Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Powered case trimmers

Best money I ever spent on a piece of reloading equipment was on a Giraud trimmer.

Giraud>Henderson>WFT>RCBS Powered unit with tri-cut>your choice with a drill.

I sold my Forster lathe type trimmer and bought these. Trims, chamfers and bevels all at once. Couldn't be easier or less expensive.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1011223336?pid=742287
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1016216580?pid=416162

I chuck a Crow WFT into my drill press. I have trimmed thousands of .223 with the Crow trimmer. I also use my drill press to chamfer cases after they have been trimmed.

kwg

I have the Lyman Universal w/an old "junk drawer" corded drill. It works well.

I had a Dillon with a bunch of trim dies that I ended up never using and sold it. I didn't want to have to chamfer a bunch of flat-trimmed cases.

Within the last year I bought a Giraud which I much prefer because you only have to handle each case once. Length and both inside/outside chamfers all done @ the same time.

You have a drill?

Giraud Tri-way.
http://www.giraudtool.com/giraud-tri-way-trimmer.html

Unless you're only doing a couple cartridges, their powered version is less expensive and more user friendly in the long run IMO.

I bought a Lyman case trim express last year & really like it.

I've only cut about 1500 cases on it so far but's been great.

horse1 has it correctly.

Started out with an RCBS crank model with collets and pilots, which worked great when I didn't load more than 50 cases at a time. But even then, I noticed it was not a quick job and was rather labor-intensive. (Read that as I didn't like to do it.)

Then came an M1 Garand and loading 200 cases (minimum) at a time. Enter the WFT and an RCBS Trimmate. I noticed that it was not a dreadful job to trim, chamfer, and deburr those 200 (and sometimes more) cases. Then an AR entered the picture, same answer. WFT and the handy-dandy Trimmate. I also bought extra batteries for the drill motor....

I liked that method so much I bought WFTs for rifles I normally did not load and shoot in quantity.

Then came Giraud tri-ways. The Trimmate was going unused because I was also using wet tumbling. I come and go on that, other than cleaning the primer pockets and the inside of cases, I see no real advantage and it can be a lot of labor, so the Trimmate stays in occasional use.

Now, I have a Giraud machine with conversion kits for different cartridges. I just did 50 .30-30 cases in a very small fraction of the time normally taken.

I shoulda went straight to the Giraud when I got into the M1 thing.

+ 1

Dave

have had a number of trimmers . lyman brass smith is the best so far. fast set-up and change over.

Ed

I have a bunch of those in my cart at Midsouth, but need a little more info on them. Thanks for the post.

How so?
I do my cases in batches of 1,000 at time. I just prop the drill on something so I'm not holding it up the entire time.

Mine was pretty worn from use. I bought another on E-bay. Took the handle off the old one and put a battery-operated drill on it for when I form cases that need serious trimming. I use the battery operated on to get close and switch to the "new" one for finish work.

I'm thinking he meant just a couple different kinds of cartridges.

Out of curiosity on the Giraud Power Trimmer, to avoid adjusting between cartridges does one need to buy the cutter head with blade and case holder for each?

Buying my Giraud was the absolute best money spent on my bench. That is if you value your time.

I do not own a Giraud so somebody May correct me. but to my understanding they recommend buying a new cutter head for each caliber you're going to trim , that's the way Henderson is and that's the easiest way RCBS 3-way cutters are set up the easiest.

I use the FA Platinum prep center too, & it works very well for my needs & eliminates multiple handling of the same case & will normal trim stock, it's fast enough to suit me.

I typically will stage different caliber brass such that I run as large a lot of a given caliber as possible so as to minimize the setups on the trimmer & will run at most 300 or so on any given day, if I have a large lot of brass like 5.56, I'll leave it set up for days on that round or until I get a fairly lot finished.................reloading is more work than fun anymore, just a necessary evil & a means to an end.

MM

I don't want to hijack this, but I have an additional question. I need to trim about .140" off of 308 cases for a 375 Raptor. My Lyman Universal powered unit was gonna be too slow so I got the Brass Smith model. The Brass Smith model is faster and more accurate (in terms of length), but still I anguish in trimming 500 cases that much shorter. Will this tool (http://www.giraudtool.com/giraud-tri-way-trimmer.html) make the job go faster?? Easier?? Yes, I have several unloved corded drills.