Did I just ruin 500 223 cases trimming too short, or are those still good?

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Kryogen

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I just ran 500 223 cases through my lee trimmer mounted on a press drill when I realized that for some reason, the cutter has "eaten" into the length stud, and I have been trimming cases to 1.710 instead of 1.750.

Can I still reload those cases or should I just thrash?

My bet is, if the bullet holds there, I am good to go, am I ?

Next buy is a damn rt 1200 ... sick of scrapping brass with cheap reliading stuff.
 
Not a problem....use them.
I have seen cases .040 too short a number of times.
If you make 308 Norma Mag from 7mm Rem Mag or 338 Win Mag,
they will be .050 short, but many do this without issues.
Enjoy! Eagleye.
 
guess I will use and report. Maybe lost some accuracy, maybe not I guess.

Now, what should I buy to trim my damn cases since that lee thing sucks, and the giraud or rt1200 are going to be for one caliber?
What am I going to use for the other calibers?
 
3 pages ago that you said that Lee Trimmer was fast and easy? Now 500 cases .050" too short and it sucks? With my Gracey trimmer I insert the cases with one hand and measure with my vernier with the other hand. Takes about 5 seconds a case to do this but everything is trimmed and chamfered inside and out.

My main calibre is .308 Win if I need to trim another calibre it is no where near the same volume so I use a manual Hornady Trimmer and a chamfering tool.

If I was going to be shooting a 1000 .308 and another 1000 .223 rounds a year I would just buy another case holder for $40.
 
I use the RCBS X-die to resize my .223 and .308 cases. RCBS recommends initially trimming the cases 20 thou under the nominal case length as they lengthen a bit before stabilizing so you're really only 25 thou under that. After 2 or three firings I'm guessing your cases will be pretty close to back to 1.75".
 
lee trimmer was fast and easy until recently when it stopped cutting properly and started eating the length rod.....

Lets say it's fast and easy to do a few cases, and it's not quite the thing to do 1000.
 
I went with the RT-1200 for .233 and the Sinclair/L.E.Wilson stainless ultimate trimmer for everything else.

I'm now thinking of a Giraud to add to the collection.
 
I have trimmed literally thousands of cases with the Lee system with nary a problem.
Even some tough trimming jobs, like removing .070 from a 300 Win Mag case to make 308 NM.
Never had a cutter eat into the length rod since Lee replaced the Aluminum rods with steel ones.
That was a long, long time ago, lol.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
Eagleye said:
I have trimmed literally thousands of cases with the Lee system with nary a problem.
Even some tough trimming jobs, like removing .070 from a 300 Win Mag case to make 308 NM.
Never had a cutter eat into the length rod since Lee replaced the Aluminum rods with steel ones.
That was a long, long time ago, lol.
Regards, Eagleye.
Click to expand...


Agreed I can't see using anything but the lee trimmer
 
Eagleye said:
I have trimmed literally thousands of cases with the Lee system with nary a problem.
Even some tough trimming jobs, like removing .070 from a 300 Win Mag case to make 308 NM.
Never had a cutter eat into the length rod since Lee replaced the Aluminum rods with steel ones.
That was a long, long time ago, lol.
Regards, Eagleye.
Click to expand...

No clue. I have trimmed maybe 600 300 win mag cases without an issue, but I can assure you the cutter ate into that length gauge .040..... I have no clue why it did.
I just wrote an email to lee with the picture and maybe they will send me a replacement cutter and length gauge I guess.

defective_gauge_1.jpg

defective_gauge_2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Kryogen said:
No clue. I have trimmed maybe 600 300 win mag cases without an issue, but I can assure you the cutter ate into that length gauge .040..... I have no clue why it did.
I just wrote an email to lee with the picture and maybe they will send me a replacement cutter and length gauge I guess.

defective_gauge_1.jpg

defective_gauge_2.jpg
Click to expand...

When they send you a replacement take in minute and inspect the mandrel, polish it if necessary. In use if you see brass building up polish it off.
Your case necks gripped the mandrel too tightly causing the cutter to eat into the mandrel shank - possibly the mandrel is too soft
When it flared in the area where the cutter contacts, the mandrel would cause it to grip cases even tighter and wouldn't do any favours to the inside of the case mouths.

Dan
 
I had a problem with the lee length gauge but it was on the other end. The tip started to mushroom/ flatten out and started cutting too short (1.725). This was after about 2000 pieces on a zip trim.
 
They will work. Seat your bullets to normal length. Even using the milspec 55 gr FMJ you will still get about .130" of bearing surface.
 
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