Trimming brass

[Southern Heritage]

Let me start with I’m no expert.
I’ve reloaded since I was kid with my dad.
One thing I did as a kid was trim the brass for him. I’d rotate that handle on Manuel ribs trimmer like I was mad at the world. When I grew up and was able I purchased an electric case trimmer I thought I had made it in this world. I used the crap out of it. Mostly .308.
Well I was cleaning my reloading room and realized I havnt needed to trim brass in years.
I forgot I even had it.
So I pulled out 50 once fires .30 nosler brass. De primed them and cleaned them.
The I went to measure all 50.
The goal measurements is 3.56.
Only 4 of 50 where to long and the longest was 3.60
The shortest is 3.45. All these seem acceptable to just reload.
So my question. Has brass or bullets gotten better where they don’t extend the neck.
Or more importantly am I doing something wrong. (I don’t think I’ve changed anything in 25 years)
Thank you

 

[Jebel]

Probably a combination of changed practices and characteristics over time that dampen case stretching.

Things you’re likely doing now but not so much 25 years ago:
- Being more diligent to only bump shoulders a slight amount.
- Moderating charge rather than pushing the pressure envelope.
- Annealing.

Changes in characteristics that help limit stretching:
- Evolved from highly tapered cartridges with low sloping shoulders to straighter with steeper shoulders. Like moving from 30-06 to 308 or better still to 6.5 CM.
- Improved brass quality, both in what you choose to use and what’s available in the market.

I don’t need to trim length too often either. I still like to touch up the chamfer and deburr.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I was just realizing that last night, I havnt touched my brass trimmer since 2020…..

 

[SloppyJ]

I think it has a lot to do with the newer case designs.

I get OCD with it and feel like I need to trim my brass sometimes. I like them to all be close to one another. Although I havent tested it to see if it truly matters.