.40s&w

[mrawesome22]

I bought a .40S&W pistol today and was wondering if anyone loads this round? I bought 2 boxes of ammo and neither have a crimp that I can see. Do I need to crimp .40S&W? To me, there is much more recoil than 9MM Luger. This is a SW40VE.

[RERICK]

If you don't crimp the bullet could get pushed deeper into the case on the ride from the mag to the chamber when firing.I use a Lee FCD and it seems to do the job.

[kojak]

Light taper crimp is the answer. Crimp and seat in different steps.

First turn out the seater and turn down the seating die until it touches the shell. Then back out 1/2 of a turn. Then turn down the seating plug according to your desired cartridge length. Seat all bullets.

In the second step turn out the seating plug and turn down the seating die until it touches the shell. Then turn it down another 1/2 turn. Crimp one round and measure with a micrometer at the case mouth, 0.420" is about right (at least for my 10mm loads), 0.419-0.422 is the range I tolerate for my loads.

Crimp all rounds. Finished.

If you want to do all this in one step do it as described but only for one bullet. Then turn down the bullet seating plug until it touches the bullet from the one ready case.

Lee factory dies give better crimp but are not really necessary.

[Bullet94]

Taper crimp only enough to remove the belling or flare from expanding. I like to seat the bullet and then crimp in a separate step. I use these dies to help with bullet setback -

http://egw-guns.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=40&osCsid=f7af6a5a0091bea32b4d67ed7c3c89ac

[HSMITH]

If a straight walled pistol cartridge has a crimp that you can see it is WAY too much crimp. Taper crimping is a misnomer, the ONLY purpose of taper crimping is to lay the case mouth back against the bullet removing the bell that was used to seat the bullet. Anything more than that is a problem and should be avoided.

[mrawesome22]

O.K. thanks guys. I was going to get the Lee carbide deluxe 4 die set (with 4 Hornady lock rings). Anyone use these?

[Shoney]

The 40S&W and most straight wall semi-auto pistols headspace off the front edge of the case. This means that if the crimp is to great, the cartridge will drop to deeply into the chamber, and can, if the conditions are right, cause excess pressure; or they will not fire. As has been stated, a light taper crimp is sufficient. In most cases, the extractor holds the improperly crimped cartridges against the slide face and they will still function.

[mrawesome22]

So then what's the difference between the Lee factory crimp die for .40S&W and the Lee taper crimp die for .40S&W?

[RERICK]

The deluxe set is the one that I use and it works just fine.

[HSMITH]

The deluxe set has the factory crimp die, it isn't needed or desired. The difference between it and a normal crimp die is a carbide ring in the die that re-sizes the loaded round as it is being crimped. This poses some potential problems, and solves nothing.