Case trim length

C

canis lupus

Guest
How tight of a tolerance must you hold your case length to (6ppc) for benchrest shooting? I am looking at a Wilson/Sinclair model that has a threaded dead stop and the other model has the Micrometer attachment with it. Or is there a better case trimmer out there?

Bill (canis lupus):confused:
 
You're apt to get quite a few different replies.

Here is a good test. Make sure all your cases are at least .005 shorter than the chamber. There is no standard 6 PPC benchrest chamber; I've seen reamers at 1.505, 1.515, and 1.525. As long as your cases are at least .005 shorter than your chamber, you can run the test.

Pick 20 cases with varing lengths, but no identifying marks. Swirl them all up in a pile so you can't tell the difference. Load & shoot them, plot the shot and number the cases as you shoot. Then measure the cases. I'll bet you conclude you can't shoot the difference between cases 1.495 and 1.505 long.

If you argue you're not good to shoot the difference yet, I'd say don't worry about it. Repeat the test in a year. Five years. When you can shoot the difference (if ever), you'll have your answer.
 
Case Trim

I would venture a guess that 95 percent of all Benchrest Shooters use the little Wilson Trimmer. It is handy, uncomplicated, and will get every case the same length.

My reamer cuts a 1.515 length chamber. I always try to maintain my cases at just at 1.500. Seems to work great......jackie
 
Wilson case trimmer...

Should I purchase the trimmer with the micrometer? And my case holders do I get them for fired or unfired cases?
 
case length & trimmers

Stephen,
Thanks for the help.

Bill (canis lupus)
 
Bill

Don't overthink the case length thing.

Buy one of the little fixed trimmers that indexes off of the case shoulder (made by Homer Strickland and also sold by Sinclair), set it for the length of your shortest cases, and use it everytime you load the case as one step in the reloading process. I make my own and have one for every cartridge that I load. The regular trimmers are needed at the start of the case-forming process but after that they are really over-kill.

JMHO

Ray
 
Case Length

I have 3 RCBS trimmers. The first one I bought when I first started reloading. It always did the job so I kept buying them, one for each round I load for. The cutters are nice and sharp and I get almost no variance. If you want a high dollar micrometer model so much the better, but once you've set the tool up shouldn't be much need to change it, unless you have more than one rifle in the same caliber.
 
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