I need to order a Lee case length gauge for 350 Rem. Mag. and, as it's a non-standard item, need to tell them the cartridge length.

I'm unsure just what the trim length should be. My Nosler manuals say trim cases to listed case length (2.170" in this case) while my Barnes manual says trim cases shorter, to 2.160".

Any suggestions? Any idea why Barnes suggests trimming shorter? Thanks. -WSJ

Hey WSJ, I sure don't understand that about Lee, cause they were Standard items when I got mine. I just checked a case and it trims them to 2.165" from the Casehead to the Casemouth.

I've no idea at all why Barnes and Nosler offer different "Trim Lengths". Huuuummm, come to think of it, this dimension from my actual Lee tool is right in between them.

At SAFE MAX Load levels, I don't get a lot of case stretch in mine. In fact, cases seem to last an extremely long time.

Good luck to you.

Anywhere between 2.160 and 2.170 would be okay.

Original designs called for 2.170...

Hot Core: I looked in both my usual sources (Natchez and Midway) and couldn't locate the trim length gauge for the 350 and yesterday checked the LEE Precision website and they didn't list it either. Maybe they dropped it as a standard item? I had to go through the same routine with my 8mm Rem.

The suggestion that I split the difference and order it at 2.165 is what I figured I'd end up doing if I didn't hear any real strong arguments for one length or the other. So that's what it'll be. Thanks. -WSJ

Well, shoot. I just checked the Sierra CD loading manual and they say trim to 2.160! Now I'm torn again. Maybe I'll just call Lee and see what they recommend.

Go with the 2.170" length. If that for any reason ends up being too long, just hone ten thousandths off the end of the pin.

Voila! It'll then cut the cases to 2.160".

Problem solved...

Dan Newberry
green 788

I believe 2.170" to be the maximum AOL of the case by SAAMI spec. One would want to trim a little shorter (2.160" perhaps) to preclude the neccessity of trimming with every loading.

If you don't mind having to trim @ each loading by all means trim to 2.170"

The general rule is to trim the cases .010" shorter than the max allowable length.If 2.170" is the max length the trim length would be 2.160"

All right. I'm going with the majority: gauge ordered at 2.160. Thanks all. -WSJ

My Lyman E-ZEE case length guage has it at 2.170 and it states on the gauge that this is max.