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Old February 9, 2005, 04:05 PM   #1
barbwire44
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Crimping questions??

I am not new to reloading, but new to reloading straight wall pistol cartridges. I am getting ready to start loading my 40 s&w and am not sure how you measure the crimp??? I am measuing new ammunition and am coming up with .417 -.419 from mid-way on the case to the crimped end??? So I am trying to duplicate that with my reloaded cartridges....Is this the correct way to do this????? I haven't been able to get to those sizes yet because my lee crimp die doesn't work out quite right on my L-N-L press but we ground it down today at work so I'll be trying again this evening.
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Old February 9, 2005, 04:21 PM   #2
Norm Lee
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Crimping

You can measure away and then adjust your crimp die and measure again until you get the measurement you think you need. Or you can put a fresh factory round in the crimp station before you screw the die down. Raise the ram and screw the die down finger tight and a smidge for good measure. Lock it in before lowering the ram. All done. You just need to take out any bell you introduced before seating the bullet.

Cheers,

Norm
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Old February 9, 2005, 06:50 PM   #3
snuffy
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You "ground down" the die, why? Which type of Lee crimp die do you have? The seater/crimper die that comes with the 3 die set, OR the factory crimp die,(FCD)? Is it that the die bottomed out on the shell plate without producing a crimp? It may be a crimp die made for the 10 mm auto, then it would need to be shortened. If it was the FCD, then you just ruined it.

You must produce enough crimp to dig the end of the case into the bullet slightly to prevent the bullet from being seated deeper when the bullet strikes the feed ramp. Especially if you are near top pressure, then you reduce combustion space by seating the bullet deeper,KABOOM!

The factory crimp die from lee is the best investment you can make for loading strainght walled handgun ammo.
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Old February 9, 2005, 07:36 PM   #4
Cal4D4
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The ejector wire on the LNL interferes .06 or so with the bottom of the die in station 5 (the crimp die). Hornady dies come shortened for this reason.
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Old February 9, 2005, 08:23 PM   #5
snuffy
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The ejector wire on the LNL interferes .06 or so with the bottom of the die in station 5 (the crimp die). Hornady dies come shortened for this reason.

Sounds like a design flaw to me! At least Dillon side steps that flaw by having the ejector wire off to the side of station 5. Does that mean that the lee FCD cannot be used on a LNL? It must work off the top of the shell holder/plate, so it couldn't be used on a LNL??
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Old February 9, 2005, 09:04 PM   #6
HSMITH
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The FCD can do NOTHING to prevent setback in a taper crimp application.

Like Norm said, just flatten out the bell you put on the case to seat the bullet.
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Old February 10, 2005, 12:42 AM   #7
Nnobby45
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Snuffy!!!

"You must produce enough crimp to dig the end of the case into the bullet slightly to prevent the bullet .........."


Go to your room right now! The .40 S&W requires a TAPER crimp die that essentially takes the belling out of the case mouth and makes it straight---same for 9mm, .45auto, etc. If you try to go too heavy on the crimp, you'll actually loosen the bullet tension. Norm Lee got it right, follow his advice.

Snuffy did, however, discribe the correct way to ROLL crimp a bullet in a revolver cartridge. The case mouth is crimped (rolled) into the bullet cannelure, which is there for that purpose. Keeps the bullet from loosening up during recoil. Since auto pistol cases headspace on the case mouth, we don't roll crimp, (even if it has a cannelure) lest there be no case mouth on which to headspace. The case must be properly sized to hold the bullet securely.

Actually the case rim is held by the extractor, so most don't reach far enough into the chamber to actually headspace on the mouth, anyway, and if you used a slight roll crimp, as suggested by snuffy, you'd be allright--but not if the bullet doesn't have a cannelure.
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Old February 10, 2005, 06:51 AM   #8
barbwire44
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Thanx for the info guys!!! I didn't get to read any of the responses until this morning but did load a few rounds to try out and they seem to be real close to the factory specs. I really paid alot of attention last night to the measurement on the factory cartridges and they are not really straight walled, they also seem to be a little bigger near the rim and from mid way on the case towards the crimped end they measure .419 - .420, then at the crimped end they seem to tighten up abit to .412 - .416 on the very edge of the crimp???? Is this how my reloads should look?? By the way I really like the hornady loader, it is pretty simple, it would have been really simple if I had bought the hornady factory crimp die and not the lee factory crimp die.
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Old February 10, 2005, 08:04 AM   #9
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Bullchit! You know-it-all guys know nothing. The lee FCD IS a TAPER crimp! What you are saying is true about a roll crimper, which the FCD is NOT! Also the 40 S&W is not a tapered case like the 9mm is. Another feature of the FCD is that it has a carbide ring on it's bottom that smooths out any bulges caused by seating the bullet or over crimping. If you would pull a bullet once loaded and cannot see where the case mouth bit into the bullet, you don't have enough crimp. Failure to crimp enough can cause jams and in worse case scenarios, KABBOM!
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Old February 10, 2005, 08:32 AM   #10
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As another poster stated, case neck tension prevents set-back, not crimp (period). Crimp only enough to remove the bell and for the round to easily slip in and out of the chamber. I know a lot of folks like the FCD and it it's ok to resize the occasional lopsided round, but too many folks use it as a cure-all instead of sound re-loading practice. Just my opinion.
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Old February 10, 2005, 08:42 AM   #11
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Snuffy

How does crimping prevent a kaboom? Neck tension is what holds the bullet in like everyone else said. Crimping should ONLY remove the bell that was put in earlier. This is only to help feeding.
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Old February 10, 2005, 04:43 PM   #12
Nnobby45
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Snuffy

you have a sense of humor like my ex Mother-in-law. The Lee taper crimp die may "dig" the case mouth into the bullet, but other taper crimp dies do not.
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Old February 11, 2005, 08:47 AM   #13
barbwire44
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Calm down boys!!! Ok but as stated above am I doing this correctly????
Thanx
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Old February 11, 2005, 09:57 AM   #14
Handgunr
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BW,

Since the .40S&W headspaces on the casemouth, (as previously mentioned) all that's needed is a good taper crimp. One that allows a nice edge on the case mouth to be visible should be sufficient. In other words, if it could be possible with the standard taper dies, and if you were using a cast, or lead bullet, don't crimp the case mouth too far into the bullet so as to lose the edge.
Jacketed bullets probably wouldn't allow it anyway.

Take care,
Bob
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Old February 11, 2005, 10:11 AM   #15
MADISON
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Crimping

The way I do it is TAPER CRIMP.
For the last 15+ years I have taper crimped my handgun reloads.
All you need to do is take an average length measurement and set the Taper Crimp die for that. You don't have to worry about trimming cases that way.

Unless you use Lee or Hornady dies, you can just remove the decapping stem and readjust the die.
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