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Okay after a hiatus from reloading, I finally got some powder. I started by loading some 200 cases of Herters I recently shot. Happy to find that my Hornady seating die was still set perfectly and everything was swimmingly. Rather than dig our a few hundred more of the Herters I have, I tumbled and went to reload a hundred cases that had been in my plastic ammo boxes from my last reloaded ammo session at the range.
Now maximum overal length is 1.59". The previous 200 were 1.575". And that fits in what I remember having it before. But I always measure the first of every 50, and a few random ones, with the caliper (and use my cylinder from my Vaquero as a "gauge" for the rest). First of the mixed brass.. it was 1.64" Well I readjust, get it does to 1.57, next is 1.52" and the next is above 1.6 again
After this I measure all the cases. They varied in length by a full .01", with a couple being above the maximum case length for .357. From what I have read I had thought straight wall pistol ammo would not likely need to be trimmed. In anycase, I tossed the excesively long ones and proceeded with the rest, and same issue. Looked up information and it fit wit my experience, within a certain range you can bell/crimp them without readjustment, but beyond that you may fail to crimp or crimp too much, fail to bell, etc
I ended up adjusting it to put just short of an excessive crimp on the longest case, and that ends up just barely crimping the shortest, and after that they all came out the same overall length (1.58")
My theory was that the crimping was preventing the bullet from seating all the way on the longer cases (the action on the press is cammed if that makes a difference), and that excessive/early crimping was from setting it using a shorter case.
Rather than sort through all my cases, I thought I might want to just get a trimmer. But the Hornady one was super expensive. I want to do it without taking too much time though.
Assuming I am right about the problem (and if you think I am wrong, please tell me... I did clean the die out if you are thinking that), what is a good trimmer, for both speed and price? Budget would be as affordable as possible, but sub $100
Now maximum overal length is 1.59". The previous 200 were 1.575". And that fits in what I remember having it before. But I always measure the first of every 50, and a few random ones, with the caliper (and use my cylinder from my Vaquero as a "gauge" for the rest). First of the mixed brass.. it was 1.64" Well I readjust, get it does to 1.57, next is 1.52" and the next is above 1.6 again
After this I measure all the cases. They varied in length by a full .01", with a couple being above the maximum case length for .357. From what I have read I had thought straight wall pistol ammo would not likely need to be trimmed. In anycase, I tossed the excesively long ones and proceeded with the rest, and same issue. Looked up information and it fit wit my experience, within a certain range you can bell/crimp them without readjustment, but beyond that you may fail to crimp or crimp too much, fail to bell, etc
I ended up adjusting it to put just short of an excessive crimp on the longest case, and that ends up just barely crimping the shortest, and after that they all came out the same overall length (1.58")
My theory was that the crimping was preventing the bullet from seating all the way on the longer cases (the action on the press is cammed if that makes a difference), and that excessive/early crimping was from setting it using a shorter case.
Rather than sort through all my cases, I thought I might want to just get a trimmer. But the Hornady one was super expensive. I want to do it without taking too much time though.
Assuming I am right about the problem (and if you think I am wrong, please tell me... I did clean the die out if you are thinking that), what is a good trimmer, for both speed and price? Budget would be as affordable as possible, but sub $100
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