A question about trimming pistol brass

[BHPshooter]

I'm trying to get back into reloading. I even put a Lee Turret Kit on layaway, so I've been trying to read up on what I'll need, etc.

I mostly shoot 9mm Luger, and until now I've just used my Dad's old RCBS single-stage press. Although I never reloaded much, I never did trim the brass that I used.

With the 9mm, how often do you find that you need to trim your brass? I can't seem to find what the trim-to length is for this cartridge.

Wes

 

[The Bushmaster]

9mmX19 trim to length .751...BUT you will loose them or wear them out (more then likely loose them) before you will ever trim them...I have never had to trim 9mm at anytime...

 

[Slamfire]

Shooting through bucket loads of range scrounged brass 9mm. Never trimmed a single case. Never saw evidence that any of the Master brand ammo, that is made with scrouged brass, was ever trimmed. Never had a problem. Or at least a problem attributable to over long cases.

 

[goon]

I have measured 9mm after several loadings just to see if this is a concern. I found that the brass was actually not even up to the trim to length yet. Now I just load it and don't worry about it.

 

[benedict1]

Lee Factory Crimp Die Eliminates the Problem.

When you get your Lee Classic Turret Press make sure you get a set of Lee DeLuxe Pistol Dies. It will include a Factory Crimp die which is the last one you will use as you finish the loaded round. You can adjust it to put a good taper crimp on your 9mm rounds; it will also post-size any round that might have bulged during loading due to case length variation at the bullet seating die.

You will never have to trim any 9mm cases so long as you are using the Factory Crimp Die. As noted above, you will probably lose them before they ever needed trimming anyhow!--

 

[Ben Shepherd]

Hey Wes: It's straightwall pistol brass. Don't worry about trimming. Check a few to make sure. Never needed to trim pistol brass myself.

Serious match ammo would be a different story though.

 

[benedict1]

Slight correction

Hey Wes: It's straightwall pistol brass. Don't worry about trimming. Check a few to make sure. Never needed to trim pistol brass myself.

Slight correction--check out the case dimensions for 9 mm here and you'll note that nominally they are .391" at the base and .380" at the case mouth. Strictly speaking, it is referred to as having "tapered walls"

Click on the image to see this--(copied from Handloads.com)

This tends to make 9 mm the most difficult to resize and it's why most everyone will recommend you use carbide dies for 9mm. Even then, on a progressive press like the Load Master, I will lube them for easier entry/exit in the resizing die.

Still don't need to trim though--just added all this in interest of terminology.

 

[joneb]

I like to trim my rimmed straight wall cases for a consistent crimp, I have never trimmed .45 acp brass

 

[ilbob]

I was shooting with a guy one time. he had a brand new Glock, about 1985 or so.

Used some reloads he bought somewhere.

Slide went forward, but not all the way into battery. Would not go forward, would not go back. Now has live round in chamber, can't shoot it, can't extract it.

Ended up bringing gun to gun smith. Gun smith calls Glock US distributor. Glock tells gun smith (several days later) how to get around this problem.

Gun smith reported cause of $75 repair bill was case that was slightly long.

Moral of story. Don't feed your Glock ammo that has cases that need to be trimmed.

 

[Deanimator]

I've been reloading pistol ammunition since around 1979. I have NEVER trimmed a pistol case in my life. I've never had a problem.

In my experience, straight cased pistol rounds simply don't stretch in the resizing process to any meaningful extent requiring trimming.

 

[Walkalong]

I trim all straight walled revolver brass once at the beginning for a more uniform crimp. I have never trimmed a 380, 9MM, .40, or .45 case in my life.

 

[The-Fly]

I've only been reloading since Sept of 06, but in that time I've done well over 5000 rounds of pistol rounds, in 9mm, 38spl, and 45acp. Never had to trim a single one yet.

 

[bakert]

Like Walkalong, I trim all revolver brass before loading the first time. Check on .357 brass occasionally because it does stretch sometimes. I've found that all of the 9MM and .45ACP pistol brass I've used never needed to trimmed, in fact most is short to begin with.

 

[The Bushmaster]

I have not trimmed 9mm or .45 ACP. Sooo. Out of curiosity I found some 9mmX19 cases that were just at length and trimmed them. Now that would be a chore to have to trim them little suckers. Curiosity cured...

 

[Hazzard]

I never trim my .45s or 9mms anymore. I've checked them after firing and there is no issue.

In fact, I bought some new .45 brass once and trimmed them all to the same length. After firing, they were slightly shorter. The only thing I could fgure was that as the case expanded in circumference it caused it to contract in length.

 

[The Bushmaster]

The Fly

You will trim when you start loading magnum cases...

 

[Dustinthewind]

Ther is not enough pressure at the pressures that .380, 9mm, .45ACP run to stretch the cases. What you will find is that these cases tend to get shorter from the resizing process. Magnum cases tend to grow in length.

 

[aubie515]

I don't trim my pistol cases as well.

 

[4fingermick]

I have never trimmed a pistol case yet. I read a good article once regarding the length of 9mm. Dean Grendell wrote it I think, but can;t be sure.

He said that he sorted the brass by lenght into batches and then loaded ammo in each batch and found what length the gun prefered. Any that were longer were trimmed to that length, any shorter ones were sold off. Sounds reasonable, but I've yet to try it (project number 3127! ).