There's no running away from the Wilson case trimmer.

Muir

Well-Known Member
I just took delivery of a shipment of reloading gear, sold to me by a woman whose husband has dementia. I bought it sight unseen and wasn't displeased: A Bonanza (Forster) Coaxial press, good measure, and OK scale. All Bonanza. There were three sets of BR dies and some accessories. Lots of old reloading books. So I get to the bottom of one of the boxes and there is a Wilson case trimmer with several trim dies and some other Wilson accessories. I just got RID of my last Wilson! They're like a bloody albatross, I swear.~Muir
 
The gods are trying to tell you something Muir!

What do you use now for trimming? & what way is it better than the Wilson? - I do like mine & the one thing I'd like to improve it with would be a combined trimmer/chamfer cutter head for it, - maybe something like the new Lee cutters have, along with a big hand nut on the case length adjustment screw instead of the silly screwdriver slot in the end. I see no point in going as far as a micrometer head for it.

Ian
 
The gods are trying to tell you something Muir!

What do you use now for trimming? & what way is it better than the Wilson? - I do like mine & the one thing I'd like to improve it with would be a combined trimmer/chamfer cutter head for it, - maybe something like the new Lee cutters have, along with a big hand nut on the case length adjustment screw instead of the silly screwdriver slot in the end. I see no point in going as far as a micrometer head for it.

Ian

The Wilson is a finely built piece of gear, don't get me wrong. It's just not too versatile and it's expensive to change calibers... otherwise I have no grief with it. If I loaded one or two different cartridges it might work for me. As it is, I load a lot of different rounds which require a varying number of steps -some of which include neck turning or reaming. For that, the Forster is the only way to fly. Pilots and cutters are relatively inexpensive and it is dead-on accurate. I use the hell out of mine.

I have two or three of the Lee dies (trim/chamfer) but haven't found a time and place to use them yet. They seem pretty good.~Muir
 
I've not twiddled with the Forster one yet - does that do trim & chamfer at the same time?
One of my constant ambitions is to do complete decent, repeatable case prep in as few operations as possible without fiddly setting issues.
I only reload 4 calibres at the moment so the Wilson tooling cost isn't onerous.
I like the idea of the Lee combined cutters & am wondering if I could adapt one to fit the Wilson body. - Need to get hold of one to see if it's easily done.

Ian
 
I use the Lee trimmer & dies. they seem pretty good. Mind you, I'm a complete newbie to reloading so it'll be a while before I find the limits of any of my gear, I reckon. I have upgraded to the deluxe trimmer though........I had 160-odd .270 cases to trim & found de-burring them to be a pain with the hand tool. Another thing I found was a pretty marked range of neck lengths amongst the once-fired Federal cases I had. All were bought from the same shop, and all were fired from the same rifle but some needed a lot of trimming, & others hardly any at all. At least now they're all much of a muchness. Not measured them yet though :thumb:
 
I've not twiddled with the Forster one yet - does that do trim & chamfer at the same time?
One of my constant ambitions is to do complete decent, repeatable case prep in as few operations as possible without fiddly setting issues.
I only reload 4 calibres at the moment so the Wilson tooling cost isn't onerous.
I like the idea of the Lee combined cutters & am wondering if I could adapt one to fit the Wilson body. - Need to get hold of one to see if it's easily done.

Ian

I don't mind the chamfer and deburr process but I just deburr: I take the edge off from the trimming. I don't chamfer because I lightly flare the case necks before seating bullets on all my loads. Better accuracy, easier.~Muir
 
I use the Lee trimmer & dies. they seem pretty good. Mind you, I'm a complete newbie to reloading so it'll be a while before I find the limits of any of my gear, I reckon. I have upgraded to the deluxe trimmer though........I had 160-odd .270 cases to trim & found de-burring them to be a pain with the hand tool. Another thing I found was a pretty marked range of neck lengths amongst the once-fired Federal cases I had. All were bought from the same shop, and all were fired from the same rifle but some needed a lot of trimming, & others hardly any at all. At least now they're all much of a muchness. Not measured them yet though :thumb:

I use the Lee too. Good stuff.
The lesson about the brass is one to remember. All brass is not the same, even within the same "batch" as you guys call it. It will stretch to varying lengths on firing. A good reason to trim at every loading. (If you're not doing it for consistency already)~Muir
 
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