Re: Just ordered my Giruad Power Trimmer
Got my trimmer in yesterday and immediately got to work setting up to trim 308, 243, and 300wm, using the Hornady locking rings like you guys suggested. Struggled some with brass sticking in the shellholder and inconsistent trim lengths on the 30/243, so I switched to the 300wm. Extremely easy to set up, very consistent, works great.
And by the way, for you that dont have one of these things, it trims, chamfers and deburs a case in about 1/2 a second!!! I used and still use a Lyman hand-crank trimmer for other calibers and you guys know that you can spend several minutes trimming/chamfering/deburring each case. Multiply that times 100 or 200 rounds for a day at the range, and we're talking about saving literally hours at the bench. Assuming you spend just 2 minutes trimming/chamfering/deburring 200 cases, thats 6.6 hours you just saved by switching to a Giraud!
You guys know how much harder it is to trim a nickel case than a brass one? Also, unless you have a carbide cutter on your trimmer, nickel cases will dull the crap out of a steel blade. Well the Giraud trims nickel just as fast as brass, you cant even feel the difference. Being carbide, Giraud estimates blade life at around 100,000 cases. Each blade actually has 3 different cutters on it. Hard to explain but you'll understand when you see it. Oh, and Giruad warranties their trimmers for the life of the original purchaser!
Anyway, went back to the 308/243 and had more problems with cases getting stuck, or slipping further into the shellholder and trimming way to short.
So I called up the nice lady at Giraud and she said they have had some issues with the 308 shellholders, and have now developed 3 different sizes. She suggested that I talk to Doug this evening but the likely fix will be a larger shellholder. I'm guessing that will solve the problem. I'll let you know.
Lesson learned - If your goal is to be able to quickly change between calibers, I recommend a separate shellholder for each caliber, with its own lock ring, even if the two calibers are based on the same parent cartridge. As in my case, the 243 is based on the 308 case and therefore uses the same 308 shellholder. However, the trim-to lenghs are different which will require adjusting depth. For max speed and ease of conversion, get 2 different 308 shellholders, and set each for the case size you will trim.
Also find some way to mark them as neither the shellholders nor the cutter heads come marked from Giraud. I'm considering engraving the size on each as a perm marker rubs right off.
