I was putting together an RCBS trimmer today, Trimpro 2. No issues with assembly, figured out how what worked PDQ. Then I tried putting a piece of brass I had handy in the "universal shellholder". I'm thinking maybe I shoulda knowed better., Murphy is my buddy lately. Brass was a 30R Blaser, wouldn't go, jaws won't spread, lots of room behind them, fight with it, all of a sudden--pop, in it goes. Tried it about 10-12 times, got it in 2-3 times. Then I noticed the serrated grip pad behind the jaws, looked at the base of the brass, scratched all to krap by the pad, not especially impressed by that. Liable to be harder to read faint pressure stuff on the bases of a cartridge in my mind. I tried a 6.5x55 case, bit easier to insert. not much though, about 6 tries out of 12, same issue with scratches.
I find the Hornady trimmers somewhat pesky with the type of lockup it has on a cartridge, it's sort of OK ...but, plus the captive shellholders kinda torqued me when I first tried it, can't use anything else without drilling them out, had to run around to get one that weekend. The trimmer on their trim/prep center is kinda tough to get a repeatable trim length on, the stop doesn't always stop, at least not for long enough to do a batch any particular size. It's an "OK Mofo, you stayin put this time?" kind of deal.
Only reason I got into those was I had a cartridge that had to use shellholders, and a Forster trimmer with the short bed, that was too short for one cartridge to work in it. As an aside, a Universal Jaw Co-Ax that wouldn't accept that rim, it was too big ( I knew that in advance though). Doesn't much like the rims on the 218 Bee from batch to batch, either, I use the Rockchucker for it, easier to pulll bullets with as well.
And the Lee autoprime wouldn't accept that big rim, they didn't have a shellholder for it that was big enough, either. RCBS universal wouldn't accept it, too big, also cocked the cartridge case on normal stuff. And a Hornady hand primer tool that was made on a Mon AM or late Friday, which wound up in the garbage, kept hanging up on the plunger travel.. And then I wanted a case prep center, which got me into the trimmer issue on it, love the prep center side of it though.
Being that I got rid of the one gun that started it all, so I don't need a lot of this stuff anymore, I'm thinking I should just go back to using the Forster trimmer, which I've never had any isues with, go back to using the Lee Autoprime ( round tray) as I have lots of spare pcs and a brand spankin new one in the stash.
The Trim-Pro2 universal jaw setup isn't something I feel like fighting with when trimming, if what I just experienced is what I have to work with on it, as to feeding cases into it, and I don't like the look of those bases when they come out, don't have any inclination to try mods on it.
Maybe take the sawzall to the Hornady trim/prep unit , turf the trim tower part, keep the prep part of it, as I really like that side of it.
I have an issue with selling someone else the issues I've got/had with these tools, maybe other people are more tolerant of some of this stuff? Or--Am I just a bit further off the wall than some other Gun Nutz?
I find the Hornady trimmers somewhat pesky with the type of lockup it has on a cartridge, it's sort of OK ...but, plus the captive shellholders kinda torqued me when I first tried it, can't use anything else without drilling them out, had to run around to get one that weekend. The trimmer on their trim/prep center is kinda tough to get a repeatable trim length on, the stop doesn't always stop, at least not for long enough to do a batch any particular size. It's an "OK Mofo, you stayin put this time?" kind of deal.
Only reason I got into those was I had a cartridge that had to use shellholders, and a Forster trimmer with the short bed, that was too short for one cartridge to work in it. As an aside, a Universal Jaw Co-Ax that wouldn't accept that rim, it was too big ( I knew that in advance though). Doesn't much like the rims on the 218 Bee from batch to batch, either, I use the Rockchucker for it, easier to pulll bullets with as well.
And the Lee autoprime wouldn't accept that big rim, they didn't have a shellholder for it that was big enough, either. RCBS universal wouldn't accept it, too big, also cocked the cartridge case on normal stuff. And a Hornady hand primer tool that was made on a Mon AM or late Friday, which wound up in the garbage, kept hanging up on the plunger travel.. And then I wanted a case prep center, which got me into the trimmer issue on it, love the prep center side of it though.
Being that I got rid of the one gun that started it all, so I don't need a lot of this stuff anymore, I'm thinking I should just go back to using the Forster trimmer, which I've never had any isues with, go back to using the Lee Autoprime ( round tray) as I have lots of spare pcs and a brand spankin new one in the stash.
The Trim-Pro2 universal jaw setup isn't something I feel like fighting with when trimming, if what I just experienced is what I have to work with on it, as to feeding cases into it, and I don't like the look of those bases when they come out, don't have any inclination to try mods on it.
Maybe take the sawzall to the Hornady trim/prep unit , turf the trim tower part, keep the prep part of it, as I really like that side of it.
I have an issue with selling someone else the issues I've got/had with these tools, maybe other people are more tolerant of some of this stuff? Or--Am I just a bit further off the wall than some other Gun Nutz?
