Giraud Case Trimmer

[NJKen 23]

Anyone use one of these?

http://www.giraudtool.com/prod02.htm

They are expensive but fast.  I have tried almost every trimmer there s now and I have probably spent more than the asking price for the Giruad. 

Im basically looking for someone who has one to tell me if its a pain in the butt to change from 22 cal to 30 cal.  There is no way ill buy 2 of these!

Ken

[njJoniGuy 2,131]

The Giraud is the best thing since sliced bread for me, a competition hi power shooter.

I full length resize and trim with every (Rock Chucker single stage) reloading of my .223 brass.

That way I get to handle each piece of brass multiple times through the process and weed out problematic brass without dumping the whole lot, as some of my fellow shooters do.

 

The Giraud makes it easy as pie to measure (length), trim chamfer & debur (if necessary)

I've never swapped out the head for another caliber, just changed trim length for a buddy who uses an X-die.

If you can swing the extra $440 for a second unit in .30cal, do it. Saves the changeover hassle.

That's the way Lugerman does it - one for .223 and one for .308

[Rob0115 1,105]

I got mine a couple months ago. I have heads and blades for .223, 6.5, 300 blackout, .308. I can't recommend it enough.

[NJKen 23]

What I think Im going to do is get the machine setup for 223 and then get a 308 insert and a second blade setup for 30cal.  I cant do 2 trimmers because I think I am also going to buy the case anealing machine.  I am getting a lot of soot on cartridge necks and a lot of splitting case necks.  I have concluded thaqt this is due to work hardening. 

I also do every step on a rock chucker for the same reasons mentioned above.

Thanks

Ken

[Heavyopp 167]

I would not hesitate one second on buying this unit if I where in the market -- 

[SmartAss 11]

The website claims that it does the de-burring also. How effective is it at doing the de-burring?

 

I use the Little Crow trimmer - which works well but still requires de-burring afterwards.

[njJoniGuy 2,131]

When set to a specific length (as measured from the shoulder of sized brass) it trims (if necessary) and if it trims, it also chamfers inside and deburs outside because the cutting surface is actually a notch in the carbide cutter.  Check out the pix in Giraud's site, as shown in one of the posts above.

 

It really does work great!

I've run over 15k pieces thru mine already in just a couple of years.

[Melgamatic 66]

I have one for 308 and I love it.  The blade it like a "V" and the case edges are nice and smooth inside and out.

[BullzeyeNJ 104]

It is an awesome piece of equipment. Once you get it and use it you will wonder what took you so long to have one on your bench. If you ever decide to sell it you can get alot of your money back.

[monmouth 19]

You don't need two of them, just change out for calibers.  Use the other money for an annealer

[NJKen 23]

You don't need two of them, just change out for calibers.  Use the other money for an annealer

Thats the plan!

Kenny

[NJKen 23]

..

[YellowMinion 0]

Expensive and very nice I just use a dillon 1200b

[NJKen 23]

I absolutely love your name!  as the parent if a three year old I have come to love despicable me!

I contemplated using the Dillon trimmer with my single stage setup.  The only reason I went with Giraud is that I load a lot of flat bottom bullets in .223.  The chamfer is important here and Giraud does it all in one step.  If that was not as important, I probably would have gone with the Dillon unit.

Ken

[BullzeyeNJ 104]

Well, today I pulled the trigger.  I spoke to Giraud on the phone (Doug's wife?) and ordered a trimmer and annealer.  I cannot find bad feedback about either one on this forum or the others I frequent.  Ill let everyone know how it all works out in December or January when I get them.  They have about a 12 week wait rite now.

Ken

 

 

Congrats! It will change your life for the better.

[JonF 79]

What's the typical, non-rushing changeover time for the Giraud? Do you have to totally recalibrate the trim length for the caliber each time as well?

[NJKen 23]

What's the typical, non-rushing changeover time for the Giraud? Do you have to totally recalibrate the trim length for the caliber each time as well?

I have learned a few tricks alredy from searching the net.  I ordered a complete second cutter head so I can set one up for 22 cal and the other for 30 cal.  If you had to re-set the cutter between calibers you will spend a lot of time and wreck a lot of brass. One thing a few people on a few forums suggested is using Hornady locking die rings on the cartridge adapter so that once it is set properly it stays set when removed.  I think a caliber changeover can be done in a matter of minutes this way once they are all set up properly for the first time.

Ken

[NJKen 23]

I ordered the annealer and the case trimmer today.  I also odered all the adapters I would need to do all the calibers I reload.  There is a 12 week wait from Geraud.  That SUCKS!  I will wait though.  Ill let everyone know how it all works out when I get it.

Thanks

Ken

[Rob0115 1,105]

It's worth the wait. If you want to save time you can order a cutting head for each of you case holders. That will save calibration time. The beauty is once you fire it up you can trim 1000s of cases to perfect length and chamfer in no time.

 

Like everything else in the gun world these days there's always a wait.

[NJKen 23]

I came home today and found a box.  In it was my annealing machine.  My trimmer must not be too far behind! 

Ken

[NJKen 23]

It finally came!  I have no idea how I trimmed as much brass as I did with that dam hand trimmer!  If anyone is on the fence about buying one of these trimmers get it! 

BTW, it is nowhere near as loud as the videos on youtube.

Ken

[Rob0115 1,105]

Congrats. My single favorite piece of equipment. I hope they do a 5.7 shell holder and cutter.

[NJKen 23]

Congrats. My single favorite piece of equipment. I hope they do a 5.7 shell holder and cutter.

Thanks.  I don't know why I waited so long. 

Did you email Doug about that?  He is one very helpful guy.

Ken

[Rob0115 1,105]

Yes, I did. He had no real familiarity with the cartridge. I'm sure he isn't being inundated with requests for it either. :

 

It's tough to manually trim brass once you've used the powder trimmer, but I like shooting it so I do it.

 

It's amazing how much and how fasts you can perfectly trim brass with the giraud trimmer.

[NJKen 23]

The Giraud case trimmer has taught me something...  Not all presses are created equal!

It taught me that my RCBS Summit press is a POS.  This trimmer trims off the shoulder of the brass.  The summit press apparently has a high deflection in it.  My trimmed brass had a variation of .010" when sized with the summit press.  This is not acceptable!  I did some research and apparently I am not alone here.  I re sized on my rock chucker and got no more than .0005 variation in overall length.  I also sized a batch on the rock chucker first and got the same .0005" variation that I can live with.  These results where all with LC .308 brass.  When I ran the batch of LC .223 brass this did not happen.  The .223 brass sizes just a bit easier though.  This would explain the occasional hard to chamber round I have been trying to figure out.

I have contacted RCBS about this and they are going to work with me on it. 

I post this because I am sure that someone will try to do their research on the Giraud trimmer and find this post.  I know I found tons of em on many different forums before I purchased mine!  Now that I got it all figured out I get perfectly trimmed brass, perfectly sized brass, and perfect OAL brass.  This thing is great!

Kwn