LEE Case Length Gauge and Cutter for 7.62X39 brass

LEE Case Length Gauge and Cutter for 7.62X39 brass

My LEE Case Length Gauge and Cutter consistantly trims my 7.62X39 brass to a length of 1.507".

Is this to short?

I've trimmed and shot about 500 pieces at this length with no obvious problems.

Is trimming to this length going to wear the brass out sooner?

The measured length of the LEE Case Length Gauge is 1.514" but it cuts the brass to 1.507" consistantly as stated above.

Any help would be apprciated.

The Lee Gauge and cutter uses the flash hole as the measurement and so it can vary with different brands of cases. I use it. A friend bought one that the threaded end was crooked and it wouldn't cut straight. I think your length is alright. Some trim lengths are 0.010" short of maximum length and some trim lengths are 0.020" short. I have seen shorter lengths on military cases.

The trimming doesn't wear out the brass. It is stretched with every resize and should be trimmed every time to make sure they are all the same length. I trim and chamfer with Lee tools and use a Lee primer pocket scraper / cleaner. When you resize or fire a cartridge the case stretches and gets weaker and weaker.

The Lee Gauge and cutter uses the flash hole as the measurement and so it can vary with different brands of cases. .

Note that the Lee Case trimer pilot goes THROUGH the flash hole only..it bottoms out on the steel floor of the case head holder to guage or trim the case to length.....measurement or trim length should have nothing to do with the case flash hole. The case head is pulled down onto the floor of the trimmer base when you screw it tight.....should trim all brands of cases "same-same". Mine does.

i buy a few Lee case "gauges" for the cutter and use the ones that come out about where I want. It's not too critical to get a certain length as long as they are the same length. I have the Russian maximum and minimum measurements somewhere. The Soviets originally allowed 1.0 mm in total cartridge from max to min and later changed to 0.5mm during the "upgrade" around 1959 - 1960 which is also when they quit using copper washed steel but the Chinese did not. The Yugoslavian cartridge length allows a difference of 0.8mm and the US military drawings based on data from Lapua allow 0.018" in cartridge length. I'll have to look up the case lengths allowed.