? about .45 bulk brass

[Micheal Fortune]

Greetings all,

I was going to order some bulk .45 Colt brass from Midway and all of thier disclaimers state that bulk brass has to be trimed to length.

A few years ago (10-15) I reloaded 10's of thousands of rounds of .38 and .357 and never once checked them for over all length or trimmed them.

I'm guessing this is needed for rifle cases or auto loading cases but has any of you purchased .45 bulk brass before and do I indeed need to trim them?

Thanks in advance.

[Doctor Bill]

My experience is that brass trim length is far more inportant in rifle cartridges than in pistol or pistol-used-in-lever-action-rifle cartridges.  Though I check OAL when I reload 0.45 colt, I never check trim length before loading.  Now, that may be one of the things that contributes to the fact that I haven't won End of Trail for the last three years but I think practice and actually entering the competition is a bigger factor.

Seriously, even with the higher pressures of .357 and 0.44 mag rounds, I haven't seen significant "stretch" in brass cases.  Load um up.  Check for OAL once in a while and you should be OK.


Doctor Bill

[Delmonico]

This is not intended to sound like a smart a$$ answer but the real thing to decide is how good do you want yer ammo to be?  If you roll crimp trimming to the same length is very importand or you will have uneven crimps.  Worst case some could buckle when being crimped, some could end up with a light crimp.  When someone tells me the had a malfunction cause a bullet slipped down into the case in the magazine of their rifle I just think to my self, sloppy loading practice. 

The best solution is a taper crimp die or one of the Lee factory Crimp die (yes it is a taper crimp)
These are more forgiving on case length.  Every pistol round I've loaded in the last 15 years for myself has been taper crimped.  One thing here, many think a roll crimp holds tighter, this is not true and in some cases can be the reverse.   

For CAS a taper crimp will save trimming and time.  Since I am not really a CAS shooter, just Long Range, favorite Ruger is a field carry piece.  All brass is trimed, champhered and sized when I get it and the length is checked from time to time, 35,000 psi loads seem to stretch brass a slight bit. 

Remember I just might want to take a 100 yard shot at a coyote, I want the ammo I carry to be the best I can produce.  CAS shooting don't need perfect ammo, but I can tell you from almost 30 years of reloading ammo, 99.9% of ammo malfunctions are the fault of the person that reloaded the ammo. 

[Lee Melone]

I dunno.  I tend to think that it has alot to do with the make of the brass you are buying.  Got 500 R-P for the 45LC, and another 500 for the wifes .38.  After measuring a sampling, ended up trimming all of them because there was no consistancy.  Last order was for 1000 StarLines each.  After measuring them, I decided to skip the trimming.  They were all very very close.

I suppose that if I were still shooting IHMSA, I would still trim all my brass reguardless, but the StarLines seem to load and shoot just fine for this game without all the extra bother.

BTW, I still trim my ACP brass as that cartridge does not space on the rim.

[Stump Water]

Hmm....

Taper crimp. 

High-power rifle rounds fed from a box magazine that headspaces on the shoulder, yes.  Auto-loading pistol ammo that headspaces on the case rim, yes. Pistol or rifle caliber ammo that is fed from a tube magazine. No.

99.9% of ammo malfunctions are the fault of the person reloading the ammo. Yes.

[Delmonico]

If the bullet and brass are fittin' like they should you can often see the grease grooves of the bullet in a loaded cartridge.  I garantee with proper fit and a tight taper crimp you could not move the bullet with a hammer. (I tried it on a dummy round, it don't move)  a tight roll crimp often loosens the tension on the bullet below the crimp. 

Besides that a proper taper crimp die for a rimmed case will tuck the mouth of the case into the crimp groove as well as a roll crimp, but it will keep the case below from moving away from the bullet, keeping the tension on it.

Try this, load a dummy round but don't crimp.  Take the round and put the bullet touching the bench.  Take a small 2X4 and put it on the back of the round, push on it hard.  If the bullet moves there is problems.  The taper crimp will only tighten the grip, a roll crimp that is tight will often loosen it. (The case that was slightly longer than the one you set the crimp die on.)  If one of these rounds loosen in a tube magazine the magazine spring must of come off the front of my Olds. 

I tried this with my 375 Winchester, I made a dummy round with out a crimp and put it in the front of the magazine and fired several magazines full.  It didn't move.  I use just a slight roll crimp on it, just enough to tuck the case mouth into the crimp groove, I don't think any one makes a taper crimp for this, this is on rifle that should loosen a bullet if any will.  255 gr bullet at around 1900 fps in a 94 Winchester Carbine.
 

[Marshal Will Wingam]

I have a pard that trims all his cases when he gets them. He gave me a trimmer because it really grated on his nerves that I didn't. I guess one day, I'll get it out and try trimming some, but my current batch of brass has been in use for three years, maybe 35-40 loads each and no problems. Maybe on the next batch I'll do it.

[Delmonico]

Don't mistake my thoughts, if the brass is fairly consistant and yer shootin' fair sized targets at fairly short range, trimming would be a waste of time. 

[Driftwood Johnson]

What's 'bluk brass'?