Outdoored wrote:So I've got a bunch of brass......most fall within normal "trim to" length according to Hornandy's reloading manual....but I have quite a few that measure 1.683 - 1.687 even after resizing.....some of my brand new cases are that short as well. How short is too short?
That phenomenon and question go back to when Hornady first started making 450b brass, as do opinions about it. I won't use brass below 1.685, not because it doesn't work, but because that's the spec tolerance (1.695, +0 -.10). I have reloaded it in a bind or for foulers, and it shot as well as the correct length brass. The area of contention rests upon the implementation of the taper crimp. The degree of crimp relies upon the length of the brass. I do sort my brass by length and try to keep ones the same of within a couple of mils of each other, together when shooting for some experiment. For minute of deer or hog, you'll not notice the difference. If you use a side crimp, it is less of a factor.
Hoot