By: Mary and Dr. Jim Clary
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Preparing cases for reloading is time consuming, labor intensive and tedious. However, if it isn't done properly, your reloads will not be accurate, the cases may hang up in the chamber and you might damage your gun. Two of the essential steps in successful case preparation are resizing the cases and then trimming them to specification length.

Resizing the case, either FL or Neck Sizing is easily accomplished with any good set of dies and reloading press. However, case trimming is another matter. You can spend anywhere from $95 for the basic Forster Case Trimmer (hand operated) to over $200 for a Lyman or RCBS electric trimmer.

To meet the demands of the budget-minded reloader who could ill afford expensive electric units, but still wanted the speed. They took the Case Holder Assembly with its steel cutter off their Universal Case Prep Center and adapted it to fit any standard battery powered drill. They put together a kit with the same collets and shoulder bushings found in their Case Prep Center and named it Frankford Arsenal's Universal Precision Case Trimmer.

Budget-minded reloaders now have the option to purchase a precision electric case trimmer at an affordable price. The MSRP is $86.99, but can be found online for as low as $50. That is a price which fits everyone's budget. And for the record, Jim has used it with his Dewalt drill and it works very well.

The specifications and features of the Precision Case Trimmer are:
3 different sized Case Body Collets
6 different sized Case Shoulder Bushings
Case Holder/Cutter Assembly adapted to power drills
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Ultra-hard High Speed Steel Cutters (internal)
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Before we finish, we would like to point out that the Adjustable Collet and Bushing design indexes cases off the shoulder for precision. And the Collet system works for cases from.17 Remington to .460 Weatherby. That takes care of just about every reloader. To ensure that everything stays together and organized, the kit includes a storage case.