Trimming Cases

[PBratton]

Ok, so I'm putting together parts to start reloading 6.8 with my XL-650, I've been reloading 9mm and .45 for awhile, but never rifle.

Can someone step me through trimming and de-burring?

I've been looking at different trimmers and parts, but cannot get comfortsable that I am on the right track.

[MoJo]

Want to tell us what you've looked at?

[PBratton]

Mojo - I've looked at manual trimmers all the way up to the one made by Dillon that screws to the press... just trying to get a handle on what is really needed.

Andy - Thanks for the list!

[mactex]

Honestly, I have quit trimming my strait walled pistol cases. I checked each case with a pair of calipers for about a year or so before I convinced myself that it wasn't necessary. Qualification to the prior statement: any brass I pickup at the range gets checked before reloading. After that I just run it through after inspecting it for problems.

If you want a good way to measure case length, as well as the cartridge overall length, get some electronic calipers from Harbor Freight or a similar discount tool place. I believe that I paid about $15 for mine a while back and use them every time I reload.

[Houston1944]

I have reloaded thousands of 45acp and 9mm but have never measured, much less trimmed a straight wall pistol case.

I do measure and trim all of my rifle calibers. If you are loading rifle I do recommend getting some type of electric trimmer. Trimming with the hand crank trimmer gets old very quickly. I use a RCBS manual trimmer that I replaced the handle with a home-adapter to fit my cordless drill.

[PBratton]

Alright Andy, I took your word and placed my order. Looks like I'm getting set up to load 6.8 now...

You need a case-length gauge of some kind to set the length, then a trimmer to trim the case to the correct length then a deburring tool to knock the burrs off the inside and outside of the case-neck.

Here's a cheap manual way to get you started:

Lee 6.8 case-length gauge

Lee Trimmer

Lee Deburring tool

You can eventually get a bench-mounted tool or adapters for an electric drill to rotate the case, but it's pretty easy to do. I have one of these clamped to my bench to spin the case while I trim it to length.