Question for reloaders

[rcjunky007]

I just got my first press yesterday. Got everything set up and read the book. I picked five cases to start with. These were factory loads fired once from my rifle. Resized all five. Measured them expecting them to be longer than the specs in the book. Two were exact length and three are shorter. I pulled out six more once fired brass and measured oal. All of them are shorter than the specs in the book. Is the giving spec in the book the max allowed case length? Should I trim to the shortest case length?

[klepdo]

I reloaded for a little but and am about to start again. I would buy about 100 rounds of new brass to get use to it. Once you get use to it you can turn out tons in an hour. It is fun.

[M16]

Usually it will have the max case length in the manual. It's best to trim .0010 less than maximum. For example is max lenth is 3.45 then trim to 3.35. If some are slightly shorter it won't matter enough to worry about. Wait until some get to max length and then you can usually trim them all at one time. I am assuming that you have resized all of them before measuring. Most cases lengthen during the resizing process.

[rcjunky007]

Usually it will have the max case length in the manual. It's best to trim .0010 less than maximum. For example is max lenth is 3.45 then trim to 3.35. If some are slightly shorter it won't matter enough to worry about. Wait until some get to max length and then you can usually trim them all at one time. I am assuming that you have resized all of them before measuring. Most cases lengthen during the resizing process.

I'm confused. You say trim .0010(tenthousants) less than max. Then you said a tenth less than max?

[RemMan700]

The book should show you a max case length and a min trim to length for each cartridge. For example .223 Remington has a max case length of 1.76" and a min trim to length of 1.75". You should not go below the minimum trim to length. Now I do use a Lee trimmer and it cuts my .223 cases to 1.745 but I would not cut any further then that.

[rcjunky007]

It doesn't show min length. But most of the once fired(from my gun) is shorter than what the book is showing. I've measured eleven cases. Two are exact of what the book says, one is .0005 longer, and the rest are various lengths shorter. I watched a vid on YouTube, showed to cut all to the shortest ones length. I expected all of them to be long.

[RemMan700]

What reloading manual are you using, and what caliber are you reloading?

[miket]

.0010 is one thousandth. Going from 3.45 to 3.35 is .1 or 100 thousandths ( a tenth of an inch )

[miket]

As remman700 stated, usually you trim to .01 shorter than max length. Some manuals will state a " trim to " length.

[rcjunky007]

Using lyman Manuel and Reloading 30.06.

[RemMan700]

If you look at the diagram of the cartridge it shows a case length of 2.494 (this is max case length) for .30-06. Then look down from the diagram to the section that says "Test Components" you will see the second row says Trim-to Length and shows 2.484" (this is your minimum trim-to length).

[rcjunky007]

Book says case length should be 2.494. So I should trim them to 2.484? Will this efect bullet seating depth and oal?

[miket]

Speer #12 states 30-06 max length as 2.494 . Trim to length 2.484
Resize first, then trim to 2.484

[M16]

I'm confused. You say trim .0010(tenthousants) less than max. Then you said a tenth less than max?

My bad. Lets try again. If max length is say 3.450 then trim to 3.440.

[miket]

It will not affect seating depth or oal