Crimp or Don't Crimp ~ You'll Know the Answer!
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- Опубліковано 27 лип 2024
- Are you confused about whether to crimp your handloads or not? You're not alone! In this video, I will explain exactly how you should assess your handgun or rifle loads, and you'll be entirely confident in your efforts!
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I love the way you teach. You just sit there and impart the years of wisdom you've gained.
We could be brothers of experience, glad to have you expressing all you do for the young-uns.
All of my reloading equipment is from Lee's. Been reloading since 1989. Even my casting molds are from Lee's.
I too thank your donors. Thank you for this marvelous video.
Thanks for your opinion. I recently purchased some used Lee reloading equipment and I a going to give it a shot. Never reloaded before, but I have a good support group among friends.
I have been reloading for over 15 years , and Like you sir I love some of the great Ideas that Lee Precision has come out with,, As always I appreciate the sharing of your knowledge and your detailed descriptions on your videos, your never to old to learn , as I say be teachable you can never know too much and some people know more than you do just from experience, Keep up the awesome videos, Thank you.
Sir, your videos are so very instructional and I learn so much from them. God Bless…USAF Veteran, Green Mountain State
Lol That story about your Government work was Great.
Thanks for sharing
I forgot to add that I was in tears as you told your story of the "boss" coming by when you were plating your ammo!!! We have all been there but I have never been there as a "boss".
Thanks for the heads up video brother,and I enjoy listening to you and have been watching off and on for years,never gave me but the truth and the whole truth.God Bless you and yours and to all who watch.👍❤️🙏
The only cartridge that I always crimp is the .375 Winchester. I anneal the necks and shoulders of bottleneck cases and call it good.
I really like the Lee crimp die. It’s simple and effective.
Blessings from Australia.
love that story about the boss 😂
Thanks for the information and video. I mostly crimp for my ar ammo and then it’s a light crimp. Some time when searching for a load for a particular loading for my 308 Winchester. Most of the time no crimping needed.
As soon as I hear that warm, reassuming “welcome back”, I know I’m in for an entertaining and educational journey 😊
Thanks Mr Gunblue 😀😎👍🏼😊 Great Info To Know
Excellent video
Thanks for going over this.
Thanks. Edit: The silver plating story at the end cracked me up.
what a coincidence i spent 35 years in electro plating. i used to plate my brass with high phosphorous electroless nickel to around .0001-.0002 think
I'm so glad you survived! Except for gold plating, all our government jobs specified two tenths. We plated coaxial connector parts in silver, gold, cadmium, bright, soft, and Electroless nickel, and rhodium.
I crimp all my 223/556 rounds now, because I had 2 failures to feed (FTF) which I attributed to not deburring the case mounth good enough after resizing. However, when the FTF happened the bullet was pressed completely into the case and powder spilled out into the breech and magazine of my AR. I've had similar FTFs with commercial ammunition and even when it moved the bullet deeper into the case it never pushed it all the way in.
So to avoid having to clean powder out of my action and magazine, I crimp. This is a fairly new change so we'll see if it's effective or not when the next FTF happens.
Great info in the video (as usual). Thanks! I really appreciate your channel.
I had that same problem with an Hk 33 rifle I carried in 5.56. The bullet would chamber just touching the rifling and if the case was ejected unfired, powder would go everywhere leaving the bullet in the leade. I carried a special rod in my kit to push the bullet back into the breach, because I didnt want to get stuck somewhere...
I am so glad that I ran across your video today. Thank you.
I never crimp 308 hunting loads. I size the rounds to a length that puts the ogive within 20 thousandths of the lands of the rifle. At that length the crimp would not line up with the cannalure so I take your point about the Lee crimping die. Great video as always. Semper Fi, Go Sox, and God Bless.
They’ll still help grip some even without a cannelure. Try pulling em both and see
THANKS for clarifying all of my crimp or no crimp questions.
This is the one I was waiting for! Thanks so much and God bless
Hand gun loads and some auto loading are the only ones I crimp. I sure enjoyed this as always. I enjoy the long and short videos and can't thank you enough for your efforts!
Thats pretty much everything though.
@@jimjab3631 that's about 1/3 of my reloading
Well done and accurate, as always. Factory crimping practice has a lot to do with the manufacturers' biggest concern: what happens between the factory and the customer? Ammunition made in Missouri and shipped to New Hampshire by truck freight can experience 1 million cycles of 0.5g acceleration up and down before it arrives. This is like tapping your inertial bullet puller on the kitchen table through numerous cups of coffee! Newer packaging that supports the bullet and restrains the case helps reduce transportation damage and allows a lesser crimp.
Thank you. I am a new reloaded and you explained this topic perfectly. Glad Bennie is doing well!
Extremely informative as usual. Thanks for taking the time sharing your knowledge it truly is greatly appreciated.
AS ALWAYAS i enjoyed listening to you speak on the subject of reloading or just about your life stories , a pleasure sir .
Thank you for another great video. This video is exactly what I needed to see and at just the right time. Like all your videos, I learn as if I were back in college and even take notes for my reloading journal. I'm truly appreciative that you're on UA-cam and have tremendous respect for you and your channel. My only complaint is that Benny didn't make an appearance in this episode but it sounds like he was busy upstairs. Thank you again!
You were correct. I did know the answer and the methodology you describe has been my rule of thumb for over 35 years. I find the Lee factory crimp die to be excellent for crimping the 30-30 Winchester. I also find there is a lot of baloney on UA-cam regarding reloading procedures & practice. Thank you for setting the record straight. Now if I could get some primers, I could go back to my favorite hobby.
Those FCDs are excellent in general.
What you meant was affordable primers. It seems that I can find primers for 80$ a brick all day, but I've got primers that I paid 15-20$ a brick. Ridiculous!
@@craigbraswell4269
Ridiculous? How about inflation, few things aren't pricer today.
Take care,
@@richardkut3976yea but the jump from 35ish 1k to 80-120 for 1k is more than inflation.
Personally I think its bc they want to keep those components so we buy what they load vs making our own. Hell I have primers for 9. But I can't load it as cheap as I can buy it right now bc if I replace the primers I use it will cost more than factory new. Might as well stock up new brass til they become reasonable.
Another very informative video…thank you so much for sharing your vast knowledge with the shooting community. God bless.
New to the channel. Gave sub and hope to see more great things from you.
Welcome to my channel! I've got over 240 videos for you. God bless.
Very happy to see you feeling well. May God grant you many more years. Your content is very good. I will be watching!
I had a random feed problem with my 45 and 9 hand loads. I added a Lee factory crimp die to my progressive press and solved the problem.
I’ve had .40 S&W and especially .357 SIG have bullet setback on feeding from the magazine…the LEE factory crimp die made this issue with setback a thing of the past…I also give a fairly heavy crimp to my PC cast .452 bullets for Cowboy Action (I use the same loads in both Blackhawks and my rifle)…as an aside I always have cleaner brass when loading Hodgdon Titegroup if the heavy crimp is used…sooty cases with light crimps. I also use the LEE Factory Crimp on .300 Blackout and .556/.223 with a lighter medium crimp. The LEE company has kept reloading “honest” as well as affordable especially when starting out…I still use LEE dies in many calibers that I bought 30+ years ago (being a “thrifty” old man (some will use “cheap ass) I’m still rocking out ammo on a Dillon RL 450 I bought in the 1980s 😊😊😊…GunBlue490’s channel content is great with sensible videos delivered in a very clear easy to follow manner 👍👍👍…A BIG THANK YOU Sir!
Always precise and useful information. 👍
Fantastic info on crimping.
I love that silver plated .222 Remington case especially since I’m reliving and rediscovering the joys of the .222 and a vintage rifle of my childhood following my Pop around.
I have vintage .222 factory ammo from Remington, Federal, and Winchester and there’s no discernible crimp on any of it. I recently purchased 100 rounds of newly manufactured Remington .222 ammo and all of it is heavily crimped and they used a collet type crimp die in the process. You can see the segments that a collet would leave behind when crimped excessively. We never crimped .222 cases in our handloads and as far as I can tell, factory .222 ammo did not get crimped in the old days but new Remington .222 ammo is. I wouldn’t think there’s an advantage to crimping this particular caliber but in my quest to find the most accurate load in this rifle with currently made new components, I do plan to test the results of crimped vs non crimped using the LEE factory crimp die. I do have Pop’s notes from decades ago that the Speer 50 grain .224 was his most accurate bullet in this rifle and I have acquired a new supply of them to start testing with.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Awesome video, you've answered all my questions, thanks!
I rarely crimp even in autoloading rifles, yes big bore dangerous game ammo needs to be crimped and inspected if you are always topping off these rifles durning the hunt. Bullet tip damage can occur in soft pointed projectiles when in the box mag, with the tip striking the mag front. Corbin offers a cannelure tool allowing you to place a cannelure where you want it. I almost forgot CH4D also offers a cannelure tool.
I am a new handloader. Thank you for the crimping discussion. I really enjoyed the story about the boss!
The boss always shows up at the worst possible time!
Thanks for the info
Wayne! I’m dying to see an update on the new deck! I hope it’s coming along well! Thank you for another great video!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
great educational video today thanks.
Thanks for this video. It was very informative, I have only been hand loading for 5 or 6 years now and always looking for more info on handloading.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I very much enjoy your channel your information is always relevant and useful.
Very good information! Thank you!
Great information, thank you sir!
Lee factory crimp dies are excellent, I believe they can even improve accuracy when used lightly on bottle neck cartriges
Just me personally I mildly crimp all my cartridges.
Im sorry for your loss, sir. I cant watch the video on Benny but i know the feeling of the loss of a dog (best friend). Its terrible. Thanks for what you do. Hope you and your family are doing well
Excellent video..Thank you.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us, God loves ya!
Great story about the plating
I encountered a bizzare situation with my .270 WSM model 700. I loaded up about 120 rounds and stored them for around 8 months. I go to the range and to my surprise the will not fit into the magazine. When I got home and measured them the were seated out an extra 15- 20 thou from what I originally seated them which was 2.86" COAL. My theory is that over this 8 month time the brass relaxed and lost enough of it's neck tension that the air inside the case slowly pushed the bullets back out- these were not full of powder either. My proof case for the load had no powder or primer so it didn't change. I tried reseatting those bullets and almost immediately they begun creeping right back out again regardless of how deep I tried to seat them. After that experience, I bought Lee factory crimp dies for every caliber I load and do it- no exceptions. I don't compete and rely on storing for potentially long periods of time so I don't want to have the same thing happen again. Anyone else experienced this?
Bullet insertion always displaces air. However, the volume of air is extremely small, and well within the normal holding capacity of the neck tension. I've stored handloads with compressed charges for years with no movement. Five factors can lessen that holding ability.
1. Oversize expansion ball or shaft. Very rare. The ball or largest diameter of the shaft should be exactly .001" less than bullet diameter.
2. Insufficient neck contact. The shank of the bullet should have one caliber of contact (not just seated depth, in the case of boat tails). So, the optimum case contact should be at least .277 to insure against rough handling.
3. Lubricant in necks. Tumbling or simple dry nylon inside neck brushing is normally sufficient to clean necks. If squeaking occurs, apply only a trace of lubricant to the neck brush. Never, ever, use sprays. Why they were ever marketed shows how profit, not wisdom, drives such sales. It's one of the most useless and costly snake oils we have.
4. Cases are too soft. Over heating brass during annealing can burn off harder alloys and irreparably ruin cases, and it's a common problem. Watch my annealing video.
5. Cases are too hard. Brass hardens during repeated cycles of firing and resizing. Hard brass loses its necessary elasticity that must grasp the bullet, just as an elasic band. WSM intensity is particularly severe on brass and will cause work hardening over a shorter number of cycles.
.
@@GunBlue490 Thank you for your prompt response GB. I have used one shot spray but no more. Based on what you've told me I'll have to look at my annealing process with these cases- I've had one or two come out with small splits on the shoulder after firing despite only sizing back about .002" and using Sinclair mandrels so I may not be holding the torch to them long enough.
I'll have you know after watching your video on big bore rifles, I acquired a Kleinguenther K-14 in .458 Winchester Magnum. I glass bedded the stock with the Devcon and free floated the barrel too- which I learned on another one of your videos. I have so much fun shooting 350 plated bullets with about 15 grains of Red Dot. 500gr Factory loads knock the crap out of my 145 lbs frame though. Thanks again GB.
We used to call those “G-Jobs”. Remember that? Funny..
Sure wish I could find some Small Pistol Primers CCi500.
I like a good crimp on my .223 rounds for use in AR box magazines. The case mouth edge will hang on the magazine when feeding without a decent crimp. And, of course, I put a good crimp on my 30-30 rounds, since they go into a tubular magazine. Great video!
I have found that the Lee FCD is very handy especially for semiautomatic handgun cartridges. I use the FCD religiously for all of my 9mm, 10mm, and 45ACP loadings. I like it not only for the uniform collet crimp, but also for the added benefit of post-sizing the case at the upstroke as the casing exits the die. I have had zero chamering/extraction issues in many thousands of rounds loaded with this great tool.
Great information! Thanks
Great video I learned a lot. Thanks.
Thanks for telling us about Benny
I had the opposite problem GunBlue490. I bought a box of Remington .38 Special 158 grain lead round nosed. I put it in my snubby and I fired a few rounds and the revolver jammed up. A bullet had worked out of the case enough to jam up the cylinder. I shot a few more cylinders and it happened two more times. I gave up on that box. Real pain to open the cylinder with a bullet halfway hanging out of the casing. The bullets were so loose you could push the defective ones back in the case to a point and unjam the cylinder.
Yes, the sharp recoil of a small revolver will easily do that without a tight crimp.
Yes, that is the most common problem with revolver cartridges. "Bullet pull". The revolver snaps back in recoil and pulls the cartridge case with it by the rim. The bullet wants to stay in place and the case is pulled backwards off the bullet. Very common and THE reason revolver cartridges should be crimped.
The heavier the bullets and the lighter the revolver, the worse it is. Snub nose .38s, especially lightweight ones like a S&W 642 are very prone to this.
FWIW my "carry load" in a S&W M642 Airweight is the Buffalo Bore 158 gr. +P lead SWC-HP. I have not had a problem with this in my revolver.
Thank you. Very interesting.
15:35 - the recoil of a revolver does not seat the bullet deeper. It pulls the bullet out of the case. The whole firearm jolts backwards under recoil, along with the rounds, being pulled by their rims. The (relatively heavy) bullets try to stay in place and are pulled out of the casings by inertia. This is called "crimp jump". The main issue here is locking the cylinder by bullets sticking out. The tension of a well crimped neck is enough to counteract this. This is why Vihtavuori manual recommends crimping the 185gn XTP bullets (designed primarily for .45 ACP) over their ogive in .454 Casull. The bullet can be pushed inside the case in an autoloader.
Hahahahaha 😂. That was hilarious!! It never fails Lol
Recoil forces in a revolver with a rimmed case are pulling the bullet out of the case and can jam the cylinder when the bullet hits the forcing cone.
Yes
Happened to me multiple times with one box of apparently defective Remington 158 grain .38 round nosed. It was an infuriating range trip.
Correct. It's called "crimp jump" and it is VERY problematic with very light revolvers, very hard recoiling revolvers, and semiauto caliber revolvers. You can also have those traits combined too, e.g. the Ruger LCR 9mm. With 147gr+P loads, the bullet has a lot of inertial resistance to movement and the gun recoils sharply because it's as light as a damn potato chip. The semiauto taper crimp sucks at holding the bullet because it's just pure neck tension alone. Can't roll crimp the cartridges because of headspace, unless the cylinder uses the moon clip to maintain headspace. The last bullet will occasionally leave the neck and fall to the front of the throat where the ogive sticks out and jams the cylinder from rotating. That last cartridge is subjected to the recoiling of all the previous being fired. It works exactly like a kinetic bullet puller hammer. The scandium frame .44 magnums will do it. The scandium J frame .357 magnums will do it. The Ruger Alaskan snubby in .454 Casull will do it. You get the point. Crimp jump will put a revolver out of action and a non-marring hammer and punch is needed to resolve the failure.
@@mannys9130 You seem to like talking about this stuff. You should get your own channel. I'm sure people would watch.
Yes. In simple terms the revolver can act as a bullet puller. When a revolver goes off it recoils backwards pulling the backward force on the base of the cases in the cylinder. The bullets in the cases being a separate component, want to remain in place while everything is rapidly recoiling backwards. The only thing stopping the bullets from sliding forward is the crimp. That’s the only part of the video I don’t think was explained well. But this is one of the best guys I’ve listened to on UA-cam.
I am glad to see you are shortening your videos. Most folks are not going to invest more than about 20-min maximum into watching a video. Even better - 15 minutes.
Your videos are full of knowledge, but if you cut them back to 20 or less, people will commit themselves to watching them. I just want you to know, "You're my horse, even if you don't ever win a race". Thanks for all you do to educate us reloaders/shooters.
According to my stats, some of my highest viewership ranks with my longer videos. Thank you for your support!
I’ll watch them even if they are 2 hours long, he provides great info every time!
@@Duhaubetahiks Well, you go right on ahead and watch them. I appreciate your loyalty. Meanwhile read my post again. It says, "Most folks". Adios, Brother.
@@GunBlue490 Well, I'm totally wrong then. Make 'em even longer and i bet even more people will watch them.................. I like them; they are mature and full of knowledge, but they are a stretch...........
I love the long videos. Give me an hour!
Reloading 9mm with you tonight gunblue, as always thanks so much for your valuable content. Will be double checking my Lee FCD after watching this.🙏
I like to crimp the 30 WCF, 357 but overall not required for most calibers. Crimping required case length trimming
I forgot to mention that issue with regard to case length and regular seating/crimp dies. It's not an issue with the Lee Factory Crimp Die.
Haha reminds me of one time I was loading a truckload of soon to be out of date food into a company truck with intention of giving it to a local food shelter (that company didn't have a policy to do that, in fact the policy was to discount if possible then dispose of it if you couldn't sell it when it went out of date) and the regional VP of the the company for my area showed up unannounced! I did a similar stunt as you and told him that I was loading it up for a one off heavily discounted sale, and just fudged a maximum discount on them paid cash out my own pocket and gave it to the shelter anyway. Idk why they always denied giving away soon to be outdated stuff to homeless shelters as an option, but Its still a good laugh remembering how that idiot praised me on several conference calls after that on how I managed to "sell" all that soon to be outdated stuff that day! (P.S. I continued to give shelters soon to be outdated items until the day I quit that job!)
I used to reload 30-06 for and old Ruger M77 and quickly learned that I had to use a cannelured bullet with a solid crimp for the purpose of feeding. That rifle would hang up the case mouth on uncrimped loads.
That's a terrific controlled feed bolt. I suspect that it was catching on the sharp edge of the magazine box before the case slid fully up into the claw, which can occur with some rifles. In most situations, the remedy is to simply bevel the offending edge with a couple of strokes of a fine file, followed by a bit of cold blue.
The only case I found that crimping was favorable, was a 30-06 semi-auto, but that was strictly for feeding issues I had with „untapered“ case mouths.
Hope your doing well and getting ready for spring? Appreciate the crimp explanation especially about the factory taper crimp and how to use it for an auto pistol.
Thanks mate take care safe.👍💚🦘✌
Very informative like always!
A couple of years ago I was sent a warning on FB from an experienced shooter: He lost some fingers shooting a lever action 45-70 by omitting crimping his rather hot hand load... it happened exactly how you described it.
Also copper bullets seams to benefit being crimped and seated far of the land.
357 Maximum, I found crimping is necessary, 23.5 grains of H110, topped by a 158gr Hornady XTP.
Yes. that is consistent with his advice.
My 357max is a single shot BSA Martini cadet with a 19 inch barrel, I've never crimped the hand loads, it's not necessarily. Always crimp 357mag though as it's tube feed.
Thanks again.
BTW: I tried setting up an RCBS powder measure using the method you showed (placing the pre-measured load wanted in the measure and then adjusting the metering assembly against the back of the housing casting.) That was a great tip; it took very little adjusting to get it spot-on.
I also experimented with two identical RCBS powder measures - except one had a large powder bore drum and metering assembly and the other had the smaller bore drum and metering assembly. I wanted to see if one threw more consistent loads than the other. I chose 6.0 grains of Unique as my test load, a typical piston/revolver load. The end result, for me at least, was that there was no discernable difference. In fact, if anything, the measure with the larger bore may have been a tad more consistent than the one with the smaller bore. I'm guessing that is possible because the powder does not have to drop down into as deep a cavity with the larger bore and therefore has an easier time of getting the same amount into the bore each time(?). Whatever the reason, I could find no reason to switch to the smaller bore drum and metering stem. Thanks again for your shows.
Thank you for your support. I'm glad that you performed your own test and discovered the best situation for your loads. As a matter of note, Unique and most pistol and shotgun powders charge very uniformly, and the reason you observed more consistent charges with the larger drum is because of their nature to stack flat and slide past the cutting surface agreeably, if you will. If you ever load with standard charges of extruded rifle powders however, such is not the case. They're shaped like logs, so any that are caught between the frame and drum must be forcefully sheared by the operator. The more granules that are exposed to the larger cutting surface, the more difficult it is to swing the drum, and the greater the number of granules that get randomized and upset the volume consistency. There's a very discernable difference that is easily observed just by the effort involved, and you can actually feel more granules being cut. So, don't let that small drum go anywhere in case you need it some day!
@@GunBlue490 Got what you're saying. Yes, they are shaped like little rods. Thanks much.
@@GunBlue490 I have found this too using Vit N140. I prefer to use the smaller drum. I'll be watching a lot more of your videos over the winter, a nice contrast to the younger guys that tend to be drawn to the latest shiny gadgets!
Both the Lee Collet Sizing Die and the Lee Factory Crimping Die are marvels of engineering the average man can afford to own. Years back I tested bullet performance in the 7mm Rem Mag. 139 Hornady BT Interlocks and 150 Nosler Ballistic Tips (the very early ones, grenades!). Soaked for 2 days wet newsprint was my medium. An interesting thing happened when I crimped both bullets to maximum. The 139's could be seated out longer so the crimp was below the cannelure about where the so-called interlock ring inside the bullet is. The 150's have no cannelure but the Die swages a perfect ring into the Noslers that looks like the grooves on a Barnes TTSX bullet.
Uncrimped bullets of both kinds essentially exploded in the newsprint inside of 200 yards.
The maximum setting crimped bullets now performed similar to Speer Grandslams where the front of the bullet ahead of the heavy crimp fragments causing damage but the lead core behind the heavy crimp stayed in the base and drove through like the harder lead based Grandslams or dare I say Partitions. Even if the expanded jacketing ahead of the crimp sneered off the bases plowed straight through for another 12+ inches.
Now the 139 Interlock was actually performing like advertised and the Ballistic Tips were turning whitetailed bucks boiler rooms into red jelly and blowing through the far side.
Accuracy actually improved with the Ballistic Tips and the Interlock Boat-tails stayed the same out of the 26" barrel of my Browning LH A-Bolt Medallion rifle.
Edit: *sheared* off...
Im fairly new to handloading and have bought a few different dies. So far I prefer Lee dies. They just seem to work better for me. The rcbs seating die is a tad more consistent a keep seating depths
I think that case neck tension has more to do with accuracy then crimping. I only do a taper crimp on handgun rounds, or cast. And even only on some cast rifle rounds, depending on if the rifle likes it.
What's going on with your timber frame project ?
It's still very much in progress, but August weather slowed me down, between 90+ degrees and torrential rains. Hopefully, things will resume full steam ahead through this month.
Came for the crimp info.
Stayed for the silver plating story😂 at least you had a good excuse. Seems like thats how it always works out. The one time you do something you shouldnt. Thats when the big wigs want to show up. Take care thanks for the video
very good and informative. i have not reloaded pistol cartridges yet and it just seems so much more uggggh. the crimp especially. hope i do it right lol.
Many thanks for another tutorial vid on re-loading. I am starting to reload 9mm using Starlilne brass with 124gn Berry RNCP bullets. My question is on the taper crimp used for this. I have a Lee die set with a separate die for the crimp. How much crimp is too much ? I am used to reloading .45LC and no problems . . .BUT now doing 9mm hand loads using a taper crimp is a little confusing on how much crimp to use. I have Lee 9mm die set and RCBS .45LC die set....tks !
Interesting and informative video. I have been reloading for over a half century too. I have always wondered why some rifle cartridges were crimped and some were not. I knew that tubular mags had to be crimped. I experienced for myself in my early days of reloading who .45 bullets could move forward in a revolver and prevent the cylinder from rotating. Thank you for this excellent presentation.
You mentioned you sometimes use a crimp on .223 , could you explain why please as I am reloading .223 at the moment. Great info and so well explained thank you
It’s not required if your single feeding a bolt gun or have a short magazine 5/10 rds. What can happen is although the 223/556 is a low recoil cartridge, in the case of a longer magazine 20/30 rds the the cartridges are further away from the recoil of the firearm so they experience more backwards movement the further along they are in the magazine, if your a reloader and your trying to decide to crimp or not? It has been shown that consistently crimped cartridge are more accurate and more precise then non crimped bullets if thats important to you you should crimp…. That being said most application for shooting don’t require the degree of accuracy I’m talking about(plinking at the range) not all hand loaders crimp. However I would advice because consistency is the key to safety when reloading if you decide to crimp you should always crimp if you don’t then don’t. Be advised that most two dye reloader sets,the seating dye is also a crimping dye, it’s just that Lee makes a separate dye( very popular) just for crimping. It’s popular because it gives you a factory crimp, this is because it’s using the same collet mechanism to crimp that factory ammo used that’s why it’s very popular with reloader’s. Sorry I’m long winded. Hoping this helps
I loved your story about silver plating those cases. You must have sweat like a man lost in the desert. And the boss likely thought that his presence was intimidating.
Well, he started his business in his garage and worked it into a major operation that had many big government contracts making coaxial connectors, so I was indeed sweating!
Other benefits include: consistent neck tension and smoother smoother semi-auto feeding.
I crimp all pistol rounds, but not my rifle rounds. I found my 270 and 6.5 Grendel both had larger groups when crimped. The Grendel 1.5" groups crimped, and 0.5" without crimps. I also found my accuracy was much better when I anneal the brass.
The Lee reloader's manual recommends crimping rifle rounds when the bullet jump (distance to the lands) is either unknown or more than 0.030". It explains the reason is because initial pressures can spike once the bullet hits the lands, especially if the jump is greater than 0.015-0.030" and can cause inconsistent pressures from one shot to the next. Their theory is that by crimping the bullet the initial pressure rises more sharply before the bullet starts to move. The bullet then jumps faster to the lands and having more inertia helps to stabilize the pressure rise as the bullet encounter the lands. Lee claims through testing that crimping generally results in better accuracy. The exception to this is for shooters who tailor their loads so the bullets are seated out very close to or toughing the lands. But Lee still says this is more dangerous and can cause unusual pressure spikes.
Personally, I always follow the advice in my loading manuals, which is to crimp cartridges, especially for auto-loading firearms. For auto loading rifles, I use the Lee Collet crimp die. I've seen cases where bullets hit the feed ramps in rifles and were set back.... that's a dangerous condition.
I have had some loads shift mostly in my 22-250 A.I. from compressed loads if you run tight neck chamber with a bushing die almost no grip at all after trimming necks down I just keep a eye on OAL cause it can get stuck in lands on a eject then you got a mess Never did like crimping but it needs to be done just not on baby bench rest
Thanks for the chat, crimp has been the hardest for me since I have not found a good way to measure other then a fingernail. My concern is overcrimping, but I suppose it comes with time and experience.
Thanks for your support. For the easiest method of crimping very precisely and uniformly, I recommend the Lee Factory Crimp Die. It's very easy to regulate any degree of crimp, and it's impossible to over crimp with it. Except for the situations I explained for handguns, tubular fed magazines, and very heavy calibers, crimping is entirely unnecessary anyway.
If i'm not mistaken, manufacturers are using a glue/adhesive for for bullet seating.
Good morning sir, great video, channel, and source of information. Thank you for your dedication to the sport. I am new to the channel and want to learn how to reload, my question is with head-spacing, if I follow the specifications in the manual will the head spacing be correct ? Thanks again. God bless.