Whether it is nobler in the hearts of men to cramp one's fingers...Sorry about that, I watched Hamlet this weekend and I've got Shakespeare on the brain . First a little background, I learned to reload pretty much on my own; Dad never did, (of course he made pretty good money, and didn't shoot nearly as much as I do). I think my first reloading manual was a Sierra, (back when they were green & two volumes) and my first tools were a Lee Loader in .25-06, a plastic mallet and a Redding scale, (still have that stuff somewhere). To make a long story short Sierra said to chamfer, so I did, still do and am not likely to change.
Anyway, while facing the daunting task of prepping 1000 rounds of .38 SPL brass, I was lamenting to my buddy, (whose wife I am teaching to shoot with those 1000 rounds) about how much of a PITA it was to trim & chamfer all of that brass. His response was "Why bother chamfering?"; I think he was trying to save me from some cramped fingers, or he's just become incurably lazy in his old age. His theory was that since you were going to bell the case mouth anyway... I like to think that chamfering allows me to use less bell, giving me longer case life, (I'm so cheap that I nearly hold funeral services, w/full military honors, every time I have to throw out a piece of brass ). Still his theory has some merit, so I thought I would start this thread & get all of your thoughts on the matter.
Still on the same subject, have any of you used the Lyman VLD chamfer tool? What are the advantages/disadvantages to the sharper angle of cut? The big advantage that I see is that it has a real handle that would save at least one hand from cramping. Thanks in advance for any input, take care.
-SSG Klaus