Short Casings?

[61landshark]

I am back from vacation and all my reloading equipment showed up finally. Before I left I had time to full length resize/deprime my .223 casings. I set up my new trimmer and got it adjusted to trim my casing to 1.750 and the first thing I noticed is that I had a bunch short casings after resizing. Should I throw out all the short casings? I have a lot of casing that are 1.745.

Thanks everyone for all your feedback.

[SkyKid]

Keep them
They will grow

[Kirbydoc]

Keep them
They will grow

ROFL! A bit like Jack's beanstalk!

[noylj]

Unless you crimp, it just doesn't matter.
You can even trim all the cases to the same length as the shortest case.

[versifier]

I am assuming you are loading for a semiauto .223. If so you are going to have to crimp. If you have a Lee four die set you have a Factory crimp die and all you have to do is trim every case to the trim-to length then chamfer/deburr and only chamfer/deburr the shorter ones. If you don't have the Factory crimp and are using a roll crimp I would separate the shorter ones and save them for the future.

Explaining the different ways crimping is done will help you to decide what to trim and how much based first on safety (not letting the cases get too long) and convenience (when is the length critical and when does it not matter).

With a Lee Factory crimp that uses a collet, case length is not critical as it squeezes from the sides, and they make them for rifle and revolver cartridges. All you have to do is trim the ones over max case length down to trim-to (separate them and keep them separate as they have one needed trimming off of their lives, note it on their box) and go with the medium and short cases as is in a separate batch.

At last count I had close to thirty of them, just got another a couple of weeks ago. Lee makes them custom, too, for the old and oddball cartridges for reasonable cost and I have two of them. Every cast load has to be crimped. Not all jacketed loads do in a bolt action or a single shot, but should in levers, pumps, and semis.

If you are using a roll or taper crimp case length is critical for a consistent degree of crimp to be applied to each round because the crimp is applied by forcing the case neck with bullet seated into a constriction in the die's inner wall. I would trim them all to the length of the shortest case, set the die to it, and readjust the die if needed every loading or every few loadings until they all reach max and have to be trimmed again.

The roll crimp is a rounded ridge or shoulder inside of the seating die, the taper crimp a gradual taper in a separate die, so it is used after seating the bullet with the seater die adjusted so the case cannot touch the crimping shoulder.

I hate roll crimps with a passion. Forget to trim after FL sizing and it collapses the shoulder if it has gotten more than a few thou over the specific case length the die was set for. They are the reason I bought my first kinetic bullet puller when I was just starting out, to salvage powder and bullets in the ruined cases. Add one of those to your list of tools (the RCBS is more expensive, but it has a lifetime warranty - they've sent me four new ones just in the last twenty years when I've gotten a little too enthusiastic with it).

Taper crimps are great for semiauto pistol cartridges, and they are also made for rifle cartridges including the .223. I used taper crimps whenever I could to avoid roll crimps until the Lee Factory crimp dies first came out. I still use taper crimps for all my pistol loads and only occasionally for some cast rifle loads I've been using in cartridges I've been loading the longest, but most of them have been replaced by Factory crimps.