To trim or not to trim... (38 Spl brass)

[GP40X]

I currently have 315 pieces of once fired brass from various manufacturers and 100 pieces of virgin Hornady brass waiting to clean and was thinking about going ahead and trimming them to 1.145. My question is how often do you trim your straight walled brass?

 

[avvidclif]

Never, reload it and shoot it till it splits.

 

[noylj]

In my youth, I tried trimming for consistent roll crimp. In 38 spl, 357 mag, and 44 Mag, there was no difference in accuracy. In fact, in all three cases, the avg group size was very slightly smaller with untrimmed cases.
Trim cases if they exceed max length which does not happen with straightwall cases.
Don't look for extra work.

 

[contender buff]

Never, unless if case mouths are rough .

 

[Dawico]

Not only no but hell no.

 

[TxStetson]

I don't believe I have ever trimmed any straight wall cases.

 

[craigntx]

Waste of time

 

[Moonpie]

Only if they need it.

 

[Ozzman]

Never, reload it and shoot it till it splits.

Anneal them though.
They will last a loooong time before any splits occur.

 

[Charley]

Richard Lee discussed this in his Modern Reloading book. After developing his case trimmer, he planned to make and offer it ONLY in bottleneck or tapered rifle cartridges, had no plans to offer it for straight walled handgun cartridges. He said that never in all his years of handloading had he trimmed straight walled handgun cases, and saw no need to make and sell the trimmers. After hearing "when are you going to make them for handgun cases" for about the ten thousandth time, he said, "screw it, we'll make them for handgun cases".

 

[medicmike]

I have never trimmed a straight wall cartridge and never had an issue.

 

[hornetguy]

I've tried it some quite a few years back, and really didn't see any difference. Just a lot of work for little to no reward.
If you are loading standard 38 special, not trying to hot rod it, the cases will last quite some time, and won't grow in length enough to make any difference.
If you are concerned about consistent roll crimps, just get a taper crimp die and forget about it. The 38 doesn't usually kick enough to move bullets forward in recoil, unless you are shooting +P type loads in a really small, light revolver.... and I'm not sure it would do it even then. I'm sure others could speak to that....

 

[DoubleDuty]

Never trimmed straight wall cases, they don't need it

 

[Moonpie]

The only time I fooled with it was when loading ammo for a tube magazine Lever gun. When I shot Cowboy Action the ammo had to hold a crimp strong enough to withstand the mag spring and recoil(which wasn’t that heavy). Bullet set back was bad juju.
To get the cases to crimp properly on my progressive they all had to be the same length so the crimp pressure was consistent. I would load round nose bullets for use in the elevator type guns like the Winchester 1866/73. These guns were very sensitive to cartridge overall length. The ammo had to stay the proper length. An uncrimped bullet could be pushed back into the case ir even pop out of the case causing all manner of problems.
When loading for revolver use I didn’t bother.

 

[Dawico]

If you are loading Hornady's FTX bullets and need to crimp them then you will probably have to trim cases. The cases from their factory ammo are noticeably shorter because the bullet is so long.

 

[Polkwright]

Another vote for "never". The .38 Special is my most frequently fired centerfire round. I've been loading and shooting it for decades. I have some that have been loaded so many times the head stamp has been peened almost out. I trimmed some once in the 80's and figured out it was a complete waste of time.

 

[Skee]

I have never trimmed straight walled pistol brass.

 

[sparkyv]

Never...well, not never. The 460S&W cases must be trimmed...and annealed.

 

[Maverick44]

I currently have 315 pieces of once fired brass from various manufacturers and 100 pieces of virgin Hornady brass waiting to clean and was thinking about going ahead and trimming them to 1.145. My question is how often do you trim your straight walled brass?

Never. I never saw the need to, and don't see any real benefit for doing so.

 

[Deavis]

If you want pretty 38 where the cannelure shows the same amiunt of "daylight" across the batch of mixed headstamp, you have to trim AND throw away Hornady cases. There is no way around that if that is your goal. I trim 38 but I can't sell a box where it looks like the cannelure wanders, even though it doesn't.

If you just want functional ammo and dont care if the cannelure looks like it is wandering then a big middle finger to trimming and move on to other things.