trailer

This might be a silly question to some but how critical is the over all length of the brass when trimming down for reloading? I know that you shouldn’t be over the suggested length but what about being shorter? I was trimming some brass and it would vary between 0.001” to 0.004” shorter then what was marked. I just couldn’t get it right.

bigcountry

Oh, the struggle of trimming. Well, alot of guys trim .005 to .01" lower than the suggested trimming. So I wouldn't worry about it.

On the varying side, it really shouldn't affect accuracy. What your seeing is normal. But instead of going lower than the suggested trimming, I do try to stay on high side. In other words, if I am called to trim 2.84", I try to keep my brass longer than 2.84".

charlie brown

When I trim cases, I try to aim for the middle of the road between trim-to length and max length. It shouldn't hurt to be under the trim to length, I have seen brass come from the factory this way.

trailer

I have new brass and just wanted to take a little off to clean up the end but didn’t want to be to short. It just happened that way. Maybe after shooting it will stretch a little!

Mark whiz

That little bit under won't hurt a thing. I usually trim my .308 brass to 2" when the minimum is supposed to be 2.005". These are for semi-auto rifles which stretch brass extra, so trimming a little more off, usually gives me an ectra reload before having to trim again.

trailer

Thanks Guys

charlie brown

One thing that I have found also, that cleans up the ends, but doesn't take a bunch off of cases that really don't need to be trimmed is chamfer and deburr the case necks. A lot of times this will take all that is need off the end, in the times I have done it. I also neck size, which greatly ruduces how much I have to trim off.

Vapodog

Not to say others should do this but I trim new brass back from the max length .030 at the start and never trim them again......reason is that I just hate trimming so only do it once. Even trimmed this far back I've never encountered a problem.

trailer

Thanks again and Vapodog , I might do as you suggested. I don’t like trimming and find that new brass has very rough edge at the end of the neck. If trimming a little more doesn't matter I’ll clean it up once and for all.

James B

The only place where short cases may screw you up is if you intend to crimp your loads. Even then it won't bother if they are all of uniform length. I check the length every time I reload a case and keep them uniform. Just got used to doing it this way. I don't mind trimming cases.