Henry Rifle Forums

Do I need to trim my 357mag brass?

for precision shooting, yes --- we take extra care loading our hunting ammo and do trim our brass as needed

for casual shooting, if you want to ---- for range ammo, we don't

JEBar wrote:for precision shooting, yes --- we take extra care loading our hunting ammo and do trim our brass as needed

for casual shooting, if you want to ---- for range ammo, we don't

What he said.

It doesn't seem to stretch all that much compared to rifle brass. For casual shooting, .357 brass will wear out and need to be discarded before it will get too long to reload.

As I understand, the only real reason to trim them is to guarantee consistent crimps. Even then, it is usually trim them all once, and they are good for the life of the cartridge. Most of us don't trim straight walled cases. I can live with crimps being a little inconsistent, as long as it is somewhere in the canelure.

I have been given once fired brass with mixed head stamps. In that case, I did trim each of them just to make the lot uniform. But, I don't normally trim them.

I organize my cases (from factory ammo that I bought) in their original groups of 50. Then, before I reload them, I re-adjust the Factory Crimp Die for each lot to maintain a consistent crimp across the inventory. It works for me.

I never bother to trim pistol cases. Rifle most certainly.

I'm kinda new at this, but for me I've found that if i separate brass to spec [1.280] +- .002", load them first and any shorts ones I readjust die to get a crimp.
Anything much longer i trim, I hate to crush cases

I as well sort out the shorter cases. I use them but I like to be close when seating bullets rather than having some in the case farther than others. I only trim the longer ones back to what I have the most of. Al

For those who do trim 357mag brass what trimmer do you use and are you happy with it?

I use these:

The Lee Case Conditioning Kit $11.99
( https://www.midwayusa.com/product/61893 ... ioning-kit)
AND
The Lee Case Length Gauge and Shellholder 357 Magnum $5.99
(http://www.midwayusa.com/product/318658 ... 357-magnum)

They work together as a single tool with a cordless drill.

I also have the .38 Case Length Gauge

I have been loading .38 Special and .357 brass since 1969 and have yet to trim any of them. This includes some heavy walled military .38 brass that was loaded more times than I care to admit and shot in my old model Colt Trooper .357.

larry7293 wrote:For those who do trim 357mag brass what trimmer do you use and are you happy with it?

I just use the RCBS standard trimmer,
It's green