I have a Whelen that has been mothballed for a while due to a cracked stock, so I haven't shot it for a few years. After replacing the stock I brought it out to shoot again and dusted off my available brass for reloading. I recall ordering some once fired brass from somewhere I can't recall, and when I measured them I found a bunch of case lengths after resizing from 2.473" to 2.488", well below suggested resizing lengths. Any suggestions on whether this brass should get tossed or whether it can be shot and maybe will lengthen over time? Thanks

According to google the case length should be 2.494. Pending the purpose of the ammo I would either load and shoot or trim to the shortest length.

The case trim length is 2.484". So you are very close to that length already by .011". Load em up and shoot them! If you want to trim them all to be consistent, that works too. If it's a hunting gun, just load and go. You'll be fine.

When in doubt for cartridge dimensions I go to the keeper of the specs SAAMI

SAAMI Cartridge drawing page 125 from the link below.




SOURCE LINK


Your fine on the length the shortest one 2.494 is the max per SAAMI and 2.474 is the min so your shortest is only .001 less than SAAMI min. Most books use the middle of SAAMI as the trim to length. For consistency I want all to be the same length,

SAAMI is a great source of dimensions to remember about

Thanks to all of you for the information. I will bookmark the SAAMI link for future reference. Nice to know all that brass is still useful.