I do trim mine down. Im shooting Hals Big20XL and after practicing on a few empty hulls found that they rolled better trimmed to 5/16'' above the card. I also took a Q-tip and applied a small amount of WD-40 around the outer hull before rolling.

If the wad only went 10 feet from the gun, or otherwise seemed a bit anemic, most likely too much hull was trimmed off. This is the most common mistake folks make. Enough hull needs to be rolled down for adequate combustion or it doesn't perform right.

The hull looks ok.

I have. Shot lights out from an 870 compact, IC .555 choke. I don't have numbers, but there's nowhere in a 20 inch circle at 40 yards that a turkey can get away without riding home with me.

I'm curious why folks trim any hull at all with the Big 20 XL load? I never have and have never had a minute's trouble out of that load including across the board, fantastic patterns. Just seems like extra work being placed on one's self for no good reason and even the potential of screwing something up?

I never trim them either. If the shells are for a 3" Benelli, I just load one of my 2-3/4" loads.

Gotcha. I guess it makes sense if one is shooting an autoloader. Just seems like the 2 3/4" load is the way to go on the autoloader though. Piss on extra work!

Autoloader is not actually the issue. It's that some makes, like Benellis -auto or pump - don't have much tolerance for the extra length of a roll crimped shell.

Gotcha. Not that I plan to ever carry my Beretta 390 turkey hunting (it would actually be the 4th choice on a given day so I would have to have a ton of tore up guns first), but it throw an unreal pattern with an IC .555 and 26" barrel. I have never tried to cycle a TSS shell from the magazine in it. Do you think it would cause problems?

Haven't read any problems in the Berettas. Forgot about it in the benellis though with a roll crimp. I haven't tried star crimping the 3"

My franchi (basically benelli) shoots roll crimped loads just fine

I have a 390 in 12 and 20. Never had an issue with roll crimp cycling.

Your franchi will cycle 3" roll crimped shells? I've tried two m2s and an affinity and they will not go from the magazine to the chamber. They fire and eject fine

Sure will. I've had zero problems. There's a guy on here witnessed me have to do a quick follow up last year on a bird at 5 steps and it cycles just fine.