45 ACP Crimp

[Unclenick]

Illinoisecoyotehunter,

Yes, we can disagree respectfully. I'll tell you the exact circumstances where I ran into the problem, though. It was back in mid-80's. I recall finding the thin mouths on R-P .45 ACP cases could work harden and get so springy that they would come out of the sizing die too large to grip bullets at all, and the bullets would just fall in. At some point prior to getting that bad, they had sub-standard grip, of course. At any rate, I was buying bullets back then that had soft, sticky lube on them, kind of like Tamarac, that was pretty much all over the bullets by the time I seated them. These would slide right into those case mouths under my thumb. The only way to stop them was a little bit of bite from the taper crimp die.

I would note, also, that these were 185 grain target bullets with a shorter bearing surface than full-weight ball. Plus, they were bevel base. So, they never inserted far enough into the case to stop where the wall starts to thicken. So, it's a situation that needs the right set of circumstances to come into play all at the same time. The bite just makes for insurance against it. Doesn't hurt anything that I can see.

BTW, I did stop picking up R-P brass at the range at all after I finally got fed up with that problem. Just left it lying. Twenty-five years later, I still leave it be, and haven't really looked to see if they've improved on it in any way since then. Too lazy to break an old habit. Maybe I should check.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

I agree. I have run into problems you speak of with bullet with short bearing surfaces and bevel bases! Can be a bad recipe for bullet setback, especially in lighter bullets that don't initially get seated very far into the case (before the case wall thickens).