This is a FWIW and really has little or no value, just wasting time. I was processing a gallon of 9mm brass (sized yesterday, was flaring today) when I thought of "trimming hand gun brass" posts I've read. So I grabbd my dial calipers and meaured about 100 mixed cases. Longest were .750", the vast majority ran .748"-.749", and the shortest was .745", just three cases; one Speer, one Winchester and one WC. Most of this brass was purchasd "once fired" and maybe a quarter of the bunch was my reloaded and fired brass with an unknown number of reloadings. All were a bit shorter than SAAMI specs. of .754". So, just keeping in touch with my reloading stuff, but I was curious 'cause I don't think I've ever measured a 9x19 case...
Bored in the shop...
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bullseye308
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I too went through and measured some 9mm once after loading it for many years and realized what I knew all along. There is no point in it.
Waterboy3313
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I will occasionally trim my 357 brass only because I want a good uniform crimp. All other straight wall pistol brass gets tumbled and reloaded unless it has some kind of visual defect. 9mm cases I don't think I've ever measured one let alone trimmed.
Atavar
Member
If you are not having a problem with uneven flare from the expander there is no need to trim acp or Luger brass.
I just ended up trimming some because I was getting some random huge or missing flares.
I know this is because my case lengths were varying up to .012 (Winchester “once fired” Brass).
I only trimmed them to a standard length to regulate the flare. It had nothing to do with spec. I made sure I was not trimming below minimum.
I just ended up trimming some because I was getting some random huge or missing flares.
I know this is because my case lengths were varying up to .012 (Winchester “once fired” Brass).
I only trimmed them to a standard length to regulate the flare. It had nothing to do with spec. I made sure I was not trimming below minimum.
Pat Riot
Contributing Member
I used to measure my .38 Special and .45 Colt brass. I discovered that after several loadings the pieces of brass I was keeping track of weren’t changing dimension so I stopped worrying about it.
I did measure some 9mm brass I bought as “once fired range brass” it was all under spec. I haven’t measured any since and it has been reloaded a couple of times. I might do some spot checks just to see if there are any of concern.
I did measure some 9mm brass I bought as “once fired range brass” it was all under spec. I haven’t measured any since and it has been reloaded a couple of times. I might do some spot checks just to see if there are any of concern.
I separate by headstamp, but always wind up with a "mixed" bin. Even in those there has only been one headstamp that I noticed gave me excessive flare/crimp. They were all TSA headstamp, far easier to cull those out then trim any 9mm brass
41 Mag
Member
I have run a batch of my 10mm through the trimmer years ago when I first started loading for hunting. It was simply to compare with factory new cases. Didn't prove anything.
With my 41 and up magnum hunting loads, on occasion I will check 10 - 20 cases out of a hundred or more, and more or less square them all up to the shortest I measured. That does effect my crimp and closer they are the better they seem to shoot.
With my 41 and up magnum hunting loads, on occasion I will check 10 - 20 cases out of a hundred or more, and more or less square them all up to the shortest I measured. That does effect my crimp and closer they are the better they seem to shoot.
GeoDudeFlorida
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The only pistol brass I’ve ever had that needed trimming was factory new Starline .357 and .45Colt. I do have Lee trimming pins for a few auto cases but they were free or part of a trade. Rifle is a whole other story.
Random 8
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The only long 9mm brass I've ever encountered was LE marked WCC fired through an MP5
Seedy Character
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I don't remember ever trimming straight wall pistol brass.
Bottle neck rifle brass gets measured and trimmed, as needed.
90% of my trimming is because of reforming brass, from 1 caliber to another. I do not own a .270, any .270 brass gets formed to 7x57. I find lots of .270, hardly ever find 7x57.
Same with all belted magnums get formed to 7mmRemMag.
.243, 7-08, .308 is plentiful. .260 Rem is hard to find and EXPENSIVE. Even buying new brass, .260 is double the price of the other 3.
Bottle neck rifle brass gets measured and trimmed, as needed.
90% of my trimming is because of reforming brass, from 1 caliber to another. I do not own a .270, any .270 brass gets formed to 7x57. I find lots of .270, hardly ever find 7x57.
Same with all belted magnums get formed to 7mmRemMag.
.243, 7-08, .308 is plentiful. .260 Rem is hard to find and EXPENSIVE. Even buying new brass, .260 is double the price of the other 3.
The only hand gun cases I trim are full power magnum revolver loads and that is to get a uniform roll crimp.
I do taper crimping on semi-auto cartridges and many low power revolver loads primarily to remove the case mouth belling. Taper crimping is more forgiving with variable length cases.
I do taper crimping on semi-auto cartridges and many low power revolver loads primarily to remove the case mouth belling. Taper crimping is more forgiving with variable length cases.
Pat Riot
Contributing Member
I am glad you mentioned “sorting”. That range brass I mentioned above had a bunch of brass that had crimped primers. The primers came out easy enough but I damaged some primers while pressing them into brass that had been crimped. Not a good thing with a primer shortage. I didn’t set any off, but it was a long boring day of sorting 1000+ cases to rid myself of the bad ones. “Bad” as in “I am not desperate enough for ammo that I will fix brass crimps to reload!” Life is too short for that.
All the crimped primer brass had European type military looking headstamps. I wish I would have photographed some of them for examples.
I did find this interesting headstamp on a few pieces. No idea where these are from.
ballman6711
Member
I may be mistaken but I think that's a Browning headstamp. Turn it and you should see it.
chris
chris
LiveLife
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Actually, there's quite a bit of value from what you found.
During my pursuit to minimize/eliminate as many reloading variables to produce more consistent finished rounds to reduce group size with mixed range brass, I too found variation in resized straight walled semi-auto brass, even with "once-fired" brass:
- As resized case length gets shorter more times brass is fired and reloaded, it stops headspacing off case mouth and starts headspacing off extractor
- Shorter case loaded to same OAL as longer case will allow more bullet nose to stick above the case mouth
- If taper crimp die was set using longer cases, shorter cases will apply less taper crimp/allow more case mouth flare to remain
So if you want to optimize accuracy and produce more reliable functioning finished rounds from mixed range brass:
- Sort resized brass by length and use longer cases to headspace off case mouth and seal case mouth/neck better with chamber to reduce gas leakage (I know, another myth busting thread in the works)
- If you do not want to toss shorter cases, use shorter cases for "plunk test" to determine the Max OAL
- Use shorter cases to set the taper crimp (Adding .022" to bullet diameter will add skosh more taper crimp with longer cases which will still allow headspacing with chamber)
And if you are still bored, you can start measuring case wall thickness where bottom of bullet base gets seated down to to improve neck tension but I already did most of work on this myth busting thread that you can reference - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...neck-tension-and-bullet-setback.830072/page-4
So if you are experiencing bullet setback that you want to minimize/eliminate, you can sort brass by case wall thickness that won't produce bullet setback to optimize accuracy (Yes, I have done some myth busting work on this and may do some more comparison tests).
Atavar
Member
Those are Browning headstamps. If you turn them just right you can see the Browning Logo.
As far as the crimped primer cases a reamer will make short work of those so they are usable.
stillquietvoice
Contributing Member
I sort mixed range brass by head stamp and length, putting brass in same 50 round boxes that have no more than .002 difference in length. Helps reduce at least one variable to accurate loads from range brass.
GeoDudeFlorida
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Like everyone else says, turn it so the Registered Trademark symbol is right side up and you will see the Buckmark.
Just my opinion from a few decades of reloading; In my experience the main reason to trim 99% of the handgun cases is because one wants to. I have no idea how many revolver cases I've reloaded (started in '69 with 38 Special and much of my brass was police range pick ups). I was enamored with 44 Magnums and reloaded and fired about 200 per month for a few years along with 44 Specials. Not a lot of Magnums but I only went to the range twice per month (job, family, church took up a lot of my time). I trimmed no cases. I roll crimped (profile crimped many) and could not tell, could not measure any crimp vatiations and no accuracy variations. I started reloading semi-autos in '86 (45 ACP and soon 9x19) and crimped none, just deflared. No seating problems, no "push back" problems. No chambering/headspacing problems. I just recently measured some 9x19 and can't remember measuring ay 45 ACP. I have found no benefit for trimming any hand gun cases, but I'm not familiar with bottle necked handgun cartridges (30 Luger, 357 Sig, etc.) but I have had no decernable reason to trim any handgun case. Several years ago I was bored and curious and tried a Lee 45 ACP trimmer. No difference in function or accuracy (didn't have a chrony at that time). Only benefit was I was spending time in the shop playing with my reloading stuff...
Pat Riot
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Atavar
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I’ll confess, I did the same thing at first. I thought it was Iraqi script. Lol
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