Crimping and Seating Problems

[zoid 24]

Hey guys. I'm a little new to reloading. Been doing it for a year and running into an issue.

I'm using a Lee Pro 1000 Progressive Loader. I'm loading Berry's 200gr Hollow Points. I've

got the OAL set at around 1.22". I set the crimp going by the Lee Reloading Manual (the book).

The first 20-40 rounds went fine, then when I got to the crimp/seat die I'd feel a lot of resistance.

I'd follow through anyways (which I should not have) and when the round came out it looked like this:

 

 

I think I may have set the crimp too tight in messing around with bullet depth/crimp. Also

I suspect my flare die may have been set too deep cause the casing to flare out too much

causing the resistance. I did back off the crimp and the flare which helped, but the thing

is the issue would come back every 10 rounds or so.

 

Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong and how to fix the issue?

[Maksim 1,504]

Readjust the die.

 

Maybe clean it out.

 

Also, is the turret indexing to the right location?

[Melgamatic 66]

To me, crimps look almost OK, but I think you are setting the bullet WTF too low...thus crushing the cases.

[Pew Pew Plates 358]

If you were over-flaring, the mouth would fold. If you were seating too deep, nothing would happen visually except a deep seated bullet and high pressure. You are over-crimping. Try backing your crimp out a hair. When I was adjusting the dies for my 500 S&W for maximum crimp I just kept going down untill it bulged the case and it looked exactly the same as yours. Back out a hair and they dont bulge anymore and I know im getting the maximum crimp possible. You dont need that much crimp, though.

[zoid 24]

Thanks Glenn, I think in the end the most effecting thing was backing the crimp off. In my head

I felt it was not crimped enough but I guess it was all along.

 

Mel, I wasn't sure exactly which data to go off of since there is nothing specific for Hollow Points

that I could find. I went off Accurate's load data, the Lee Reloading Manual, and the Hogden website

to kind of find the closest to what I was working with. 1.22 seemed to be the general min I could find,

some were lower at 1.19, but I don't want to go that low. I'm using 5.7gr Accurate #2.

 

The other thing was when I went over 1.22/1.23 the round would not seat flush into the barrel like a

factory round. From the past in working with 9mm Berry Hollow Points I realized you have to seat them

a little deeper due to the very square shoulders Berry's places on their hollow points.

 

Gonna try them at the range and see how it goes.

[Maksim 1,504]

For berry's, use lead loading guidelines, and work up from there.

[Pew Pew Plates 358]

With a semi auto pistol round, the objective of a crimp is just to keep the bullet from seating deeper in the case upon chambering. With a revolver its actually the oposite, its to keep the bullet in the case and to prevent it from pulling out under recoil. Anyways, the revolver part is pretty irrelevent right now so lets go over the semi-auto strategy. This is what I did for my 9mm/.45 acp rounds

 

First, you adjust the crimp die so that it straightens out the flare. Do the following with a dummy round with no powder/primer. The flare should not really be able to be seen but once you get a little squeeze out of the crimp and the rounds drop into a case guage (or your barrel) then you measure the round. Now, chamber it and measure it again. A teeny bit of change is OK. Now chamber it 10 more times. Is it setting back alot? If so, pull the bullet and start over again but this time crimp a little more and repeat. If its not setting back, any more crimp is just a waste and detrimental to accuracy and case life.

[raz-0 1,259]

In general, you will have a problem with plated lead and roll crimps. Even if backing it off stopped the crushing, don't be surprised if you have crap accuracy if your crimp is damaging the plating.

[dave545 15]

that happened ot me its when you put too much crimp on it, it starts to crimp it as the bullet is still seating and fully crimps the bullet before the seating depth is achieved and then crushes the brass it was happening to me as well so you have to back the crimp off some or just buy a separate crimping die and crimp it by itself. IMO that works best anyway having a separate seat and a separate crimp station

[zoid 24]

Thanks guys. All of this is very good info and I think I can straighten it out.

 

Didn't know that over crimping affects accuracy that much. Lots to learn for sure.

[raz-0 1,259]

Thanks guys. All of this is very good info and I think I can straighten it out.

 

Didn't know that over crimping affects accuracy that much. Lots to learn for sure.

 

Jacekted bullets are much mroe tolerant of overcrimping. Heck, when I started, I was loading some 230gr .45 with enough crimp to leve a dent all around a pulled bullet. The accuracy was still pretty good. It was even better when I stopped doing it, but I was surprised it didn't hurt accuracy more. Plated lead through starts as lead wire, gets cut to a length, swaged to shape, and then plated. The lead wire is pretty soft compared to a jacketed projectile or lead alloy used in casting. If you compromise the plating, two things can burn you. One, the plating can start flaking, which can affect how it travels through the barrel, but more importantly can leave you with bits of plating dangling in flight causing uneven drag. You can also open up enough exposed lead to engage the rifling. Since it is soft, it smears and you don't get proper spin.

 

basically, if you crimp it hard, accuracy sucks, and you see lead spirals on your target, or your bulklets are keyholing, you should back off your crimp as one of the first things you try.

[tbtrout 141]

Forget the whole accuracy issue, you are causing a safety issue. Semi auto pistol rounds headspace on the case mouth. you are roll crimping instead of taper crimping. Which means that your round will not stop where it is supposed to and can go too far into the chamber to the barrel.And if it does manage to fire will cause excessive pressure, your rim will not be secure against the breechface and the primer could pop. Not to mention you are now counting on your extractor to hold the round in place while being fired which is bad for the extractor. In your load manual you will see a measurement for the case mouth to be crimped to. Adjust your die for that.

[Sigman 41]

Forget the whole accuracy issue, you are causing a safety issue. Semi auto pistol rounds headspace on the case mouth. you are roll crimping instead of taper crimping. Which means that your round will not stop where it is supposed to and can go too far into the chamber to the barrel.And if it does manage to fire will cause excessive pressure, your rim will not be secure against the breechface and the primer could pop. Not to mention you are now counting on your extractor to hold the round in place while being fired which is bad for the extractor. In your load manual you will see a measurement for the case mouth to be crimped to. Adjust your die for that.

 

+1 Taper crimp semi-auto and roll crimp revolver. Even in revolver I don't go to a heavier crimp until I hit magnum loads. You only need a slight crimp to take the flair off the case mouth. The case should not dig into the bullet. I've loaded thousands of 9mm like this without fail. Like Tim said, the cartridge headspaces off the case mouth.

[zoid 24]

Thanks guys. Just to clarify a roll crimp is when the casing kind of wraps around the

bullet where you can kind of see the casing wrap around/roll over the bullet. Whereas

the taper crimp is where the casing is straight and you can't feel/see the casing go

around the bullet. Am I correct?

[tbtrout 141]

read this

 

http://www.exteriorballistics.com/reloadbasics/crimp.cfm

[hd2000fxdl 422]

Thanks Tim, another site added to the bookmarks.

[Greydaddy 2]

I find it's easiest to crimp in a separate step. Load 'em all up, then crimp 'em.