Good, reasonable case trimmer?

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Archangel14

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Need some recommendations for a good, solid, but reasonably priced case trimmer. Any suggestions? Thanks!
 
Lee

I like the the Lee trim gauges. Put the chuck / shell holder into my cordless drill then trim, chamfer/debur, brush the inside of the neck and lastly hit the case with some steel wool. Takes just a few seconds to prep a piece of brass. One gauge for each chambering you reload.

It is inexpensive quick and works great for me!

http://leeprecision.com/case-conditioning-tools/case-trimming-tools/

I have used a older RCBS case trimmer and once it is set up it works pretty good but I prefer to use the lee in my drill and do a few steps at once.
 
I have ben using the Lee system for over a decade. Works pretty well. The shell holder/case stud leaves something to be desired at times as it is difficult to get it tight enough to hold the case.

I got a Wilson trimmer with all the Sinclair upgrades a few years ago to trim cases that Lee does not have a gauge for. Works well but I do not like having to re-adjust it when I change cartridges. The micrometer head helps but little time consuming when you only have a handful of cases to trim. I have made some accessories for the Wilson that make it's operation more convenient, most notable is a base for tapping the case into the shell holder and tapping the case out of the shell holder.

I recently discovered the Crow Gun Works World's Finest Trimmer (aka WFT). I like it but at $70 a unit, it may be more pricy than your desires. Some of the units will handle a family of cartridges so they could be adjusted when changing cartridges. Using a trimmed case as a gauge, changing the setting of the trimmer is pretty quick and easy.
 
Dillon electric case trimmer, mounted on a dillon 650 with case feeder. Its reasonable if you have large volume requirements. OP didn't indicate volume needs.

I use this to process lots of 223 and 308 brass.
 
I also used the Lee system with their Zip Trim for years but I got tired of the brass going off center when the holder didn't hold well and the brass spinning off center. Then there are the times the case holder locks up and you have to fight to get it free. I got tired of it all and bought a Forster after I used a friends place.
 
There's a little bit of a learning curve to using the Zip Trim chuck. Once I learned it, I haven't had any issues.

After the brass falls out, you have to open it at least a half turn farther before putting in the next case (with a drill, that's no problem, just give it a tap in reverse). Then when tightening it, you have to let the brass self-center. You can do that by holding the case against the base of the Zipchuck with just a fingertip while tightening - either by hand or with the drill motor.

It's not color-by-numbers, but once you've learned how to work it, it's not fiddly or frustrating, IMO. I can throw on a Hulu vid and very comfortably churn out ~250-300 cases in the 42 minutes it takes to watch a show with the commercials. I could keep that up for a few hours without any discomfort; it takes very little effort or attention. The only place where I need to actually look at what I'm doing is when getting the tip of the pilot into the case mouth and getting the brass into the chamfer tool. Getting the cases in/out of the Zip chuck can be done blind-folded, all day.

The only thing that I'm bummed about is the Lee cutters don't work so good if your neck thickness varies a lot and you like to trim before expanding. That's a pretty specific set of criteria, but alas that describes how I trim my mixed 7mm-08 cases. I had to sand down the pilot a little, to get my converted 308 cases to fit. And now, with the sloppy fit, it can be a bit fiddly finding the flash hole on my converted 243 cases. I haven't tried deburring the flash holes, yet; I hope that helps.
 
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I used the Lee Trim Gauge for a while, but it's slow. When chucked into a drill, the case slips and is still slow. I now use a Forster Trimmer and love it.
 
The Hornady hand-cranked trimmer (called Cam-Loc) has good ergonomics and is easy to set up and adjust.
 
These setups look pretty slick. Short of a Giraud, I don't think it gets much faster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EeZ6np1XsA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWZszN6u-3o

And short of these types of systems, I don't think anything really beats a Zip Trim chuck in a drill for pure trim/chamfer accuracy and speed.

If you want to ream necks or upgrade to a 3 way cutter in the future, I'd go with the Lyman.

The Possum Hollow, CST, and WFT types of trimmers are a good value for speedy trimming if you don't need to chamfer your brass. Chamfering in a separate step steals a lot of their thunder, IMO.
 
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I have Lee, RCBS, Forster, and Wilson trimmer set ups.

The best thing is to not trim.
I have done as series of experiments with .223.
I have 5 or 10 of the .223 rifles.
If I set push back the shoulder of the brass fired in a rifle that the headpace as set loosely by some factory*, so that the brass will fit in some other more carefully headspaced rifle, then I will have to trim within 2 or 3 shots.

But if the brass stays with one rifle, the shoulder is only pushed back .001" or .002", then the brass can economically be thrown away when it needs trimming.

It is easy for brass to get mixed up and then I do not practice what I preach, but I am trying.

*When I head space a rifle, I try to do it right, and get is .001"+/.000"- of the SAAMI spec chamber minimum to the shoulder.
 
^
Do you have a link for that? I checked their web page and it seems it'd be easier/faster to update a web page than a catalog.. I didn't see anything new.
 
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