trimming

jankovig

jankovig

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Winnipeg
I just started reloading for .308 and I was wondering if I should
be trimming my cases if I'm only neck sizing. This is all once fired
brass from my own rifle
 
Hotwheels81 said:
Depends what your caliper is telling you... You have one rite?
Click to expand...

Yes I do have a caliper, but I guess my questions was more how the
length will get affected when I have too bump the shoulder back after a few
firings.

Currently my cases range in length from 2.007" - 2.012" (different head stamps)
and I would like to trim everything to 2.005"
 
I'll second the Lee case sizers. Although it's important to have calipers for checking things like finished OAL, the sizers make things very quick and easy.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
Just trim and chamfer them all after the first firing, and keep an eye on them after that.
Click to expand...

I'm new to reloading and was wondering about this. So after trimming to length my 1F brass, you are saying that in subsequent firing, stretch will be minimal. After how many firings do you typically find you need to trim again?

TIA,

Tom
 
Magnum_Tom said:
I'm new to reloading and was wondering about this. So after trimming to length my 1F brass, you are saying that in subsequent firing, stretch will be minimal. After how many firings do you typically find you need to trim again?

TIA,

Tom
Click to expand...

I suppose it would depend on the rifle and cartridge, the headspace, how hard you're kickin' them etc. There would be no set rule, other than to keep an eye on how much they grow and trim the batch when they get close to max. I've loaded cartridges with cast boolits in my 30/30 that were 1x fired, trimmed, partial full length sized 5 or 6x times, then a full length sizing and 3x more fired and no trim IIRC.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
I suppose it would depend on the rifle and cartridge, the headspace, how hard you're kickin' them etc. There would be no set rule, other than to keep an eye on how much they grow and trim the batch when they get close to max. I've loaded cartridges with cast boolits in my 30/30 that were 1x fired, trimmed, partial full length sized 5 or 6x times, then a full length sizing and 3x more fired and no trim IIRC.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick responses / info!

I've been reloading 308 Win and 300 Win Mag 1F brass. It seems like only 1 in 3 308 actually have material for the Lee trimmer to trim. The 300s are more like 3 or 4 out of 5 "need" trimming. I was just wondering if this is a step that you always had to go through. It seems like I'm spending a lot of time on case prep compared to actually loading.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
Sometimes factory brass can be a little under the min trim length and the trimmer won't do sfa. Just give a chamfer in and out, done deal.
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It probably depends on the manufacturer too. The 308 was mostly all my Win brass I'd been collecting for years. The 300 was mainly 1F Federal I bought from Higginson's. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the Fedaral has more material and will stretch more.

Thanks again. Apologies to the OP for the hijack.

Tom
 
With the LEE trimmer there's so little effort involved why wouldn't you try them at least once to be safe?
"if it save's even one life" :ar15:
 
zuke said:
With the LEE trimmer there's so little effort involved why wouldn't you try them at least once to be safe?
"if it save's even one life" :ar15:
Click to expand...

You're right. I shouldn't be looking for shortcuts at this point. But I might look into one of those motorized case prep center doodads to help speed things up.

But what do these guys that reload 100's of cases an hour do for case prep? Are they just not counting case prep time when they say they're reloading 200+ rounds an hour? Start to finish it takes me more than 3 hours to do 50 rounds with my Lee single stage press. My 2 major slow spots are case prep and powder measuring. For the latter, I can't seem to get consistency out of the Lee Perfect Measure. It's always +/- 1:grain. It might get better with different powder though. I'll be trying out some H4381SC this weekend which I'm hoping will measure better.
 
Magnum_Tom said:
You're right. I shouldn't be looking for shortcuts at this point. But I might look into one of those motorized case prep center doodads to help speed things up.

But what do these guys that reload 100's of cases an hour do for case prep? Are they just not counting case prep time when they say they're reloading 200+ rounds an hour? Start to finish it takes me more than 3 hours to do 50 rounds with my Lee single stage press. My 2 major slow spots are case prep and powder measuring. For the latter, I can't seem to get consistency out of the Lee Perfect Measure. It's always +/- 1:grain. It might get better with different powder though. I'll be trying out some H4381SC this weekend which I'm hoping will measure better.
Click to expand...

They have to do it at least once, so take it from there.
I use the same measure.Get more consistant with your throw's and thing's will improve.
 
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