Thread: Case Trimmers..

Hey team,
Looking to move away from my lee quick trim now that I'm loading for a few different calibers now. Wondering what's the best bang for buck out there?
As awesome as an electric one would be I just don't think I do quite enough to justify one of them. Have seen the Hornady cam lock trimmer and the Lyman one that looks very similar but for quite different prices.
Cheers

I have a Lyman accutrimmer, it does the job, but changing cases is a bit slow as you have to wind the end screw thing quite a way in and out.

I use the Lee Case Length Gauge system where you buy a calibre specific shell holder and gauge rod. Rod screws into a cutter head. With the piece that goes into the drill chuck to screw the shell holder on I have a fast and accurate (enough for me) system where a 100 at a time is quick and easy. I have a Lyman Universal and a Forster system on the shelf as well as the Lee quick trim. None of them compete for speed or ease of multiple case prep actions. With decapped and sized brass I can:

- Length gauge
- chamfer the mouth inside
- deburr the case mouth outside
- pass a wire or brush in and out of the neck to clean
- dress the case outside with steel wool
- anneal the neck

All in one continous process per shell. Then when the case is dismounted from the shell holder, the primer pocket gets a quick ream to clean with the appropriate Lyman hand held thingamygig.

Hard to beat

Originally Posted by Jhon

I use the Lee Case Length Gauge system where you buy a calibre specific shell holder and gauge rod. Rod screws into a cutter head. With the piece that goes into the drill chuck to screw the shell holder on I have a fast and accurate (enough for me) system where a 100 at a time is quick and easy. I have a Lyman Universal and a Forster system on the shelf as well as the Lee quick trim. None of them compete for speed or ease of multiple case prep actions. With decapped and sized brass I can:

- Length gauge
- chamfer the mouth inside
- deburr the case mouth outside
- pass a wire or brush in and out of the neck to clean
- dress the case outside with steel wool
- anneal the neck

All in one continous process per shell. Then when the case is dismounted from the shell holder, the primer pocket gets a quick ream to clean with the appropriate Lyman hand held thingamygig.

Hard to beat

This here sounds like system that is just to the point and gets the job done. Do the cutter heads work with straight wall cartridges as well such as 4570? Ideally I'm after a system that will be able to do the whole lot. Though I guess what we want isn't necessarily always available haha.

Originally Posted by cheeseclip

Hey team,
Looking to move away from my lee quick trim now that I'm loading for a few different calibers now. Wondering what's the best bang for buck out there?
As awesome as an electric one would be I just don't think I do quite enough to justify one of them. Have seen the Hornady cam lock trimmer and the Lyman one that looks very similar but for quite different prices.
Cheers

The Lyman Universal is a good piece of gear I used one for years it doesn't need shell holders that is the universal part it is a clamp that grabs the case,
it comes with 9 pilots if you load a 6.5 you need to add that pilot,
A power adapter is available,
I can source one for you if they are in stock, I got one for a friend couple of months ago.

I use crows worlds finest trimmers.... they are amazing!!

The worlds finest trimmers work OK but their customer service sucks and they can be hard going on your fingers.

I tried the Frankford Arsenal trimmer and that worked fine with some 7.5 Swiss but basically doesn't work for 300 Blackout.

I'm still searching for a trimmer that is easy to use and switch cartridges as needed easily.

Originally Posted by wanneroo

The worlds finest trimmers work OK but their customer service sucks and they can be hard going on your fingers.

I tried the Frankford Arsenal trimmer and that worked fine with some 7.5 Swiss but basically doesn't work for 300 Blackout.

I'm still searching for a trimmer that is easy to use and switch cartridges as needed easily.

I use the Wilson trimmer with all the Sinclair add ons works great for the .300 Blackout
Expensive for the full set up, but purchase the basic trimmer and add to it as need is not too bad
the power adapter is great for speeding up the work rate.

@Jhon, I concur, 100%. Unfortunately,though, there's a roach in the stew. The new Lee Case Length Gauges are alloy not steel. Leastways mine was and every other new one I've looked at has been. They tend to go out of true very quickly using a drill. OK by hand I suppose. Just a heads up for anyone reading and thinking of going that way.

I hold the lee case trimmer thing in a vice, then put a shell holder in a drill and use a drill to spin the case. Its pretty quick.

Originally Posted by RugerM77

@Jhon, I concur, 100%. Unfortunately,though, there's a roach in the stew. The new Lee Case Length Gauges are alloy not steel. Leastways mine was and every other new one I've looked at has been. They tend to go out of true very quickly using a drill. OK by hand I suppose. Just a heads up for anyone reading and thinking of going that way.

I have a number of them, all are steel, never come across an aluminum or alloy one, to my knowledge. Maybe I just haven't noticed....

To answer the OP, yes they work equally on straightwall, tapered and bottleneck cases. The only worn bit I've ever come across us a cutter head, came to me used, well used. I bought my first ones in 2005 and still use them, 303B and 30-30. I have them for Pistol calibres and yet have never found it necessary to use them for Pistol cases and I shoot a fair bit of Pistol. I once read I should length gauge 45ACP but yeah, nah.gun still shoots good.

Its hunting rounds in rifles that I Gauge including 44-40 and 45 Colt. Don't bother with 357mag. Always Gauge the bottlenecks each time I reload them. But I'm a meat hunter not a bench rest shooter.

Biggest issue with the Lee system now is they have pretty much doubled in price. So if you reload a bunch of calibres you might want to check the economics and utility of e. g. The Lyman Universal, or a Forster

The beauty of the Universal or a Forster etc is you can choose what exact length you want to trim to. With Lee there is one predetermined length. Downside is you have to set them up each time.

I’ve got a Wilson and it’s accurate but slow. Did 100 pieces of brass with it and gave up. haven’t used it since.

Worlds Finest Trimmer is very effective and very consistent, provided your case resizing is consistent. Very fast and can do 100 pieces in 15 minutes or less. Still need to chamfer and debur in additional steps.

Henderson trimmer will also chamfer and debur, so does all 3 steps in one pass. Takes me 20 minutes to process 100 pieces. Clean cuts and perfect chamfer / debur.

Originally Posted by shooternz

I use the Wilson trimmer with all the Sinclair add ons works great for the .300 Blackout
Expensive for the full set up, but purchase the basic trimmer and add to it as need is not too bad
the power adapter is great for speeding up the work rate.

I looked at it this morning. Looks like a quality piece of kit. However once you buy all the stuff it's probably getting into the realm of just getting one of the fancy Giraud trimmers everyone raves about.

In the end I might consider it though, we'll see.

LE Wilson for me too. The case holder ensures concentric cuts every time, which many of the others cannot replicate. Does that make a difference? Maybe yes, maybe no, but if we are about limiting variables and being as consistent as possible, it seems sensible to me.

I have an Ugly trimmer which mounts to a drill, very quick easily do 100 cases in 10 minutes as above you need to make sure your sizing is consistent and inner/outer chamfer is a seperate step but very easy to use and does a great job.
Think I paid about $90ish for it and will likely get another for each caliber I load as even though you can fit different collets for different calibers you then have to adjust the cutter depth and I like the idea of set and forget.