After breaking-in my .45 ACP Kimber with factory ball ammo, I tried some 185gr Nosler JHP handloads and had several FTFeeds in the 1st 100 rounds. Checking the Lyman 49th edition manual, it states that the "trim to" is .888".
I bought a Lyman trimmer and trimmed approx. 150 WIN cartridges to .888" before noticing other guides (Nosler, Lee, Hornady) give .898 as the standard and .895" as the "trim-to".
Are the trimmed cases too short to headspace properly and will the firing pin reach the short cases, or are they just junk?
(I picked up the Speer Reloading Manual #14 today and it uses the same .888" data as the Lyman). Thanks for reading and any help is appreciated.

I have never had to trim a 45 auto case.
Ever.

Load one and try it.
*shrug*

The case flips up into the extractor which holds it against the breech face anyway.
It should work.

I think that's too short but others may have more experience and tell you low pressure (target) loads might be okay.

The cartridge headspace is defined by the distance from the breech face to the rim in the chamber against which the case rim rests. The extractor helps hold the case against the breech, but the extra space would allow the brass to stretch potentially to the point you get a case head separation.

That might not happen the first time or any time, especially with lower pressure loads, but new brass can be gotten as "cheap" (haha! get it "cheap" -- NOT) as 15 cents. I'd chalk the $22.50 up to experience, and send Lyman an email complaining their manual is wrong and you're out 150 perfectly good cases. It will make you feel better.

The other route is a blown out magazine or maybe more.

Of course YMMV.

Have fun and be safe

rod

Hornady 7th edition recommends a max case length of .898

All 4 of my Speer manuals say .898

Alliant manual 2008 .898

Barnes manual #4 .888

IMR recommends .893

Hogdon online recommends .893

Sierra recommends .893

Vihtavuori recommends .893

Looks to me like most powder manufacturers favor a .893 length while most bullet manufacturers prefer .898
Barnes does publish a .888 length though.


The firing pin won't be effected by the case length as the cartridge is secured from the headstamp end against the breech face going forward, not from the headspace shoulder in the chamber going back.

If your casing is too long I would think it would contact both your headspace shoulder and your breechface prior to your slide going into full battery. This would keep your slide from closing completely. But I have never had that happen to me in the 20+ years I have been shooting .45 ACP so I can't be 100% sure.

If your casing is too short, it will not reach all the way to the ridge in your chamber from your breechface. It will fire, but I'm not sure what the end result will be.

quote:

Originally posted by rcjohnson:
I think that's too short but others may have more experience and tell you low pressure (target) loads might be okay.



That might not happen the first time or any time, especially with lower pressure loads, but new brass can be gotten as "cheap" (haha! get it "cheap" -- NOT) as 15 cents. I'd chalk the $22.50 up to experience, and send Lyman an email complaining their manual is wrong and you're out 150 perfectly good cases. It will make you feel better.
rod

Thanks, but since I'm also out the $100 for the trimmer, maybe that was Lyman's intent. (The Speer manual had the same dimensions as the Lyman. Maybe they got their incorrect data from the same source, or each other). After more research the consensus seems to be that you almost never need to trim handgun cases.
Thanks, and as you said, "Lesson learned".
Ken

Having a case trimmer is a good thing. Case trimmers come in real handy with necked down rounds (.357 SIG or most rifles rounds).

Consider your purchase an investment in your future rifle round reloading hobby!

I think I would e-mail Lyman and Barnes (since they both publish .888 length) and verify that this is correct. Let them know that everyone else publishes lengths at .893+ and see what they say.

Couple of other options before you toss the brass - barrels can have slightly more or less headspace. Have a smith measure yours, if it's closer to the "no go" side it might be fine with that brass. If it's got any excessive headspace, though, I'd start to be more wary.

I'd call Lyman and ask them to verify their 0.888 and whether 0.005 is that big of a deal. I may have jumped the gun if more than one source is listing 0.888

Oh, a comment on trimming, I started to do it and realized I wasn't getting much accomplished. After my brass goes through it's 3 reloading I'm going to do some spot checking and maybe trim if it looks like it needs it. Given no one seems to do it, I am hoping it doesn't need it.

rod

Thanks for the help everyone. I have emailed both Speer and Lyman and should have a answer within a couple of days. I will post their responses when I receive them.
Ken

Ken you should be fine. The extractor wiil hold slightly short cases in place for firing. FWIW, I have never trimmed a service pistol case of any caliber. I do trim magnum rev. cases when needed. The higher pressures & longer brass seems to stretch a bit more. Rifle rounds, some need trimming every other firing.

The following is the response from the Lyman Customer Service Dept. (custsvc@cshore.com) :

"The industry spec for 45 ACP case length is .888" to .898". Any length between these figures is safe to use. We selected a trim-to length of .888" as most factory brass will be close to this length."

It would appear that the trimmed cases are OK to use, but I think I'll keep the charges fairly light. Thanks to everyone for their help. Ken

An easy solution is to buy a 45 revolver...

Thanks for posting that info - I will now put on my big girl panties and worry less about trim legnth to the extent I find them changing.

quote:

Originally posted by wheelgunn:
After breaking-in my .45 ACP Kimber with factory ball ammo, I tried some 185gr Nosler JHP handloads and had several FTFeeds in the 1st 100 rounds. as the standard and .895" as the "trim-to".

The failure to feed may be more related to your crimp. Check yours as 0.468 should work OK.

I trim mine between .887 and .890 and they work just fine. The most important thing is to have them as close as possible to all being the same length. That way you get an standard crimping on all rounds.

The following is the confirmation response from Speer. Both Speer and Lyman returned my email in a timely manner. Good customer service is alive and well!

".888 is the minimum case length spec for 45 Auto. Max is .898. If you keep the case length between these two dimensions you will have no
problems.

Maintaining a consistent length will be make for more uniform performance, particularly if you are using a taper crimp die in your
loading process."

Regards,

Brett Olin
Development Engineer
CCI/Speer/ATK

If you must trim 45 acp brass, then trim to the max. Unlike rifle or bottle neck cartridges, 45 acp will actually shrink rather than stretch with repeated firing and reloading.

I have reloaded many,many, many thousands of 45 acp and never trimmed a case and probably have a mix of 8-10 different case brands.