Decent into Madness - Lack of Case Trimming

[Culpeper]

So, dear reader, have you ever been focused on one thing that you became oblivious to equally semi-important things. Of course you have. Oblivious to things like the obtainable girl-next-door who is a "6" while focusing on the unobtainable girl-not-next-door who is a "8". Such is the case for this poor sinner.

Reading all the books and watching the videos of those who walked ahead of me fell upon blind eyes and deaf ears. Ugh!

There I was trying out a new batch of fresh brass in one of the rifles. Every thing was going smoothly until I had shot through all of it and reached for some earlier reloads. The first one I grabbed did not fire so I pulled the cocking piece back for a second try. No dice. Tried a third. A fourth. A fifth. All failures. Finally I left a divot in the ground with the sixth try. Madness. Pure madness.

A close inspection of the problem cartridge, compared to the new loads, revealed the case was a whole lot longer. Case trimming or lack thereof. Who'd a thunk it. I think they were on their fourth or fifth reload from new. I lost track.

You can bet ol' Culpeper will be tightening up the brass prep procedures this coming week.

Don't let this be you, dear reader.


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[butlersrangers]

Where did all that brass come from? ... Have you been repeatedly Full-Length Resizing and introducing needless case stretch?
Cause for Separation!

I am a bit skeptical of the 'relationship'.
If the round chambered and the bolt was completely closed, wouldn't the overly long neck tend to hold the base of the case firmly against the bolt-face?
The primer should have received a strong firing-pin strike, five times!

Maybe the reluctant round had a primer contaminated by oil? ... or ... the long case did not allow the bolt to completely rotate 'closed'?
The 'striker effort' may have been dissipated in mechanically rotating the bolt to the 'fully closed' position?

[waterman]

Buy thyself a Wilson's case gauge.

[butlersrangers]

I find the Lee trimmer very handy. Once you own the 'cutter' and blued 'handle' for the case-holder,
it is very cheap to buy the shaft & holder for cartridges you reload.

Easy to use and nothing to adjust.

[Whig]

I learned about case trimming by watching some videos by people much more skilled than I for long distance precision shooting. I check and trim all of my rifle cases now before reloading when needed. I reload thousands of some cases like .223 and hundreds of others, including our beloved Krag rounds. I even "invested" in a nice electric case trimmer a few years ago that chamfers and deburrs all at once. I use this for everything except 7.62x54R because the company doesn't make the cutter for that round yet.

It does make a difference in uniformity. That's the name of the game, after all. Helps prevent some descent into the Madness Cave!!

[psteinmayer]

I trim and FL size my 30-06 every loading (they headspace on the shoulder afterall).

However... my .30 Army/30-40 Krag ammo? I trim once in a blue moon. I neck size only (unless it's brand new brass or brass that was fired by someone else in someone else's Krag), and I've never in nearly 40 years of Krag shooting had a problem!

By the way, I use and LOVE those LEE trimmers!!!

I will say that I've experienced a problem with my K-31, shooting loads where I seated the bullet just a hair too long. The problem only happened in the Rapid Fire string in a Vintage Rifle Match. It's really unnerving when you pull the trigger, hear click and NO bang!!! I've found when it happenes, I can smack the bolt handle to firmly seat the round and get the bolt into battery, it will go bank on the second try. However, not a real solution when you have only 80 seconds to get 10 aimed shots off. I've also pulled the bolt back after a click to extract a case with powder going everywhere because the bullet had engaged the rifling and stayed there (not a fun way to finish a RF string)!

[Whig]

Trying to eek out as much accuracy as possible with your Krag can involve seating the bullet out far enough to engage the lands with the tip of the bullet. Every chamber is slightly different with these old rifles we use from wear and you have to cast the chamber or use some technique to find out how far out you can seat the bullet in your specific rifle. If you go too far, you can increase pressure a bunch by jamming the bullet into the lands which can be a problem. (You usually know this if you have trouble closing the bolt on the round like Paul described above.) Also, seating the .30-40 Krag bullet out past a certain distance can cause feeding problems. Too far and your bullet may be loose and have lower chamber pressure with firing which can alter accuracy. It can be real important to crimp your bullets a little to tighten them up depending on how much your dies flare the mouth with resizing. That depends, also, on what bullet diameter you use which should match your bore's rifling wear pattern. Some of these bores we are shooting out of have a .308 diameter and some have a .310 or .311 diameter. Different bullet sizes can certainly affect accuracy in your Krag based on your bore measurements.

Has this gotten too complicated yet? I know Paul and others who shoot competitively are always working with their reloading criteria to maximize accuracy. It really is chamber and rifle bore specific. I use only one of my Krag rifles to shoot most of the time for accuracy. All of my reloading specifications are based on that Krag's chamber and bore measurements. The others I shoot for fun!

[trapdoor4570]

If you are trying to find what the overall length is for a particular bullet is may I suggest the Hornady OAL gauge. I resisted buying one for years but finally bought one this year, it works. Hornady doesn’t list the 30-40 or the 7.5x55 in the available cases but you can send $20 and 2 fired cases to them OR you can make your own by threading a fired case yourself, I think it is 5/16”x36tpi.
I just have been reloading to fit the maximum magazine length and just be done with it, it works just about as well as doing it for single load, at least for me, plus you don’t have to worry about loading for rapid fire and find a round that is too long to load at the last second.

[Whig]

I used to do it manually but have used the Hornady Case Gauge device for years. I did make my own .30-40 altered case for this gauge. Works great!

[psteinmayer]

My OAL in my Krag was determined by loading a bullet into a properly trimmed case (slightly loose case neck and seated out long), inserting into the chamber and closing the bolt, and then extracting and measuring the length. I then test to ensure my rounds feed properly, and if everything is good, I load all to that length. I'm shooting Hornady 220 gr RN, which engages the rifling further out than say a 180 grain spitzer bullet. Just as Whig said, every krag is different because of wear and use... so this is a good way to determine a good OAL. Remember, not all Krags will feed spitzer bullets as smoothly as RN bullets. Also, IMO, crimping is paramount! I can't tell you how many times I've had a spitzer bullet telescope into the case neck during feeding back when I was using my sporter to hunt and I hadn't crimped!!! I use the LEE Factory Crimp Die, which works perfectly and doesn't crunch the shoulder. A light crimp is all that is required to hold the bullet firm and not increase pressure!