Triming Cases

[Nuclearcricket]

This goes out to all you 44-77 shooters. Do you trim your new brass before you fire form it?
If you do trim your brass, what trimmer do you use?
What length should it be trimmed to?
Now all of that being asked, I do have 2 forester case trimmers, one has been opened up for 45-70 and it wouldn't take much to open it up a little more for the 44 case and I think they offer a collet for that size case head.
I don't know if it would be cheaper to have Lee make me up a trimmer or not.
Thanks for your help
Sam

[powderburner]

I had wilson build me a couple for their trimmer one for the 44 and one for the 40 ,both are slick as can be and I am selling my RCBS power trimmer cause the hand one does a much better job. and is more accurate.it also does not need shell holders , and the 44 is an odd head,

[Mike]

Sam, I don't usually trim my new Jamison brass. However, I do have a C&H trim die for .44/77 and because I thought some of my brass was stretching a little, I used the trim die to file them all back just a bit. Only a couple of the cases were long but using the trim die did make them more consistent. And I made a .375" spacer to use the .44/77 trim die with .44/90 BN cases and that works fine. Shoot sharp, Mike

[Kurt]

Sam.
The first thing I do is make some sort of chamber cast using low temp alloy or sulphur to get the length of the chamber. Most generally the new brass is to short anyway.
I first anneal my new brass when I get it then I shoot it with a GG bullet with a snug roll crimp if I'm to lazy to make a chamber cast. I do this with one case only just to stretch it slightly to have the case get pulled to the chamber end where I can see where the chamber end roles up into the lead slightly. Then I trim that case and use it to set my Wilson trimmer so it trims the case .005" shorter. I like to give the case some room so it don't pull the neck up into the lead so it has some spring back.
I will not trim my cases till they stretch enough to fill the chamber. You will see by looking at the case mouth when they need trimming.

[Don McDowell]

If a person had some way to grip the rims, a Lee 444 marlin trimmer would be just right.

[powderburner]

thats kinda the problem with all the trimmers that use a shell holder of some kind , the 44 rim does not fit. this is where the wilson shines , they hold the case by the bod and there is a flat stop for the head,I paid 20 some bucks for mine but I think I bought 3 holders , just sent them the cases and they sent the holders back with the cases and everything. ,, a neat little rig , and accurate.

[Don McDowell]

Dean is that the Wilson engineering out of AZ? One of their guys was at the bptr nationals the last day of the creedmoor.

[powderburner]

http://www.lewilson.com/

dont know about that Don, but they are tied in with sinclair int and brownells I think
I had an old trimmer give to me so buying the dies wasnt bad , mine is just plain jane and simple

[Don McDowell]

Wondering about that Redding trimmer. We've got a couple of 1/2 off certificates from them.

Anyway Sunday at the Whittington center while doing the paper work for the CPA rifle. This guy from Wilson and his wife came up and told me congrats on everything, and then we got to yakkin a little and I told him he should try this game, he said he had a Shiloh etc, and I said well now your all set.. He grinned and asked a bit about the targets and the like, then he grinned and said "you bpcr guys don't quite think like the rest of us". I laughed and said nope.

[J.B.]

Sam I use the Forster trimmer and find it works fine. Initially I ordered a custom collet (.622") for my 45/70 trimmer...and then found their Classic trimmer has four larger collets for some of the Sharps and larger express cartridges. The No.7 collet in the Classic Trimmer works a treat. I also ordered two different pilots via their custom order section on the website. Very happy with the result.
Having said that... I cant see myself trimming my Jamison brass at all as it's right on 2.25 at the start and fireforms down to 2.248-2.485). The RMC brass I ordered long so I could trim it back and comfortably trimming back to 2.266 - 2.271 without issue. The RMC brass barely dropped back at all in length on firing. It may or may not be of interest...but on fireforming the Jamison brass.. the case volume increased to the tune of 4.5grns of 1.5 Swiss.. so there was a lot of 'filling out' that occurred in my chamber. Had I not had three Forsters... I may have considered the Wilson...but so far I've been happy with what I've done. Hope this helps.