Case Trimmer Recommendations

K

KurtM

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Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 9, 2009
2
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Oregon
#1
Sorry about me asking so many questions but I really appreciate all of the valuable input and knowledge you guys are giving me. Anyway, I am loading .223, 22-250 and .308 and have started to notice that my cases are stretching beyond the specs and was looking to get a case trimmer.

I thought about getting a powered one like the Dillon, but I also saw that many people really like the Sinclair/Wilson manual or setting up a drill press. Any recommendations?

I would like to have the ability to do volume but accuracy is more important.

Thanks again!
 
#2
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 168grSolution</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Sorry about me asking so many questions but I really appreciate all of the valuable input and knowledge you guys are giving me. Anyway, I am loading .223, 22-250 and .308 and have started to notice that my cases are stretching beyond the specs and was looking to get a case trimmer.

I thought about getting a powered one like the Dillon, but I also saw that many people really like the Sinclair/Wilson manual or setting up a drill press. Any recommendations?

I would like to have the ability to do volume but accuracy is more important.

Thanks again! </div></div>

If you're interested in an auto-trimmer one cool option is the RCBS powered trimming unit. With the 3 way cutters you can trim, chamfer and debur all in one fell swoop. It's also a bit cheaper than the Giraud option.

It's a bit more involved than a Giraud, but it's also not 400$.

The only complaints I've heard about the Dillon is that since it's on a vertical plane you end up with brass filings inside your brass. Obviously that's easily remedied but I can see how it would be annoying.
 
#4
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dogtown</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Call GTC, get a Giraud trimmer and be done with it.</div></div>

Indeed, when you receive it it takes all of about 15 seconds to realize that it is worth every penny.

 
#5
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

Giraud-After you get it, you will ask yourself why did I wait so long to do this? Doug is an awesome person who answer any questions you have over the phone. After you purchase the trimmer in your main caliber, I bet it wont be long until you are ordering additional cutters for other calibers.

I have spent the past few days processing several thousand pieces of LC .223. Lets just say trimming on the Giraud was a lot more fun than removing the primer crimp on the Dillon super swage.
 
#7
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: rdinsd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Giraud-After you get it, you will ask yourself why did I wait so long to do this? </div></div>

This is exactly what I did. I used to hate trimming so much that I would just buy new brass all the time and let the fired brass collect in the corner. Then I started loading .408CT and it's too damned pricey to work that way, so I broke down and bought the Giraud trimmer for all of my rifle calibers - now trimming is such an afterthought that depriming and sizing is what I start to dread.

Changing calibers by swapping and adjusting shellholders and cutters can be a bit tricky to get it right early on. Invest in a set of Hornady lock rings to use with your shellholders. This will give you a consistent trim length, otherwise you have to play with the shellholder to get the length where you want it.
 
#8
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ratbert</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dogtown</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Call GTC, get a Giraud trimmer and be done with it.</div></div>

Indeed, when you receive it it takes all of about 15 seconds to realize that it is worth every penny.

</div></div>

At almost $400 I would have never believed this until I finally took delivery of mine a couple weeks ago. Now all I can say is, why the heck didn't I pick up one sooner?!?!?!?!
 
#11
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dogtown</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: rdinsd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Giraud-After you get it, you will ask yourself why did I wait so long to do this? </div></div>

This is exactly what I did. I used to hate trimming so much that I would just buy new brass all the time and let the fired brass collect in the corner. Then I started loading .408CT and it's too damned pricey to work that way, so I broke down and bought the Giraud trimmer for all of my rifle calibers - now trimming is such an afterthought that depriming and sizing is what I start to dread.

Changing calibers by swapping and adjusting shellholders and cutters can be a bit tricky to get it right early on. Invest in a set of Hornady lock rings to use with your shellholders. This will give you a consistent trim length, otherwise you have to play with the shellholder to get the length where you want it.</div></div>

Gee, Do ya think there's a consensus here? Good call on the Hornaday lock rings.
 
#13
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

the new midsouth shooters catalog had a really cool hornady case prep station, looks like a drill press, trims the brass and does everything the RCBS prep center does.

looked really nice, not sure how it works though
 
#15
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

I'll dissent here and vote for the cheapo Lee unit.

Buy one cutter and lock gizmo for something like $15 or $20, then separate pilots and shellholders for $5 for each caliber and chuck the lock gizmo in the variable-speed drill.

I can do 3 cases a minute, including chamfering.

I put the drill upsidedown on the bench with the handle resting on the lubri-sizer or the vise or the press, and run the power trigger with my thumb while holding the cutter in the other hand.

Nothing to adjust, fast and consistent.

I've done thousands on the Wilson (first ones I didn't know the cutter was actually dull...grindgrindgrind), and a few hundred on an RCBS nightmare thing--the collet grabbing the casehead moves backwards away from the cutter when you tighten it up on the case=variable lengths until I indexed the collet handle--THEN the collet twisted in the housing and un-did my calibrations!

For greatest simplicity, go for the Lee. For some adjustability (want to go for halfway between min and max, for example), go with the bone-simple Wilson and put power on it if you feel like it.

My brass doesn't last long enough for a Giraud to pay for itself. I'm going with one trim and use an RCBS X-die until the brass dies. No further trims.
 
#16
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

Ten cases per minute is a casual pace with the Giraud.

Lathe type trimmers that hold the casehead rarely provide a square cut. Not the trimmers fault, the brass usually isn't square.
 
#17
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Grump</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'll dissent here and vote for the cheapo Lee unit.

Buy one cutter and lock gizmo for something like $15 or $20, then separate pilots and shellholders for $5 for each caliber and chuck the lock gizmo in the variable-speed drill.

I can do 3 cases a minute, including chamfering.

I put the drill upsidedown on the bench with the handle resting on the lubri-sizer or the vise or the press, and run the power trigger with my thumb while holding the cutter in the other hand.

Nothing to adjust, fast and consistent.

I've done thousands on the Wilson (first ones I didn't know the cutter was actually dull...grindgrindgrind), and a few hundred on an RCBS nightmare thing--the collet grabbing the casehead moves backwards away from the cutter when you tighten it up on the case=variable lengths until I indexed the collet handle--THEN the collet twisted in the housing and un-did my calibrations!

For greatest simplicity, go for the Lee. For some adjustability (want to go for halfway between min and max, for example), go with the bone-simple Wilson and put power on it if you feel like it.

My brass doesn't last long enough for a Giraud to pay for itself. I'm going with one trim and use an RCBS X-die until the brass dies. No further trims. </div></div>

If you can work on brass life, the savings would pay for a Giraud.

Also if anyone wants to go cheaper, the Possum-Hollow trimmer is faster and easier to use than the Lee....and it's adjustable while the Lee is not. It doesn't cost much more than the Lee.
 
#18
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

I had to go the economic route. I first bought the lee trimmers, then later bought a RCBS prep station, then I drilled and tapped, installed long set screw to use it on the RCBS prep station. I first inside chamfer to thin some on the end, then trim, then inside chamfer, outside chamfer,remove mitary crimp, clean primer pocket, then run the case neck down on a stick brush mounted on top of the station. I used a lathe to get the cutter hole,tap, centered. So on the station I have trimmer, inside chamfer, outside chamfer, primer crimp remover, primer pocket wire brush, and a stick brush on top to run through the case neck when I am threw
 
#19
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

I balked at the idea of the Giraud a few years ago. Went with the RCBS trimmer. I didn't get the powered unit, but got an adapter so i could spin it using a drill. It was a huge pain in the ass and I hated trimming more than anything. It took forever, I'd have to fiddle with the brass each time to get it square. One day I was trying to stream line the process by balancing the drill on my leg so I wouldn't have to remove it from the adapter and ended up stripping the adapter since I didn't have the drill straight.

It was only going to be about $20 to get another adapter, but I decided to just suck it up and get the Giraud. I used it to trim 40 .50 BMG cases recently and they all came out perfect and it was very easy. I wish I'd bought the Giraud to start with.

Shawn
 
#20
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

Blizzardwork.jpg


Would you really want to trim this many cases using another trimmer?

The Giraud rocks
 
#21
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

`I can trim cases I lot faster with the Giraud then I can lube
and size them. I don't know why I waited. I can't stand wasting
money but it paid for my time after about the first couple
thousand
 
#26
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

lol,

this was a $10 junk store purchase with the lee Universal three jaw chuck cobbled onto it. i know better than gutting wifey's machine.
 
#30
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

Giraud if you do any volume of cases at all. I have a Wilson, its nice and all, but after about 30 pcs I am DONE! 30 pieces wth the Giraud is about 2 mins or less!

John
 
#35
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

GIRAUD!! My fingers and wrists thanked me after the first 600 .223 cases I trimmed in a little over an hour compared to the days it took me before on my Forster manual trimmer.
 
#43
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

A few months ago I tried to come up with an efficient way to trim thousands of pieces of .223 brass that had been fired in an AR, resized, and were going into a single shot varmint rifle.

The fastest I found was
pic of me trimming in the mill
RCBS Trim Pro 3-Way Cutter 22 Caliber,
Lee Shellholder 223,
Lee Lock stud,
Rockwell mill,
Kurt vise,
vise grips,


Then I made a tool to measure the chamber neck length in all my 223s, and I measured the headspace in all my 223s.

If I resize the cases to .001" smaller than the minimum SAAMI headspace, then firing pin can push the case forward .001" + the heaspace. This distance must be subtracted from the chamber neck length to determine the maximum usable case length.

When I did that, I found that the load books were an encumbrance [surprise]. The books say max 1.760" trim to 1.750", but worst worst case for me with my (5) 223s, I could still use 1.778".

What does it all mean?
I found a way to trim, but now I realize I do not really need to trim, because the load books were wrong [again].
 
#45
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ChadTRG42</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So, how do you trim the case on the sewing machine? (and trim to exact length?) Pretty cool!
</div></div>

Chad, in the bottom of the pic is the cutter. the shank controlls the "trim to" length and stops cutting when the stud bottoms out through the flash hole.

100_1110Large.jpg
 
#47
#48
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

I was in this situation too but I ended up going with the RCBS powered unit. Then I bought the 3 way cutter, so it is all one step.

The RCBS is MUCH slower than the Giraud, but it allows adjustability that the Giraud does not. If I understand how the Giraud works, it cuts to a predetermined length based upon the shoulder of the cartridge. I'm not sure how this would be impacted if you were just neck sizing (and arguably you wouldn't need to trim as much/at all if just neck sizing). But also, that doesn't let you set the length of trim. With X-dies, which I just started using, it is recommended to trim under the minimum trim length, which you can't do with a Giraud.

I can also trim more calibers cheaper. 30-06, 308, 7.62x39, 7.5x55 all use the same cutter, and just requires a cheap shell holder (and some are interchangeable). With the Giraud, each caliber is at least $45 to get a different unit (I think).
 
#49
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

You can trim to whatever length you want with the Giraud it just indexes off of the shoulder which is more consistent than including the rim as those dimensions vary from brand to brand I have found.

If you neck size send Doug a few spent brass and he will make you a shell holder to match them.

It really is a great machine.
 
#50
Re: Case Trimmer Recommendations

Target Terror,

You do not understand how the trimmer works. With the Giraud, you can trim to any length you want by threading the case holder into or out of the trimmer body. The case holder that indexes the case is threaded on the exterior and can be positioned in the trimmer body anywhere you want to thread it to. I have customers using it to trim .223 brass into .300 Whisper and .50BMG into .510DTC. Case holders are only $30, not $45. Please do not spread false information about products you are not familar with.

Doug Giraud
Giraud Tool Company
 
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