Order of Operations

[Rocketrob]

Do you trim cases before or after resizing the case?

does it really matter?

[LeadFarmer74]

After sizing.

[Rocketrob]

Even on a progressive system?

[krzgoat]

After and yep even on progressive for rifle only. Pistol I don't bother with trimming. Rifle tumble clean, lube, resize, tumble lube off, swage primer pockets if need, trim and load


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[fguffey]

Do you trim cases before or after resizing the case?

does it really matter?

I find it very boring to talk to a reloader that insist on trimming after sizing. I have old case trimmers that have pilots that will only fit cases after firing but not after sizing. I have case trimmers have holders for fired and sized cases, I have dies that form cases and are designed to be used to trim cases after forming and as most should know the case must be sized after forming.

And then there are pilots that that cause the reloader to get involved in mortal combat when it comes to removing the case from the trimmer.

F. Guffey

[SWalt]

Case length is determined by the specs. Aren't the specs for a completed cartridge? Resizing will alter the case dimensions to spec, if length is out of spec it should be trimmed after resizing. If its under length you have to stretch it.

But you can buy a case stretcher to handle that. Call around, they are extremely hard to find. Try all the major suppliers first, then hunt around the local gun stores that sell reloading components. On second thought, drive around all the local places first. Be very insistent, a lot of people don't want to give them up. You can thank me later.

[SixPointEight]

Short answer: After, and yes it matters.

Long answer: When shot in a rifle the brass expands outward and stretches, but actually gets a bit shorter in OAL. When you size the brass, it is squeezed back into its original shape, but the stretching that occured has to go somewhere, and it ends up going into the neck, where is needs to be trimmed off. If you trim before sizing its very hard to get consistent or accurate lengths

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[BigBronco]

I have personally measured as much as .010" case length increase after sizing brass.

OP. This is why many say you can't just drop bottle neck brass into a progressive press and crank away.

But then again it's your rifle and your body parts.

[SWalt]

Short answer: After, and yes it matters.

Long answer: When shot in a rifle the brass expands outward and stretches, but actually gets a bit shorter in OAL. When you size the brass, it is squeezed back into its original shape, but the stretching that occured has to go somewhere, and it ends up going into the neck, where is needs to be trimmed off. If you trim before sizing its very hard to get consistent or accurate lengths

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Especially true for semi auto rifles. The cartridge must be smaller than the chamber/lower tolerance to feed properly and must expand more to properly seal the chamber. More expansion stresses the brass more than a bolt action would and after a number of firings weakens/stresses/thins the brass near the case head. The reason for case head separation. Trimmed brass comes from somewhere, from stretched/thinned brass.

[Divernhunter]

After resizing

[JackEllis]

I'm prepping a bunch of .223 right now so I measured the change in length from FL resizing. In my case it's about .006, and all of the brass will have to be trimmed because it's longer than the 1.76 limit.

Not to hijack the thread but I decided to resize a different batch of .223 cases (range pickup) that had been sitting on a shelf. All of them were between 1.735 and1.745 before resizing and most were still less than 1.75 after resizing. Can I use them or should I pitch them?

[JackEllis]

Never mind. I stumbled on the answer to my question in another thread.

[Rocketrob]

Thanks guys, I was having a case holder reamed by EDM for a odd ball case I could not find a holder for and wasn't sure to give the machinist a new or fired case.
Makes sense!

[LynnJr]

Always after

[W.R.Buchanan]

"Case Stretchers" are available everywhere that sells guns.

Randy