45 LC trimming

[nulfisin]

I shoot these out of a Beretta Stampede. The Lyman manual suggests case trimming to 1.275 inches. At this length, though, I'm getting some jamming in the cylinder. I'm now cutting the cases to about 1.270 inches, or perhaps a hair less. Is there any safety issue with trimming to this level?

The OAL, by the way, doesn't seem to be the problem. The gun just didn't like the brass jutting out as far as it did.

 

[rcmodel]

Max SAAMI case length for the .45 Colt is 1.285", and I would be surprised if your gun would not accept that length case or slightly longer.

Are you sure it isn't a crimp die adjustment issue causing buckled cases?

Just for the halibut, try inserting sized but not trimmed or loaded cases in all the chambers and see if they all go in.

If they fit sized and untrimmed empty, it is something you are doing during the seating & crimping stage causing the problem.

If it does in fact turn out to be a short chambered gun, trim them to whatever length they need to be to fit when sized and empty.

Or send the gun back and have them fix it.
Short out of spec chambers could get you in a heap a trouble with hotter factory loads.

rc

 

[loadedround]

In over 40 years of shooting and reloading, I have never yet had to trim straight wall revolver cartridges. I usually wear them out first. To repeat what Rdmodel has said, I believe there is a problem with your loading techinque. Please review each step, taking a good look at removing all your case mouth expansion and that you did not slightly crush a case in crimping or seating.

 

[nulfisin]

Safe to shoot the shorter ones?

These are excellent thoughts. For now, is it safe to shoot the shorter (1.270 inch) cartridges that I trimmed, or should I just pitch them? Thanks.

 

[Sport45]

0.005" won't hurt anything on a low pressure round like the .45 Colt. Go ahead and shoot them. Do try to find out why they don't work at the proper length. Did you check the zero on your calipers?

 

[nulfisin]

The calipers are fine

I'm still thinking about this one. I loaded about 50 rounds, or about eight cylinders. I think I had about 5 bad loads. If I were getting a bulged case or lousy crimp, I'd expect it to be more consistent. But maybe not.

I'll be extra meticulous on the next batch and measure the trunk of the cases for bulges more frequently. Interesting problem.

 

[Uncle Chan]

Odd, I've loaded tens of thousands of 45LC cases (CAS Shooter) and have never once had to trim a case. Some of these have been loaded 20-30 times.

 

[Remo-99]

I'm now cutting the cases to about 1.270 inches, or perhaps a hair less. Is there any safety issue with trimming to this level?

You can trim them as per needed for your gun. It must have some really short chambers if they do need trimming tho.
Like RC mentions, if rounds are over crimped upon seating it risks bulging the walls on the case(making chambering rounds difficult).

 

[Bula]

Funny I just went thru this with a Ruger NMBH in .45 Colt. I slugged the throats, and 4 of 6 were way undersized, not allowing the front driving band on a cast RCBS-270-SAA to seat correctly. Sent the cylinder to Cylindersmith.com and he recut the throats to .4525 and all is well now. Any chance this is the case here?

 

[nulfisin]

Reply to Bula

You may well be correct. I don't have a large enough sample size to know. It could just as easily (actually more easily) be error on my part. I bought some new brass this morning from Starline and will test it for chambering, then cook up a new batch. I'll let y'all know.

 

[GaryL]

Any possibility of lead buildup at the end of the chambers? I know it's a long shot (no pun intended), but I can't tell you how many times when I was in application engineering that we had perfectly smart people forget to turn on the power or plug in the monitor.

 

[Grumulkin]

You should never have to trim a low pressure straight walled cartridge. In my opinion, chamber leading, as GaryL suggested, is the problem.