Giraud Trimmer Problems?

[KenOath]

No, regardless of shoulder setback, the Giraud will make all of the necks the same length.

Shoulder setback is only a concern if you care about brass OAL.

Your lost in the wrong details, OP is referring to OAL.. which is also my reference.. there’s less time lost cutting from case base to case mouth.

 

[rijndael]

Your lost in the wrong details, OP is referring to OAL.. which is also my reference..

No, I'm not lost. But maybe I'm not reading/understanding your post. The punctuation impacts readability.

You replied to a post about neck lengths, with what seemed like a correction, and it wasn't wrong.

 

[lawrence97]

Could be I'm doing things wrong, but when I'm trimming new brass (Alpha, especially) to length, there seems to be quite a variation in final cut with those pieces. I'm aiming for 1.910" trim length, but on longer pieces of the Alpha brass >1.913", I end up with 1.909" to 1.907" for the final length. Those pieces at < 1.913" end up at the 1.910" that I want.

Could this have something to do with the bushing? I've checked for play with the shaft and cutter head and there seems to be none. This is an older Girard, but it has received very little use until recently.

Why would you be trimming new brass? Trimming excessively will just allow a carbon ring to have a nice space to deposit in front of the neck!

You should fire it at least 2-3 times so that they can conform to your chamber and then if needed trim them to the same length after you have properly sized/bumped the shoulder back.

New brass is all over the place and that is why you are seeing variation in length.

 

[rijndael]

Why would you be trimming new brass?

I 'trim' new brass because I want a internal chamfer and deburred outside. If you send a piece of brass in to your die with a burr it can embed in the die.

I tend to set the Giraud up so it's not really taking off any length but will hit those two points.

 

[lawrence97]

I 'trim' new brass because I want a internal chamfer and deburred outside. If you send a piece of brass in to your die with a burr it can embed in the die.

I tend to set the Giraud up so it's not really taking off any length but will hit those two points.

I have a Giraud also but for new brass I use a separate chamfer/deburr tool.

 

[RegionRat]

Doesn't the 6.5 CM Alpha brass come shipped in 100 round reloading boxes (i.e. one case per hole)? It seems like there would have to have been some pretty rough treatment during shipping for the case mouths to be damaged when the cases are packaged that way. Not impossible, obviously. I've prepped quite a bit of Alpha .308 Win brass and the case mouths were all fine. Just curious.

Same here. Mine have all been near perfect. I am more than a little surprised to hear the observation on Alpha since mine all came lined up in an ammo box with foam on top. There were only the tiniest dings and those probably happened before hand during the places in the process where the brass might go into a chute or bin before being packaged.

I almost always ID chamfer and verify the diameter with a mandrel, but with Alpha you could say they were near perfect. Makes me wonder what happened to the OP's batch?

 

[PJ1]

Why would you be trimming new brass? Trimming excessively will just allow a carbon ring to have a nice space to deposit in front of the neck!

You should fire it at least 2-3 times so that they can conform to your chamber and then if needed trim them to the same length after you have properly sized/bumped the shoulder back.

New brass is all over the place and that is why you are seeing variation in length.

I think you're absolutely correct. I did this based on Zediker's book. It was a mistake from what I'm seeing with the carbon ring. Thnks for the honesty.

Same here. Mine have all been near perfect. I am more than a little surprised to hear the observation on Alpha since mine all came lined up in an ammo box with foam on top. There were only the tiniest dings and those probably happened before hand during the places in the process where the brass might go into a chute or bin before being packaged.

I almost always ID chamfer and verify the diameter with a mandrel, but with Alpha you could say they were near perfect. Makes me wonder what happened to the OP's batch?

I've written Alpha an email. Other manufacturers' brass doesn't have this problem, though it be a minor one.

 

[jnyfeler]

Why would you be trimming new brass? Trimming excessively will just allow a carbon ring to have a nice space to deposit in front of the neck!

You should fire it at least 2-3 times so that they can conform to your chamber and then if needed trim them to the same length after you have properly sized/bumped the shoulder back.

New brass is all over the place and that is why you are seeing variation in length.

^^^ This. I chamfer and mandrel my new brass, but I don't trim it till after it's fired at least once and it's long enough that it needs a trim.

Jeff

 

[Mcfly]

That is one more reason why I am glad I have a Henderson now.

I felt like I was chasing my tail sometimes with my Giraud. That said, it is a really good trimmer and sped up my reloading process quite a bit.

What kind of accuracy do you realize with trim length? The specs state within .002 which doesn’t seem like that’s close enough?

 

[gdbleb]

I found that once you have achieved good consistency in the shoulder-bump/setback operation (annealing & resizing) only then will you see good consistency in COAL after trimming with the Giraud.
I assume you have practiced the "push & twist" technique.
When you do encounter a case that requires a "heavy cut", measure its base-to-shoulder dimension and see if it is shorter than the average (or the spec).