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I use/have all LE Wilson case trimmers for everything I reload. Unfortunately for me, I've started reloading .380 auto & Wilson has no case holders for it. I'm asking what others are doing/using for this caliber? The only thing I'm seeing is some Lee gear but it looks somewhat convoluted. No offense to others but my Wilson gear is bullet proof, simple to use and pretty inexpensive.

My brass is mixed headstamped...and lot of it is measuring at .675 with a recommend trim to length of .670 for reloading.
I 'could' just reload everything (700 rounds) but I don't know IF they would chamber and that's not the way I like to operate. I want safety 1st! (meaning there could be untold cases over .680 max length)
Advice/options/solutions?

Dan
 
So Wilson doesn't make a .380 trim case holder, huh? Maybe that there tells you something. You mention the Lee system, it isn't very complicated and certainly less expensive than your Wilson stuff. They use a cutter that takes caliber specific mandrels with a pilot pin on the end that fits into the cartridge case flash hole. Then you lock the case into a shell holder and spin it around the mandrel, the cutter doing the work. I use a cordless drill to power the shell holder.

Anyway, I've never found cases like these to need much trimming. They don't grow beyond their manufactured length because the force of combustion isn't behind them like a bottle necked case. You say you've got a quantity of them in mixed head stamps. You could batch them by headstamp, thus likely by length and go from there. I often seat bullets and taper crimp as two separate steps and if you batch your cases this would be the answer to keeping uniform lengths (more or less) within a batch. The "more or less" is good enough on this kind of pistol cartridge so long as they are under maximum length.

Not to seem a smart-A about it, but when I say, "this kind of pistol cartridge" what I mean is this. It's not a target grade cartridge. It's a plinker, mostly, or for defense and most people are gonna get some kind of fancy defensive rounds for that purpose. Usually. Heck, for my purposes, I wouldn't even bother to batch them by brand or length. My final step would be to screw the taper crimp die in a taste further and give them all the same "close enough" taper crimp by feel. So long as they are all under max. length, they're fine for .380 purposes. Of course you'd measure your cases before loading to cull out any that were over length. My experience is you're not gonna find many if any. Just my opinion.
 
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Straight wall cases rarely need trimming. I have reloaded 380 for two different guns for a few years. Because this case uses a taper crimp small differences in case length are not critical.
 
Not knowing WHERE this brass came from or out of what, I preferred to trim/size everything to specs before I loaded it. That way I'd know exactly what I had and was working with. If the ammo was new & fired in my own gun, I'd not be interested in trimming, just resizing. I've never guesstimated on anything, since 1965, where reloading is concerned. My uncle would have beat me like a red-headed stepchild. As I've never run .380 brass before...I asked others for advice. :) Thanks to all..

Dan
 

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