Case trimmer compare

The best trimming methiod I've found yet. Fast and impossible to screw up.

For common calibers, I use the Dillon motorized trimmer/size die. It's not cheap, but is about the fastest there is. Also very consistant. I also use the Lyman drill press trimmer for a lot of odd ball calibers. For small lots, I'll break out the Forster hand trimmer, but only as a last resort.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Tell ya what...I've heard of all these and seen all of these and I own a RCBS Case Trimmer 2. Now you go out there and see for yourself. Pick what fits what you need. Real simple or somethiong that mounts to your bench...I went shoppin' and looked at all of them and came home with a RCBS Case Trimmer 2....Let us know what you come home with and why...The "why" for me is that it is right there ready for use and very little has to be done to put it into action for almost any calibre. Adjusting is extremely simple and accurite.

I bought a Giraud about 3 years ago and can not think of a better purchase for the money.
I blew threw 500 pieces the other night in a little over a hour. And that it trims and chamfers all at the same time has taken the most dreaded part of brass prep into the easiest part.

If you want inexpensive and funtional Possum Hollow makes nice set up.
If you want precision lathe type tool, then buy a Wilson trimmer with Sinclair mount.
If you want the best trimmer for function, speed, and ease of use - Giraud has no peers! None Notta!

I'm another Giraud owner. There's nothing else that comes close.

Ed

Call me cheap (I am), but I like my LEE trimmers. Chuck it in a drill, trim and chamfer, done. Less than 4.00 per caliber and always spot on. Plus, all of them are in a small box on my bench, they take up little room on an ever expanding loading bench. I'm a computer geek and have gotten so tired of the "upgrade" and "you gotta have the latest trick gadget" game that I just want simple and functional and a good price.....

I bought the cheapest Lee setup I could find. I wish I'd spent the extra $2 for the ballhandle! I can trim the cases just fine with it, (I do NOT have a drill, so it's ALL by hand), if I do 10 cases at a time, start to finish, and then leave it alone for a whil to let the cramping go away. I still like it as I always like cheap, but maybe Santa will bring me a Lee ball handle cutter and cordless drill....

Guys, the best manual trimmer is also very cost effective, and relatively fast to use...

Go to www.sinclairintl.com, and look for the Wilson trimmers. You don't need the micrometer stuff... Not so great for straight walled handgun cases, but I usually don't trim those anyway.

I got the lee trimmer and finds it works well. Oddly enough, I deal little with case stretchnig. More often than not, I only need to trim once every 4-5 loads. Usually, by the time I would need to trim again, the brass is no good (splits & whatnot).

If you're trimming 500 cases at a time, then, yeah, get a motorized or the Zip Trim unit. Otherwise, "waste not, want not" with your wallet.

Berek

I've not found any yet that produce a square mouth,but then I've not tried them all.Lyman universal is what I use,until one comes along that will turn a square mouth.

Doug b...Could you explain in depth as to what you mean by "turn a square mouth". My RCBS clamps the case head against a collet that is inline with the axis of the cutting head. I have measured cases turned on this trimmer and found that as long as the case head is square, no dents or dings, it will cut a mouth that absolutely in line (square) with the axis with the case. This case trimmer self centers the case between the collet and the mandril the cutters have no choice but to cut a "square mouth". Lathe type cutter/trimmers are hard to defeat.

Bushmaster I judge a square mouth with my vernier.Measure a case at one point, lock your caliper and rotate the case and slide it in and out of the jaws at several places. Do this with several casings,if you feal any drag something is out of square imho.Now for the challenge,is it the trimmer,the die, the rifle chamber, or the casing. Or maybe I'm just to darn nit picky.

I have a Forster, which I don't use anymore. At this point I'm reloading pistol only. I now use a Wilson/Sinclair and it is heads and shoulders above the Forster. No collets, pilots.

If you're going to trim 9mm on the Forster, you need another base. If you size your brass prior to trimming, the standard pilot won't fit (too small). I could never trim cases "square." Length would vary when I rotated the case when measuring it with my caliper.

For rimmed cases, get the slightly more expensive "Q" case. Rimless cases will be slower to trim, but I do my trimming while watching the idiot box. Can do a couple hundred during a football game (my personal best is 8 during a review ).

Wilson/Sinclair is more expensive. As with many things in reloading, my advice is to, "Buy once, cry once." YMMV

http://www.giraudtool.com/
$365.00 for one calber!!! Somebody's out of their mind to charge/pay THAT much for a case trimmer!

RCBS has one that trims cases automatically, with the touch of a button. But why go to the expense of motorized super trimmers when a lee pilot and cutter with a hole shooter or cordless drill work so well. Nice add-on is that while the case is spinning you can inside/outside chamfer, uniform the primer flash hole, run some 4o steel wool on the case to clean it up and some paper towel to get the lube off!

Giraud.

Mike

$365.00 for one calber!!! Somebody's out of their mind to charge/pay THAT much for a case trimmer!

Click to expand...

The simple fact still remains that the Giraud tool is the sweetest trimmer around. Regardless of his price, you won't find a better tool.

Ed

snuffy said:

http://www.giraudtool.com/
$365.00 for one calber!!! Somebody's out of their mind to charge/pay THAT much for a case trimmer!

RCBS has one that trims cases automatically, with the touch of a button. But why go to the expense of motorized super trimmers when a lee pilot and cutter with a hole shooter or cordless drill work so well. Nice add-on is that while the case is spinning you can inside/outside chamfer, uniform the primer flash hole, run some 4o steel wool on the case to clean it up and some paper towel to get the lube off!

Click to expand...

One word: Speed. I processed 400 rifle cases the other night on a Giraud in about 35 minutes. That's trimmed, chamfered, and deburred. It's 4 or 5 times faster than the RCBS trimmer it replaced - and I was using power and the 3-way cutter on the RCBS.

When you shoot in high volumes like a lot of highpower competitors do, the Giraud is a bargain.

matt-man...And your opinion of the RCBS??? Many of us don't need that real expensive equipment as we don't mass produce our ammunition in large quantities. Like me. A lot of us load 20 to 60 rifle rounds and maybe 200 to 400 handgun rounds at a sitting and only need to trim only a few...:banghead: Would you like to reiterate on case trimmers??? And welcome to this (the best site on the net) forum...

I have the latest RCBS trimmer, the Trim Pro. As I mentioned, I had the 3-way cutting head that trims, deburs, and chamfers all in one go. I started out hand-cranking it, but later got the power adapter that lets you use a drill to power it. I used my Black & Decker cordless drill, and that's definitely recommended if you have some sort of power tool you can use. The adapter was only about $10.

It worked just fine - I just wanted something faster. The 3-way cutter is a little tricky to set up, but once I got it set it worked well and was worth the extra money to eliminate those extra steps. Adjusting the trim length was fairly easy with the micrometer fine adjustment bushing. Trimmed length seemed to be pretty consistent, within a couple of thousandths. I did notice that it didn't quite trim square - sometimes one side of the case would be a thousandth longer than the other - but I didn't worry too much about it. The lever-activated shell holder worked OK for the most part and was much faster than the old collet-style (my dad had one like that).

So the only thing I really found lacking in the RCBS was speed of operation. If I weren't loading so many rounds, I probably would have stuck with it. The Giraud only works for bottlenecked cases (it indexes on the case shoulder) so I'm keeping the RCBS around in case I need to trim anything else.

Thank you Matt-man...It's obvious that you are one of us...I have the RCBS Rotary Case Trimmer II. It has served me well for about 20 years...I'll keep it.

Wilson's better, faster, and for only a few calibers, cheaper. If you're not so concerned with accuracy, and will be loading a variety of calibers with standard case heads, you may want to think of something else tho... Personally, I love my Wilsons.

Giraud for .308 here, Forster and a drill motor for everything else. With the Giraud you can process over one hundred cases during a single commercial break. I posted a review of the unit here a couple of years ago. It might still be around.