A new hope-

[Tom Kat]

The thread title is the name of the original Star Wars movie. In my case the new hope is for...case trimming. I hate case trimming.

I ordered a Frankford Arsanel Platnium series case trimmer. I did a lot of research and people seem to really like it. I will post a video review on here later.

Does anyone else have one?

[Bill K]

I bought a Hornady case trimmer 3 yrs ago and with the use of the adaptor and a small drill it is the cats meow to make trimming so easy and fast, as well as accurate in trim setting.

[Tom Kat]

I have that one as well. Its what I have been using...

[skipper]

I bought one of these years ago on a whim. Turned out to get a lot more use than I ever expected. Made by RCBS, three way trim head. Trims case length, chamfers and de-burrs all in one operation.

749-006-061.jpg (108.05 KiB) Viewed 920 times

[Rick in Oregon]

Yup, case trimming is a dreaded task, but if you neck size only for your rifle, it is seldom trimming is ever required after the initial trim job.

Lots of options in this area, but over 40 years ago I settled on the Forester neck trimmer, as it has other uses also, such as neck trimming, neck turning, and hollow pointing bullets. Here's mine set up for neck turning a while back on 20VT cases:



And to TK, in regard to chamfering and deburring those cases, remember the VLD tool that cuts at 60* instead of the usual 45* tools. Seating flat-base bullets is much easier when the VLD tool is used. I learned this over years of use, and now only use the VLD tool. The standard tool as sold by makers like RCBS is great for the outside neck deburring, but I never use it any more for inside chamfering. YMMV

[Tom Kat]

I believe the FA trimmer has a 60 degree chamfer, I will check up on that. A lot of people swear by the Forester. I have some Redding neck dies for my .204 but has always FL sized them....

[Tom Kat]

20240209_162152.jpg

20240209_162146.jpg

20240209_162200.jpg

[skipper]

How does that thing reference the case so ALL are the same length? A rod down the middle of the case or something?? Inquiring minds, ya' know. Kinda looks like the old pencil sharpener we had in grade school. Keep feeding and you would come up with a pencil nub.

[Tom Kat]

Off of the shoulder. In the instructions they say you don't want variance in the shoulder bump. Not as good for people who neck size? Im not sure, I am still learning. But this should give you a better idea, if you can spare 4 mins to watch it- https://youtu.be/p-pLklwDuzs?si=MvPRRTP1FJl-cZrK

[skipper]

Someone keep me from straying, please.
Just to be clear, 204R cases are supposed to be 1.850 from the base to the end of the neck according to SAMMI case diagrams. I haven't found any available new brass that is near that long. If you have please, let me know where I can find it. The dilemma is that we are given short cases and extremely long chamber throats for our beloved 204R retail offerings. That makes it impossible to load into the lands with any appreciable bullet left in the case. Forget the whole idea if you use a magazine. You are confined to the length of the magazine. If you buy a trimmer that references off the case shoulder, that won't necessarily make every case the exact same length, base to tip. You are going to need to full length size your cases before you trim your brass to make base to shoulder consistent. It can be done, just needs to be done in the right order.

I like to do a cursory chamfer and deburring initially for new brass after full length sizing. (I use Imperial case wax) Even though the brass is already woefully short right out of the bag, it becomes even shorter if you trim to match the shortest case. Uniform neck length is necessary for neck tension consistency. They will grow after a couple of shootings. Then trim to a median length. You might have to cull out the really short ones or just use those for fouling shots.

This dilemma is what drove many of us to build custom rifles. In the process we bought custom chamber reamers and specified every detail. That allows us to load into OR off of the lands at will. I can jam or jump while doing my load development to find what my rifle likes the best.

[Tom Kat]

I was thinking I saw a video from the Hornady people who helped develop the .204R They wanted to insure that the bullet jumped into the throats. That is coming from the memory of a tired mind.

Skipper, do you know the trim to length off the top of your head? All of my manuals are downstairs.

[skipper]

The case diagram shows 1.850

204Ruger.png (14.75 KiB) Viewed 571 times

[Bill K]

TK, most will show a trim length of 1.840 on the 204R.
I have read where Hornady in working on the 204R case and throat being long was following Roy Weatherby's idea with his creations, in that it allows for more FPS out of a given chamber. Not sure if that is correct or not.
RIO can probably give good information on this, especially where, I believe, he had commented on freebore due to using the 204 Match chamber.
We will see.

[Bill K]

I will go with whatever Skipper comes up with, after all it is his creation. As he said, if someone wants to step up and do it differently, come forth.
I for one, will enter and shoot under his regulations and rules and at the target he presents. Win or loose, it will be fun.

Dumb me, this was supposed to be posted on the thread about the target, etc. not here. Must have been my idiot fingers hitting the wrong key.

[Rick in Oregon]

TK, most will show a trim length of 1.840 on the 204R.
I have read where Hornady in working on the 204R case and throat being long was following Roy Weatherby's idea with his creations, in that it allows for more FPS out of a given chamber. Not sure if that is correct or not.
RIO can probably give good information on this, especially where, I believe, he had commented on freebore due to using the 204 Match chamber.

Bill, that's correct.
In the beginning, somewhere around 2006, Hornady sent me the factory drawing showing the then new 204 cartridge. It shows a very long freebore in the neighborhood of .1000". Some users of factory rifles reported even a longer F/B. This fact alone is why it's impossible to reach the lands in any factory 204 Ruger rifle.

As you surmised, the high velocity generated by the factory 32gr loading was due to a very long freebore, a la the Weatherby design. It accomplished that feat, albeit at the cost of high throat erosion compared to other calibers such as the 223. The Match reamer of Todd's design is excellent, but with a longer freebore (.035") than my design, which has a F/B of .015", just enough to get the bullet started without excessive 'jump' to reach the lands. My reamer design is just a bit of tightening up some of the dimensions, especially the neck ID and F/B length.

The downside of using a Match chamber reamer, is that the use of factory ammunition is not recommended, due to the high chamber pressure without that factory jump. No matter for myself and other more experienced handloaders, but worth mention to newbies that might just specify the Match reamer for a build without knowledge of the strict limitations of doing so.

My M700 204Match build utilized a Pac-Nor SS Super Match, 11T, 3 groove barrel, and shoots all the 32's, the SBK 39gr, and any of the 40gr bullets into one hole. It's become my go-to long range rat rifle for targets past 300 yards.