shorter than minimum brass

[O6nop]

Is it a bad idea to load brass that is less than the 'minimum' length? Should it go in the scrap pile?
I have lots of .223 brass and after decapping them quite a few measure less than 1.750" which is listed in my book as the trim length. I'm still working on my precision load but I reload as much as I can for plinking. Is the less than minimum going to make much difference as long as the OAL is correct?
Brass over 1.76" gets trimmed to 1.76"

[chartreuse]

AIUI, .223 chambers on the shoulder, so as long as the OAL is correct, you should be OK.

After all, this is (presumably) brass from rounds that you've successfully fired once already. I doubt that it got any shorter between you firing it and decapping it.

[O6nop]

AIUI, .223 chambers on the shoulder, so as long as the OAL is correct, you should be OK.

After all, this is (presumably) brass from rounds that you've successfully fired once already. I doubt that it got any shorter between you firing it and decapping it.

A lot of it is range brass. The range I shoot at occasionally has a lot of brass just laying around. The other day I picked up handfuls of 7.62 (.308 and 30-06) military brass. It's common to find .380 and 9mm brass, too.
I don't measure it until after it's decapped in case the brass stretches a bit during resizing.
So why does my Hornady seventh edition reloading book even mention case trim length? I assumed that is the minimum.

[chartreuse]

I've always taken case trim length to be the maximum. When stuff stretches, it gets longer, not shorter.

At this rate, I'm going to have to run out to my truck and get the new Lymans manual I picked up the other week...

Edited to add: I don't mean to sound like any kind of an expert. In truth, I've yet to load my first round (though I plan to in the next week or so) despite having been given a press for Christmas. The reason for this is, once I got the press my first order of business was to buy The ABCs of Reloading, Modern Reloading, and a couple other books and not set my hand to my press until I'd read and understood everything that those books had to teach me.

[O6nop]

I've always taken case trim length to be the maximum. When stuff stretches, it gets longer, not shorter.

At this rate, I'm going to have to run out to my truck and get the new Lymans manual I picked up the other week...

Edited to add: I don't mean to sound like any kind of an expert. In truth, I've yet to load my first round (though I plan to in the next week or so) despite having been given a press for Christmas. The reason for this is, once I got the press my first order of business was to buy The ABCs of Reloading, Modern Reloading, and a couple other books and not set my hand to my press until I'd read and understood everything that those books had to teach me.

Sounds reasonable, but my book says 'max. case length 1.760", Case trim length 1.750" '. If it's less than 1.750" it can't be trimmed to 1.750". That's where I get my interpretation of "minimum".

As far as reading and understanding before you begin, that's a good idea, but believe me, after you start reloading, it will be some time before you run out of questions.

[chartreuse]

As far as reading and understanding before you begin, that's a good idea, but believe me, after you start reloading, it will be some time before you run out of questions.

I have no doubt! But that's all part of the fun, isn't it?

[NcongruNt]

I've always taken case trim length to be the maximum. When stuff stretches, it gets longer, not shorter.

At this rate, I'm going to have to run out to my truck and get the new Lymans manual I picked up the other week...

Edited to add: I don't mean to sound like any kind of an expert. In truth, I've yet to load my first round (though I plan to in the next week or so) despite having been given a press for Christmas. The reason for this is, once I got the press my first order of business was to buy The ABCs of Reloading, Modern Reloading, and a couple other books and not set my hand to my press until I'd read and understood everything that those books had to teach me.

Sounds reasonable, but my book says 'max. case length 1.760", Case trim length 1.750" '. If it's less than 1.750" it can't be trimmed to 1.750". That's where I get my interpretation of "minimum".

As far as reading and understanding before you begin, that's a good idea, but believe me, after you start reloading, it will be some time before you run out of questions.

I think what that means is that if it exceeds the max case length of 1.760, you should trim it down to 1.750. If you only trimmed it to 1.760, then the next time around it's going to exceed the max length again.

[medalguy]

1.750 is the length you should trim to IF you need to trim it. There's nothing at all wrong with trimming it a little bit (LITTLE) under that length. In fact I usually go .005 - .010 under trim-to minimums and I don't have to trim again for 6-8 reloads in most cases. Again, as long as your OAL is not too long, you're fine.

Reminder: Don't trim it too short or you will begin to affect the neck tension that holds the bullet in place.

[O6nop]

This is all good to know. Unfortunately, I've scrapped quite a few thinking they were unusable. I'll be keeping them from here on. Actually, I'll probably have a surplus now. They may be in the for sale section soon.

[JackRR]

There is a good tutorial specific to .223 for AR's. He says he uses anything from 1.740 to 1.760.
Ive basically followed most of his methods reloading .223. Has worked out good so far for me.
I rarely see anything under 1.740 after resizing. Anything over 1.760 gets put in a container for later trimming.
When I trim, I trim to 1.750 like all the manuals recommend.

Here's part of the tutorial:

Step 9 - Case Trimming (if needed)

The next step is case trimming. You can actually do this step before the others, but it has to be done if necessary. The max length of your sized .223 brass can be no bigger than 1.760". The recommended trim to length is 1.75". Although no one prints a minimum OAL for a .223 case, you're OK if you're in the 1.740" to 1.750" range.

The instructions for the RCBS X-Die for example, states to trim to 0.02" below the max OAL of your case, so 1.760" - 0.02" is 1.740".

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