Processing 223 brass

[anothernewb]

Someone (or a few someones) truly had a remarkable day at the range last week. They were also nice enough to leave me over half a 5 gallon bucket of 223 brass, and a smattering of other magnum rifle brass. SO naturally I collected it and took it home with me.

So after a week of tumbling and depriming/sizing. I started trimming last night (rcbs trim pro), for about 2 hours...in truth accomplishing what seemed to be little beyond acquiring a sore arm. This morning at 9am sharp, I called and ordered a Giraud tri way. In fact, I was considering the order about 15 minutes in.

 

[Rule3]

You are not on a deadline to do them all the same day.

 

[lowcountry308]

Never heard of that before now. Is it better than the worlds finest trimmer?

 

[gifbohane]

A bought the Giraud fixed on table a few months back. It is the bomb..... but expensive.

 

[anothernewb]

Never heard of that before now. Is it better than the worlds finest trimmer?

it's the exact same concept. I have the WFT for 308. The giraud includes chamfer and deburr in the same action. Heard a lot about it. Those that have it, rave about it. Interested to see how it works.

 

[irishlad]

Someone (or a few someones) truly had a remarkable day at the range last week. They were also nice enough to leave me over half a 5 gallon bucket of 223 brass, and a smattering of other magnum rifle brass. SO naturally I collected it and took it home with me.

So after a week of tumbling and depriming/sizing. I started trimming last night (rcbs trim pro), for about 2 hours...in truth accomplishing what seemed to be little beyond acquiring a sore arm. This morning at 9am sharp, I called and ordered a Giraud tri way. In fact, I was considering the order about 15 minutes in.

A wise decision! I had the same experience a few years back, bought a WFT. Bought the tri way after I found out about them.

 

[Charlie98]

I just got mine a few months ago... haven't had a whole lot of time to work with it yet, but it seems promising.

 

[FROGO207]

Been mulling over doing something other than the Lee setup in a drill press that I use presently. Still, I am kinda cheap and I do a batch every day or so in the winter months. Over time things go rather quickly overall. If you anneal it has to be done off the press anyway. Helps to have a buttpile of brass on hand as well. Part of the hobby is the process and taking the time to craft good ammo. Processing the brass is one of the steps to make this happen. Otherwise I would have a 650 set up for each of my popular calibers and run the handle till the brass bucket is empty.

 

[ParallelCode]

Someone (or a few someones) truly had a remarkable day at the range last week. They were also nice enough to leave me over half a 5 gallon bucket of 223 brass, and a smattering of other magnum rifle brass. SO naturally I collected it and took it home with me.

So after a week of tumbling and depriming/sizing. I started trimming last night (rcbs trim pro), for about 2 hours...in truth accomplishing what seemed to be little beyond acquiring a sore arm. This morning at 9am sharp, I called and ordered a Giraud tri way. In fact, I was considering the order about 15 minutes in.

Trimming is the only reloading step I really dislike. I too have wanted a Giraud for years. I'll be curious to hear how repeatable it is.

 

[armoredman]

Someone (or a few someones) truly had a remarkable day at the range last week. They were also nice enough to leave me over half a 5 gallon bucket of 223 brass, and a smattering of other magnum rifle brass. SO naturally I collected it and took it home with me.

So after a week of tumbling and depriming/sizing. I started trimming last night (rcbs trim pro), for about 2 hours...in truth accomplishing what seemed to be little beyond acquiring a sore arm. This morning at 9am sharp, I called and ordered a Giraud tri way. In fact, I was considering the order about 15 minutes in.

I HAD a Forster trimmer set up to do .223....and somehow in the move it was lost, so I am back to the Lee Zip Trip. Yuck.

 

[guzzi]

Those that I have tried that require pushing the shell into the device make my thumb and forefinger ache after about 50 shells.

What do you do to overcome that?

Also, is it possible to get and exact COL?

 

[Slamfire]

I have the older Giraud trimmer, and it was the fastest way to trim brass.

I recommend, if you have a lot of military crimps to remove, buy the Dillion Super Swage.



https://www.dillonprecision.com/super-swage-600_8_8_25263.html

I quickly removed the crimp from thousands of rifle rounds on the thing. Quickly being in terms of hours, not days!

 

[anothernewb]

Those that I have tried that require pushing the shell into the device make my thumb and forefinger ache after about 50 shells.

What do you do to overcome that?

Also, is it possible to get and exact COL?

I will see how consistent it is for trim length. Since it essentially measures off the shoulder - theoretically it'll be consistent with any lot of brass sized with no changes in the sizing die. but not between lots of brass sized after a die change.

 

[anothernewb]

I have the older Giraud trimmer, and it was the fastest way to trim brass.

I recommend, if you have a lot of military crimps to remove, buy the Dillion Super Swage.

that's been on my short list too. I have the rcbs case prep center which hasn't been too bad in the past for such things.

 

[Slamfire]

that's been on my short list too. I have the rcbs case prep center which hasn't been too bad in the past for such things.

My RCBS case prep tool is collecting dust. Too slow.

I bolted my Dillion to a board, the clamped the board to a bench. Using two hands, one to work the handle and pick up a case, the other to remove the case, and tamp down on the case inserted on the rod by the other hand, I was able to reach a very high production rate.

 

[lightman]

Trimming is the only reloading step I really dislike. I too have wanted a Giraud for years. I'll be curious to hear how repeatable it is.

I've had mine for several years. If you get set up where you are comfortable and develop a routine you should be able to trim 15 to 16 cases per minute and maintain .001 in accuracy. The trick is to feed the case into the case holder slowly and when you feel it quit cutting rotate the case a little. I figure I probably rotate it between 60 and 90º.

 

[lightman]

Those that I have tried that require pushing the shell into the device make my thumb and forefinger ache after about 50 shells.

What do you do to overcome that?

Also, is it possible to get and exact COL?

I'll admit that its hard on the fingers. It helps if you have "farmers hands"! A pair of those thin gloves like mechanics or weight lifters use helps a lot.

I don't know about "exact" but I can maintain .001 in length. It helps if you have an even uniform amount of lube on the case when you resize it and have a steady uniform method when you are resizing.

 

[gifbohane]

I'll be curious to hear how repeatable it is.

I do not kill myself for precision when trimming on the Giraud, nor get real careful about the measurement with my Mits. But I get within 3 thousands.. Put it in the hole slowly depress it, give it a quarter turn when it stops grinding.

If doing 223, it will vary between 1.750 and 1.748, but mostly at the desired 1.750. Two seconds per trim. That is good enough for me.

 

[brasscollector]

I've had mine for over a year and I absolutely love the thing. I have it mounted in a drill press and wouldn't process 223 brass w/o it now.

 

[Blue68f100]

The key is using the same inward pressure, 1/4 turn at end. This is where you can vary the length. If your annealing too you will not have to re adjust your sizing die.

I'm using one I made that supports the case more so it less likely to tilt varying the length.It also set up so I only have to slide the case holder out and different one, without messing with the bearing. Only thing I need to do is index all of them so I don't have to reset it. Though that is pretty easy to do with just a allen wrench.