What do you guys trim your 223 cases to, do you stay close to Max or min or in the middle, do you find accuracy improves if you go one way or the other, my 223 is savage walking varminter, any suggestions for factory rifle.
223 case length
- Thread starter 6pakzak
- Start date
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I trim all my .223 win cases to 1.75" min length. I run them through my Henderson 3 in 1 trimmer every reload just to keep consistent.
Bucklowery
Well-Known Member
I trim all to minimum
Thanks
Buck
Thanks
Buck
I have been trimming to 1.75, figured it's a good middle ground but for my 6.5 creed I decided to trim it back about .010 from my usual length and my groups improved so now I'm sticking with that, I thought if the neck is shorter it would have less influence on bullet exiting case, I'm probably totally wrong about that, may just work better in that rifle, so I would ask Buck if you always trimmed to minimum or did you notice your rifle shooting better that way, I kinda cringe at trimming to minimum but I should probably give it a try.
vvhoisjohngalt
Active Member
1.75" has been the standard for as long as I can remember.
vvhoisjohngalt
Active Member
If you are using cheap brass you can trim chamfer and deburr then weight sort the cases. That way you can batch up brass with similar capacities. It will help a little on your SDs.
vvhoisjohngalt
Active Member
Haha. Not on a 223.
QuietTexan
Well-Known Member
Throat erosion no, carbon build up from being too short maybe. Unless your chamber is very long relative to the min-case trim length then my opinion is that's not something to worry about.
Anyways, trimming. If you're mixing brass then yes, size it, trim it back, run it.
If you have a nice single-lot batch of matched brass that you take care of, then buy a bore scope, run it down, look at where you actually are with a few cases, and trim cases consistently across the lot to the length your chamber needs. I don't think it'll make a big difference either way you do it, but I try to practice loading skills on easy cartridges so that hard cartridges go more smoothly down the road. 223 is an easy cartridge to practice on because it's cheap, yet has great potential at the same time.
Anyways, trimming. If you're mixing brass then yes, size it, trim it back, run it.
If you have a nice single-lot batch of matched brass that you take care of, then buy a bore scope, run it down, look at where you actually are with a few cases, and trim cases consistently across the lot to the length your chamber needs. I don't think it'll make a big difference either way you do it, but I try to practice loading skills on easy cartridges so that hard cartridges go more smoothly down the road. 223 is an easy cartridge to practice on because it's cheap, yet has great potential at the same time.
