16 gauge tool
 

Looking for a trim tool to cut down 16 gauge shells to 2 1/2 inch, i looked at the trim doctor but really did not like it any other thoughts?

A lot of folks here have made their own shell trimming tool.





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I have been using Spin-n-trim from BP. Made new mandrel of aluminum for 2 1/2" 16 ga. Ended up having to make one few thousands smaller than original to do 20 ga. paper Cheditte, they were very tight on the factory tool. Overall the tool works well, nice clean square cuts. It COULD be a bit better built. Kinda feels like a cheap can opener.
I tried their Trim Dr. but had a hard time extracting the cut off
ring" from the tool, very slow for me.

16 gauge tool
 

I use an electric mitre saw with a 140 tooth blade available at Home Depot. I use a simple jig to keep the hull square with the blade. Works well for me.

I’ve mad a couple jigs out of wood and cut the hulls with a band saw . The first jig has holes for 10 , 12 , 16 and 20 . The second one I made has a slot to keep the saw from throwing the cutoff piece and also make it a bit straighter it’s 10 gauge only . Granted one of those Rube Goldberg looking deals some folks put together with an Exacto knife most likely cut cleaner , but my jigs speed up the process and I’ve never missed a bird because of a slightly frayed end .

I roll my hulls, held in a dowel, over a sharp kitchen knife mounted in a vise. If I had to do more than 25, I would find a faster way.

See http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...light=Trimming and https://youtu.be/JrULU2fslRE.

-Victor

Here's what I use, works great.

Harold, is that a depth adjusting screw with a lock nut?





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Dean, yes. The little plastic slide also comes off to do 20 ga. I had this at Hausmanns' one year, and cut down 100 Herters/cheddite hulls to 2 1/2" in a little over 5 minutes. I mostly use it 0n 16 ga--but works on 10--20. Recently, I tried to make 2 1/2" black Rem RGL's. Man, that plastic is so thick and brittle, was much harder to do. Isee there is also another active thread today on cutting down hulls--had me confused for a while