how short is too short?

[roval]

I just measured my tumbled previously shot 9mm brass (pre resizing) and majority is around .744 (trim to length .751). They otherwise look fine and have shot well otherwise (loaded others from same batch). Post resizing doesn't bring it up to .751.

At what point do you chuck the brass?

 

[LiveLife]

I never trim 9mm brass or any semi-auto brass. Maybe they were trimmed for 9x18 use?

I toss brass when the primer pocket gets loose by marking an "X" on the bottom and toss/recycle when sorting range brass.

Any case that has splits/damage or won't fully resize to pass the chamber test in the tightest barrel I have gets tossed/recycled.

 

[edfardos]

Short brass might get light primer strikes, but i've never ever seen this happen. Unfortunately sammi specs max sizes, not minimums. Shoot'm and let us know! (I'm confident they'll be fine).

Ed fardos

 

[roval]

I've been loading them and they've been shooting fine and may have gotten loaded about 4-5 times. I just now decided to measure them. My 45acp cases don't seem to have shortened as much.

I got worried since they headspace of the case mouth.

I also don't trim pistol brass.

 

[roval]

Ok looked up 9mm saami specs and it was .754-.10 so that means .744-.764 right?

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Ok looked up 9mm saami specs and it was .754-.10 so that means .744-.764 right?

Wrong. There is only a minus sign, so the dimension is the upper end of the tolerance range. .744 to .754.

 

[GJSchulze]

I've never found a 9mm case even as long as 0.750". Don't worry about the length of pistol brass. Keep reloading them and shooting them until you lose them.

 

[gamestalker]

SAAMI trim to length is .744" with a max of .754", your fine, just shoot them.

BTW, I trim all brass, one of my little quirks I guess, I'm OCD big time. I've never had a single mis fire with any reload of mine in over 30 yrs. of reloading. And although I do shoot a good deal each month, I don't shoot thousands of rounds per month either, so.... Might be a different story if I was shooting as much as some of ya all?

GS

 

[Steve C]

Pistol brass usually gets shorter with successive resizing and use. Trimming it more than one time at most is usually pointless.

Rifle brass will lengthen with use due to the higher pressure stretching the case. The very heavy magnums that run in the 50,000 PSI and more like the .500S&W, .454 Cassul etc. may do the same but I haven't had any experience with those cartridges to be able to speak with any first hand knowledge regarding any change in case dimension over time.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

You do realize you're asking about a cast that is 7 one-thousands of an inch shorter than the trim length. Do you know how very small that is?

You now know why most reloaders will tell you they never trim handgun brass. In most cases the case actually shrinks. I would not give it a second thought. (that's what you get for measuring 9mm brass lol)

 

[roval]

Thanks for the clarification on the saami specs. I shall now proceed to reload.

I got the urge to measure after I learned to use my rcbs trimmer for 308 brass.