case trimmers?

[muskrat30]

I trim with the Lee hand system, the lee trimmer in a drill, & a Wilson hand crank trimmer.

Back to your question. You should not need to trim straight handgun cartridges. For that reason I wouldn't get any trimmer for the likes of the 25 acp. I'm not saying there is never a reason to trim them, but hardly ever. You can measure case length & see where your at. You also hear about case length when it comes to straight wall that need a heavy crimp. It's more consistent when all cases are the same length. Still , not usually a big deal though.

[Rapier]

Muskrat,
Not trimming straight wall handgun cartridges is a no no. Let me explain. If you are using a roll crimp, the amount of crimp is directly related to the length of the cartridge case. The amount of crimp establishes the amount of bullet pull or bullet tension from round to round. If the bullet tension within the case is not constant it will not produce accurate rounds. Accuracy in reloading is accomplished by acheiving the same results from one cartridge to another, thus all of the cases need be the same for real accuracy.

I shoot sub 1 inch groups with my 357 mag and my 357 super mag reloads at 100 yards and a 44 mag will shoot 1 inch at 100 yards. But this is not possible unless the brass is properly prepared.
Ed

[270man]

Muskrat30 is right on regarding trimming 25ACP cases. Straight wall cases for semi-autos headspace on the case mouth and loaded rounds should be taper crimped to take out the case mouth flare (bell). Several years ago, I decided to trim some once-fired 40S&W cases to the same length and found that they were under the recommended trim-to length in data books. Then I checked some new, unfired cases and found the same thing.

Ive written to several "experts" and have received different recommendations. One said to sort the cases by length and trim as necessary -- but he didn't say what to do with those that were too short. Another recommended trimming to the length of the shortest cases in the lot.

If a case is much too short, the firing pin might not strike hard enough to ignite the primer. If way too long, the slide might not fully engage. Long story short, I just forget about case lengths with all my semi-autos and have never had a problem. I have loaded for 9mm, 40S&W and 45ACP. Roll-crimping is not advisable with the semi-auto cases, and the taper crimp works fine for me.

270man