I really don’t want to hear the “I’ve never trimmed pistol brass” comments but I do have a question. After reading several topics about trimming .357 cases, quite a few people are talking about trimming after they resize and flare the cases. After resizing I understand but after flaring seems wrong. Wouldn’t that normally be done before flaring if it’s done at all? I can’t think of a good reason to flare first.

If I were to trim pistol brass, it would be after decapping and sizing the brass.

Never in 30+ years of reloading, but to answer the question, any trimming should be done after resizing and before flaring.

As posted above.

A while back I couldn’t find any 41 mag brass, but I could get brand new 414 mag Starline brass. It’s pretty much the same, about 1/4” longer.

I set up to trim back to regular 41 mag length, took a while, but worked fine. I left a few a little long, for snake-shot loads.

I am in the trim before flare camp. Flaring first could be inconsistent due to different case lengths. Then you would remove different amounts of flare based on case lengths before trim.

Resize, trim, and then neck size works well for me. As long as the cases get trimmed the same length, that's all that matters. I trim to 1.280" because the cannelure on one of the bullets I load will make the loaded cartridge longer than 1.590" if the brass is any longer than 1.280".

When I reloaded 357SIG I
Deprimed
Cleaned
Sized
Trimmed
Primed
Expanded
Powder
Seating/crimping

I quit reloading for the caliber and bought a 40 barrel for my duty gun and just shoot 40

To go a step further from above post, if you trim after flaring the mouth and then get inconsistent amount of flaring, you will also get an inconsistent amount of crimp thereby having a detrimental effect on accuracy.

Good point Lawman052, and welcome to the SIGforum.

quote:

Originally posted by Lawman052:
To go a step further from above post, if you trim after flaring the mouth and then get inconsistent amount of flaring, you will also get an inconsistent amount of crimp thereby having a detrimental effect on accuracy.

^^^ This right here. There’s no circumstance where trimming after flaring would be appropriate.

Thanks Operator. Moving into pistol competition from LR rifle competition so I have alot of hand loading experience for accuracy. That 5 inch bullseye @1000 is small lol