OK, what I end up writing here may be a little contradictory to what I have written in previous posts so please bear with me.
Every time I get to my loading bench, I think of this thread and with that, I took specific note of some issues having to do with trimming. Here is my first case scenario for brass trimming:
Last week I began loading 454 Casull rounds for my very first time. I was loading new Star Line brass and typically, before I load anything with newly purchased brass, I always resize and trim my brass. However, this time, I did not have the proper trimming tools available for this caliber so I let the trimming go. What I did do was measure the brass and found all of it to be under the trim length as listed in my Lyman manual, so I figured things would be OK. What I didn't like, however, was that the new brass, before and after resizing, was not very uniform in length. Consequently, I had a tough time seating and crimping bullets consistently.
In this case, when loading new brass for the first time, I would recommend trimming the brass or at least measuring the brass to determine if it is of a consistent length.
2nd scenario:
Like Greybeard mentioned about his .44 brass, I too have a large quantity of 45 Colt brass, only mine is nickel plated. I acquired this brass many, many years ago; roughly 1990. I have loaded it all consistently with heavy sided Thompson Contender loads and all of the brass has more than likely been loaded a minimum of ten times, if not twenty times over. Now, I cannot recall how things were when I first bought the brass nor how the brass was after a single firing but I can tell you that whenever I shoot this brass, it hardly ever needs trimming. In fact, last night I trimmed 150 of them and found that only 10 or 12 were trimmed to length and what was trimmed was barely a tiny shard of brass. Basically, I believe that this brass has been stretched to all it will ever be and therefore probably will never ever need trimming. The only good thing that came from my wasting time trimming it was that I was able to find four or five cases that had minor cracks in them.
3rd scenario:
Last night, I also trimmed 170 rounds of range pick ups (assuming once fired) 38 special brass. Overall, I would say that 40% of the cases required a minimal amount of trimming. The brass I had picked up is a mixed lot. I paid close attention to which types and brand of brass required trimming. As it turns out, all brass that was trimmed was either (+P) brass or standard 38 spl with Winchester being the manufacture. Keep in mind that most of the (+P) brass was also Winchester brass. What this tells me is that either Winchester loads heavy or their brass is thinner than other brands and therefore will stretch on the first firing and require trimming if one wants perfect length brass when loading. (I think the Win brass is just thinner) Of all of the brass, only a few needed a lot of trimming. Most was just small shavings.
So, in summary for scenario #3, I would say that it might be a good idea to trim once fired brass if you're picky about this kind of thing.
Overall, I tend to agree with those of you that say it is not needed to trim straight walled cases for pistols or revolvers, provided it's not new brass or once fired brass. Anything after once fired will never need trimming. However, I will still check my 45 ACP's and 30 Carbines (which is tapered walled) before feeding them into my Blackhawks. In this case, the cartridge seats on the headspace and is crucial to fitting in the window of the revolver. Ironically, it doesn't seem to matter when loading a 45 round into an auto pistol, however.
I hope this info helps shed light upon the question on this thread. Thanks to the question brought about, I will now be saving hours upon hours of time at my loading bench by NOT TRIMMING my straight walled handgun cases.
Now I wonder, do I need to trim my straight walled rifle cartridges (45-70, 38-55)
?
