The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Case Trimming- how often

rwilson452 · July 9, 2006, 10:25 PM

Everytime you shoot a high pressure case and size it, it will grow a finite amount. Not enough to need trimming generally, it only polishes the mouth but it does keep it square. as I stated you don't need to trim every time but I do. As to how long a case will last there are too many variables to make an accurate prediction as to how many times it can be used. My cases start to lose accuracy before they start to fail. When they start to lose accuracy I pitch them. On a modern bottle necked case I would guessimate between 5-10 times. for a low pressure straight case such as a .45ACP, a very very long time.

One more time. I don't need to trim, I trim because I wanna do it.

One could only assume that the reload life a a casing that needed to be trimmed every time must be very short. If the casing is stretching that much after every shot the wall must be thinning out severely and would quickly become an unsafe round. There is only a finite amount of brass to each casing, you have to keep cutting it ...it is coming from some where.

July 9, 2006, 10:25 PM	#11
rwilson452 Senior Member Join Date: June 10, 2004 Location: Tioga co. PA Posts: 2,647	trim everytime Everytime you shoot a high pressure case and size it, it will grow a finite amount. Not enough to need trimming generally, it only polishes the mouth but it does keep it square. as I stated you don't need to trim every time but I do. As to how long a case will last there are too many variables to make an accurate prediction as to how many times it can be used. My cases start to lose accuracy before they start to fail. When they start to lose accuracy I pitch them. On a modern bottle necked case I would guessimate between 5-10 times. for a low pressure straight case such as a .45ACP, a very very long time. One more time. I don't need to trim, I trim because I wanna do it. One could only assume that the reload life a a casing that needed to be trimmed every time must be very short. If the casing is stretching that much after every shot the wall must be thinning out severely and would quickly become an unsafe round. There is only a finite amount of brass to each casing, you have to keep cutting it ...it is coming from some where.