How often to resize brass

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ronsnighttrain

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I have been reloading for pistol calibers for a couple years now, and am starting to get gear together to start reloading 223. How often do you need to resize brass? After each time it is fired, or only once in a while? Looking at getting a lyman universal case trimmer, but wondering if it is nessesary.
 
If your planning on using your reloads in one rifle they you could get away to just neck sizing but after a couple times you may need to full size since your bolt will become sticky
 
ronsnighttrain said:
I have been reloading for pistol calibers for a couple years now, and am starting to get gear together to start reloading 223. How often do you need to resize brass? After each time it is fired, or only once in a while? Looking at getting a lyman universal case trimmer, but wondering if it is nessesary.
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is this two separate questions, or are you confusing case trimming with case sizing?
 
I resize .223 every I reload them. I don't have to trim them every time, but I check for length and toss them in a pile if they are long. If you shoot under max pressures you will need to trim them less.
 
ronsnighttrain said:
I have been reloading for pistol calibers for a couple years now, and am starting to get gear together to start reloading 223. How often do you need to resize brass? After each time it is fired, or only once in a while? Looking at getting a lyman universal case trimmer, but wondering if it is nessesary.
Click to expand...

The simple answer is that you HAVE to resize the brass every time. If you don't the bullet will fall out of the case due to no neck tension.

The more complicated answer is that you want to minimize the resizing of the brass. If you refrain from picking up range brass and only use brass fired from your gun you can get a way with only resizing the neck for quite a long time. At some point you may have to full length resize. Another option is to use a full length resize die but only stroke the press far enough to resize about 2/3 of the neck. If you get to the point where your brass will not chamber easily, then you can full length resize. If you use range brass you will have to full length resize them.

Trimming the brass for length is different than sizing. At some point you probably will have to trim the length, but it kind of depends on your gun and the resizing method you use. The fastest and least expensive way to trim your brass is to use the Lee hand trimmer. If you have a lot of brass to do, then you can mount it in a drill. You would need the following for your gun:

Lee Cutter and Lock Stud
Case Length Gage/Holder

You are in business for $15 or so. They are dead simple to use and very accurate.

casetrimmer.jpg
 
I started reloading for my ar15 5-6 months ago now and if i had to start over i would opt for a drill or motor operated trimmer that also chamfers and deburrs. I started with the lee and got sick of it, went to the world's finest trimmer and while it does a great job i still have to chamfer and deburr. i will be buying a Giraud Tri Way Trimmer some time this year.
 
If you plan to crimp your .223/5.56 ammo I would trim the the cases every time you size the cases.

This will make the cases more uniform and improve accuracy.
 
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