trim cases

That depends on: caliber, size case, primer, type of powder and quantity and bullet you are using. 9mm, for example, varies a lot by manufacturer. When they come up short like that, I assume you are just loading target loads. Now if you were to load full house loads and seat bullets deep, that could be a big problem. When asking that type of question give all the info you can into the thread, which will make it easier for for to help.

There's no safety risk due to short cases, until neck tension drops too low to hold together. You're not close. . .

What you're seeing is perfectly common. . . manufacturers produce ammo inside the maximum material condition, sometimes well inside.

Hot44 said:

I've been wondering, I have purchased a lot of ammo that is a lot shorter in case length than the trim to or unfired brass specs. in my reloading manuals. What gives? Is this just a way the company is trying to stop me from reloading? Mostly in pistol or revolver.
Even after firing.
Especially when the books say not to trim below length. I admit I have fired some of these rounds, reloaded and fired again. Am I looking for trouble?

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You buying AMMO or brass?? Calibers??
If used brass it needs to be resized first, then measure.

Hot44 said:

I've been wondering, I have purchased a lot of ammo that is a lot shorter in case length than the trim to or unfired brass specs

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It isn't ,by chance, Hornady factory ammo with FTX bullets, is it...?....Those cases will be shorted due to the projectile...

Rule3 said:

You buying AMMO or brass??

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Hot44 said:

I've been wondering, I have purchased a lot of ammo that is a lot shorter in case length than the trim to or unfired brass specs. in my reloading manuals. What gives? Is this just a way the company is trying to stop me from reloading? Mostly in pistol or revolver.
Even after firing.
Especially when the books say not to trim below length. I admit I have fired some of these rounds, reloaded and fired again. Am I looking for trouble?

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Looks like he stated pretty clearly that he purchased AMMO.........

When I encounter rifle cases that are shorter than the trim-to length I trim all of them to the same length and load them. Pistol cases, I just load and shoot them. I don't think the ammo companies are trying to keep anyone from reloading.

Soonerpesek said:

Looks like he stated pretty clearly that he purchased AMMO.........

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Well why measure brass on loaded ammo?
He also “clearly “ states after firing which makes it once fired and still needs to sized
Let’s all speculate

Rule3 said:

Well why measure brass on loaded ammo?

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Because certain factory loaded ammo does have shorter than SAMMI spec case lengths......

Rule3 said:

Let’s all speculate

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He stated he bought ammo, you speculated he was talking about buying brass...

Rule3 said:

He also “clearly “ states after firing which makes it once fired and still needs to sized

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How many times has pistol/revolver brass shrunk after being fired...?...

Hot44 said:

I've been wondering, I have purchased a lot of ammo that is a lot shorter in case length than the trim to or unfired brass specs. in my reloading manuals. What gives? Is this just a way the company is trying to stop me from reloading?

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No. So long as the case neck is long enough to grip the bullet, you should be fine.

Maximum trim lengths are published so that you don't let a case get so long it gets jammed into the front of the chamber thereby holding the bullet like a vise and causing abnormally high chamber pressures.

Lately I have been noticing that when reloading .45acp and 9mm range pickup brass the swaged flare at the case mouth varies greatly from case to case. Some end up with flares that are so wide they have trouble entering the crimp die while others have almost no flare at all to the point that they don’t hold the bullet nicely for seating.
I have not measured yet other than to check for nogo but I can only surmise this is because small variations in case length create big variations in flare.
I think I am going to try measuring a batch and trimming all the cases to match the shortest one in the batch and see if the flares are more uniform.
The only other explanation I can think of would be if the bushings on my press were sloppy and it doesn’t feel like that.

Ammo manufacturers aren’t concerned with “trim to” length. They are concerned with SAAMI specs, at least American manufacturers are. SAAMI minimum case length is usually shorter than “trim to” that you find in manuals.

If a round fires in your gun and you resize it to standard size it should be able to be reloaded and fired again without problems as long as the brass is not damaged or over max length. There are some brass that are cut shorter on purpose to use special bullets like the FTX type but are limited to rounds that can be used in lever actions so far.

Soonerpesek said:

How many times has pistol/revolver brass shrunk after being fired...?...

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Pistol ammo gets shorter when it is sized.

Hot44 said:

Especially when the books say not to trim below length. I admit I have fired some of these rounds, reloaded and fired again.

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That’s probably worded that way in the books to keep it simple and not have some jamoke trim really short, have a problem, and sue. If I get sufficient neck tension I don’t worry if I’m still in spec. When I do need to trim, it’s to keep a consistent length. Only my revolver loads get trimmed if I’m doing a roll crimp.

Hot44 said:

Am I looking for trouble?

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Hopefully not?

It's all so "nebulous" What is the definition of "a lot shorter in case length"
For pistol, aka semi autos case length matters as to headspace. But we have no idea what the OP is really talking about.

SAAMI specs. are not hard and fast exact dimensions, more like "suggestions" for an industry standard. No rules punishable by the "industry police", just an industry standard (if you checked a variety of cases, bullets, etc. you would find many that are "out of SAAMI spec.".)...

mdi said:

SAAMI specs. are not hard and fast exact dimensions, more like "suggestions" for an industry standard. No rules punishable by the "industry police", just an industry standard (if you checked a variety of cases, bullets, etc. you would fing many that are "out of SAAMI spec.".)...

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What, no sammi police. How unfair

Hot44 said:

I've been wondering, I have purchased a lot of ammo that is a lot shorter in case length than the trim to or unfired brass specs. in my reloading manuals. What gives? Is this just a way the company is trying to stop me from reloading? Mostly in pistol or revolver.
Even after firing.
Especially when the books say not to trim below length. I admit I have fired some of these rounds, reloaded and fired again. Am I looking for trouble?

Click to expand...

If not using the same bullet to reload, FTX in Hornady, for example, I would expect pressure to be higher when adhering to a COL rather than a crimp groove. I would reduce the load, I have such brass and sidelined in favor of a length range closer to standard. I do have some FTX bullets, so the brass won't go to waste.