Brass trimming

Don said:
Cleaned up some mixed .357 brass; trimmed to same oal. I'm done turning the crank by hand.
Battery drill much better for my old hands.;)
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I do something similar.... I use some plastic tubing which fits the shaft of the trimmer.... and use a screwdriver bit adapter which happens to fit the ID of the tubing, and has a hex drive to fit in the drill. This allows for some misalignment without tweaking anything.
 
I purchased the powered RCBS Trim Pro right after they came in the mid 90's, along with the prep center. I have never regretted spending the money. The Trim Pro allows hands free trimming and while one case is in the trimmer, the one before can be chamfered, deburred, primer pocket cleaned or uniformed. I admit it won't do everything, that's my Forester come out.

Either way adding power to any trimmer beats the daylights of cranking by hand.
 
I rigged up a cordless screwdriver on my Redding trimmer with a hex nut on the trimmer and 3/8 drive socket in the screwdriver. I don't like spinning the trimming fast, nor holding a variable speed trigger just right instead of too slow or too fast. The cheap harbor freight cordless screw driver is just the right speed and torque.

For other things I REALLY like the lyman E-ZEE trimmers. With the cordless screwdriver I can run it just as efficiently as the Redding.

The Lee Factory Crimp dies took away a LOT of my need to fuss over case length, especially for single action handguns and leverguns. The only handguns I do fret over are the autos headspacing off the case mouth.
 
I will use a cordless drill on my RCBS trimmer for oddball stuff, but mostly use the interchangeable bushing WFT.
 
Never found the need to trim pistol or revolver brass. However, I do try to keep the lots separate and record the number of times reloaded. I've reloaded 357 nickel plated brass over 20 times without ever trimming............... over half the plating gone.

The only time I trim handgun brass is when it starts splitting and then I convert it to the shorter option...........like 44 Magnum to 44 Special and then again to 44 Russian. I don't bother with making 38 Special from split 357 Magnum brass. Don't use Lee Factory Crimp dies, either. Only RCBS roll crimp or taper crimp, depending on the cartridge,

Since I view trimming rifle brass as a necessary evil.............I do it only once. I use RCBS X-sizer dies, exclusively, on cartridges that tend to grow with every reloading. Set them and forget it for 243W, 308W, 338W and maybe (can't recall) on 270W.
 
I had an X die in .308 Win. Sold it pretty quickly because it sized the neck ID down dang near to the next smaller caliber. Ruined necks, wonky when expanded, plus work hardened to the dickens in two reloads. Never again.

Power to the trimmers is the way to go. I use a benchtop lathe now, and not on low speed.
 
Ian said:
I had an X die in .308 Win. Sold it pretty quickly because it sized the neck ID down dang near to the next smaller caliber. Ruined necks, wonky when expanded, plus work hardened to the dickens in two reloads. Never again.

Power to the trimmers is the way to go. I use a benchtop lathe now, and not on low speed.
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:headscratch: It must have gotten past quality control.
 
I just fully prepped 106 FC 1x 30/06 pieces. Took a few days as I did it in steps.

As of this afternoon it is fully ready to load.

Washed (initial)

Annealed

Trimmed (de-burred)

Flash holes also de-burred and MAN WAS THEY BAD!!

Primer pockets uniformed. Also very inconsistent!!

Washed second time.

Final Size W/O expander older Forester match Die.

Run thru proper sized mandrel for neck tension.

Primed W/Federal Match 210

Just waiting on that last piece of the bolt.

CW
 
CWLONGSHOT said:
Final Size W/O expander older Forester match Die.

Run thru proper sized mandrel for neck tension.


CW
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Wow, thought I was the only one on the planet that knew what they were doing.

Size my precision stuff in a Redding bushing die without expander stem, other bottlenecks in regular dies without expander stem, then bump necks up with a Sinclair expander die and appropriate mandrel for .002" neck tension. Anneal every firing on the precision rifles.

Glad to meet ya CW......
 
Winelover said:
Don't use Lee Factory Crimp dies, either.
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EASY Button for all things crimp, you should try one sometime. Never did like the pain of setting up a roll or taper, or the inconsistent seating depth, or the shaved bullet, etc.

I laughed at the FCD for a long time, until I tried one. Now I have quite a few and swear by them where i need a crimp. Wish they made one for 10 auto.

I'm not talking about the ones with the carbide ring either, that's a dumb idea right there.
 
Winelover said:
The only time I trim handgun brass is when it starts splitting and then I convert it to the shorter option...........like 44 Magnum to 44 Special and then again to 44 Russian.
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I used to do that with split 44 Magnum cases until I began to anneal them. That reduced split necks.
 
i trim and size at the same time [for most of my stuff] anneal, set the neck tension, load, then fire form.
still takes forever to load any thing associated with a rifle.

if i have to trim pistol brass it gets done on the old Lyman power unit.
 
I guess I’m a dinosaur.
I trim .44, especially .357 and .38 when I get bored in the winter. All with my old Forestor.
Take a batch of cases, set my caliper as a “snap guage” and separate all the long stuff. Trim and chamfer and it’s done/beagle
 
3-way cutter on a RCBS trim pro. Yeah, a little slow, but when brass comes off it's already deburred. One less step. Just about done working my way through 1K+ 1x fired LC 5.56. Son and his family (including 2 teenage boys and a wife who likes to shoot) will burn this up in a range trip or two next summer.

For small batches I like my Forster hand cranker - works great. It is a good tool. I've got the part to hook up a drill, but never used it.

I've got a Little Crow Worlds Fastest Trimmer. It works and it's fast, but I like the aforementioned trimmers better.
 
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