I had to trim some revolver brass

[41 Mag]

I also have a couple hundred mixed once fired and some are 1.270" long. Is that going to be a problem? My manuals say the trim to length is 1.275". The majority is around that or a couple thousandths longer. But quite a bit is 1.270. I don't really want to trim it all to the shorter length... but do I have to?

What I normally do is pull out 20 - 30 and measure them, then trim for the shortest case of the bunch. Some end up being trimmed quite a bit some hardly get the mouth squared, but when done they are all right at the same length. I usually shoot these until they start to have split necks or seem to loose their tension then scrap them and start new again.

So in your case I would measure and find one that is 1.270" on the money, then set up the trimmer so that it just touches the mouth and possibly shines it up but doesn't take any off. Then I would run the whole batch through and call it good.

 

[showmebob]

I trimmed all my 357 brass years ago, set the dies once and have never had to re adjust them. I'm now on 6 times loading them. Never knew any other way but to trim.

Had a class last summer where it wasn't convenient to pick up the brass so I wanted to use 38 cases and didn't want to trim for a one time use. I sorted the cases to length in 3 batches of .005 variations. I set the dies for the middle group with a nice medium crimp and just loaded all cases whether short, normal or long. I had on problems with any of the 600.

I'm not sure I will ever trim again unless it is for full power loads.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

1kperday, I know you don't want to trim all of them but it they are all with in say .005" of each other you could just find the longest case and set your crimp die for it. Some of them won't have very much crimp on them and some will be crimped fully.

You said your not going for ultimate accuracy and from your "plinking" description, you aren't using magnum powder. If you are using lower pressure loads and have good neck tension you can get away with this.

I am like 41mag though in trimming all my revolver brass to the same length and it is the best way. .005" variance isn't a deal breaker though as long as you set your crimp on the longest one you have, but I like to load my mags a little on the heavy side. So I trim all of mine and put the same crimp on all of them. It insures consistent ignition with pressure building (magnum) powders.

If they vary more than .005" then you should bite the bullet so to speak and trim them all to the same length, especially on the 45LCs, they are heavy bullets and I wouldn't want to rely on just neck tension alone unless I was loading vary light loads.

 

[1KPerDay]

Thanks.

 

[Schwing]

I'm a little confused as to how you could buckle the brass that badly with only a difference of 5 Thousandths of an inch difference in length. Do you realize how very small that is compared to the brass buckling you are showing? I think something else might be going on there, really...

I agree that this is not the issue. I had some similar problems with this. I use the lee dies that seat and crimp at the same time (probably what you are using). I also use lee bullet molds with the ridges for tumble lube. I found out that the lee dies are still seating the bullet when it hits the crimp shoulder and begins to crimp. If your depth puts the crimp right the top of one of the peaks instead of the valley part of the ridge, it hangs there and crushes the case because it cant seat it any further.

Sorry if this is not clear. Basically, make sure that the crimp starts in the middle of the groove instead of towards the top of it and this problem goes away.

 

[Walkalong]

Would a taper crimp or collet crimp die be of any use here?

A .007 swing is OK, even with a roll crimp, assuming you take the swing into account when you adjust the crimp.

I taper crimp plated bullets in .45 Colt, but roll crimp lead bullets.

I found out that the lee dies are still seating the bullet when it hits the crimp shoulder and begins to crimp. If your depth puts the crimp right the top of one of the peaks instead of the valley part of the ridge, it hangs there and crushes the case because it cant seat it any further.

Sorry if this is not clear. Basically, make sure that the crimp starts in the middle of the groove instead of towards the top of it and this problem goes away.

Basically, and where many go wrong when first starting out.

 

[1KPerDay]

Thanks walk