I have by accident trimmed some of my .270 Win brass shorter than the recommended trim length of 2.530 inches. Just how much shorter than this is acceptable from a safety standpoint? The cases in question range from 2.525 to 2.529 inches. I know it's only .005 inch or less and I wouldn't think it would make a difference to the point of being unsafe but again I'm not an expert and that's why I've posed this question. I hand load several calibers for my wife, sons and me. None of us shoot competitively but we all hunt deer and I reload all of the rounds shot in our rifles and have done so for about 28 years or so. Thanks in advance for any advice on this.

As long as you're not one who crimps their bottleneck rifle cartridges, you'll be fine. Load them, shoot them, enjoy. If you use a crimp on your loads, then no, don't load them. Your crimp pressure will be all over the place, as will your initial pressure when fired.

I do not crimp any bottleneck rifle cartridges. So I would load them like normal and not worry about it.

Agreed

Your fine

I purposely cut all my rifle brass -10 and usually never cut it again

I cut my 5.56 -20 and never ever even lay a set of calipers on them again

No big deal. Like Ted I cut short and often lose them before they need cutting again.

You can cut them off until it barely holds a bullet and all will be fine on a bottlenecked case.

The problem with short necks is hot gases will erode your chamber if used constantly..Shoot what you have and let the cases grow to proper length. Trim them correctly next time...If a case is too long it builds pressure, it should be within the recommended specs for each specific caliber, and its always best that all your cases are the same length within reason...

One more question for ted. By -10 or -20 do you mean .010 or .020 as in 10 hundredths or 20 hundredths? Thanks to all who have replied to my question.

-.010 and -.020

Negative 10 and 20 thousands

I routinely trim my rifle lengths by .030 on the first loading......this is .020 more then recommended.

I do this because I don't like doing it at all.....it's a pain in the wazoo! So I do it once for the life of the brass and never trim them again.

I also don't crimp my bottle necked ammo as I've not found a need for it. I crimp tubular magazine rounds, hard recoiling handgun rounds and heavy recoiling rounds but very few others.

I realize that this is not the norm, but say this to support the fact that your "over trimmed" cases are indeed just fine to use.

Thanks again for the info and clarification. I'm in way better shape than I thought being off on a few cases by only 3 to 5 thousandths.

If you're loading for accuracy, the important thing is to have them all the same length.

His original question was on safety. Yes there are other considerations but safety ain't one of them.
And in reality, he is good; 3 to 5 thousandths is nothing.