When hand trimming brass, how close do you try to get the lengths of each piece of brass to each other? This is for a hunting load but I'm always trying to push the accuracy envelope. Any thoughts?

Cases don't need to be absolutely the same length for hunting loads;not even for precision loads. It's more of a saftey issue than anything else.
I bet you're not using the RCBS TrimPro2, but a trimmer with one of those clamping collets. Right? You'll never get equal trim lenghts with one of those.

quote:

Originally posted by McFox:
Cases don't need to be absolutely the same length for hunting loads;not even for precision loads. It's more of a saftey issue than anything else.
I bet you're not using the RCBS TrimPro2, but a trimmer with one of those clamping collets. Right? You'll never get equal trim lenghts with one of those.

Amen, and Amen.
Not really all that important for accuracy, and I can never get all the cases the same length using my clamping collet case holder. I've tried.
Just trimmed about 30 cases this AM that I shot yesterday, and they vary all over the place, but they are shortened below the critical trim- to length. I shot about 85 rounds of 222 Rem seeing what loads shot best, and about 30 of them had grown too long, needing trimming.
The only cases this poses a problem with are 30-30 cases that need crimping. I've solved that problem however.

It is critical only when you are neck turning. You want your neck turner to stop at the same place on ea. of your brass. Of course you do not want them too long.
Butch

I've had great luck with a simple and cheap drill-driven trimmer... the first pieces on this page:

http://www.leeprecision.com/cg...catalog/casecon.html

seems to work well and is WAY cheap.

I also use the Lee case trimmers, but I chuck the cutter in the drillmotor and hold the cases up to it. Saves having to stop the drill every time to change cases.
Lyle

I really like the little lee drill attachment. It's also great for cleaning up small amounts of brass besides trimming. (I do alot of shooting small test batches of 5-10 rounds) and mixing them in a tumbler doesn't work too well.
I also think the lee trimmer makes the necks very square....more so than my expensive rcbs trim pro lathe type trimmer which I hardly use anymore.

BTW---can you believe my wife thinks I need to clean up my "cleaning" bench???