Why I Crimp

The title of the thread is "Why I Crimp" not why anyone else should...
Ya know this is what is called a pretty informal group. There are many other places where the desire to be grammatically or subjectively perfect is desired. We all share our opinions as well as our wins and losses with others.Here if you haven't noticed we tend to wander around exploring as well as relating our experiences. Being off topic is not unusual.
 
Ya know this is what is called a pretty informal group. There are many other places where the desire to be grammatically or subjectively perfect is desired. We all share our opinions as well as our wins and losses with others.Here if you haven't noticed we tend to wander around exploring as well as relating our experiences. Being off topic is not unusual.
Yes Mam ,but like a fine rifle ,sometimes I need a adjustment too get back on course.
 
What did you discover
In my testing I didnt find a benefit from crimping. It helps keep hammer bullets from moving since they have mush less contact with the case neck. I tried crimping them and found .003 neck tension kept them in place for me and shot better. The only way to know is test it in your rifle. Some benefit and some dont. YMMV

I should add that I do crimp for semi autos.
 
Three things we've found by using the LCD with Hammers: (all connected)
1) Significant velocity gain (partly a result of #2)
2) Prevents pressure spikes from the bullet slipping into the lands from the primer ignition and giving "false" pressure readings.
3) Accuracy improvement (result of increasing consistency)

If a case holds the bullet tight enough to prevent premature launch, then the results will be minimal. It's always worth a try.
 
I've got to agree.
I take precise measurements to produce most accurate load for my 308sfar. I hold seating depth to .0000 tolerance! After all that I wonder if bullets in magazine are slipping under recoil and negating my hard work to maintain consistent seating depth. I have not been crimping...my best groups hover around 3/4" which ain't bad for production AR10 but my goal is half inch with this platform so will be purchasing the Lee FCD and see what happens.
 
I haven't yet tried crimping with Hammer bullets, but certainly intend to. Northkill's comments kinda rang my bell. Seebeeken mentioned just using a little mor neck tension. I read somewhere - maybe on this forum - that .003-.004" neck tension is recommended for the Hammer bullets, due to the relieved bearing surface not being quite enough surface area for a solid grip on the bullet shank by the case neck. I have been using .004" on a 280 Remington, with good results. It is not a magazine rifle, though, so I don't know how they stand up to being bounced around under recoil in a magazine well. Also, Hammer recommends giving the bullets a running start before they engage the rifling, rather than loading them up close to the lands.

My question for Northkill is whether or not his velocity increases were accompanied by pressure signs. It would seem that any pressure spikes that might have been occurring when the bullet is first engraved by the rifling would be occurring at ignition, when the bullet is still gripped by the crimp. Now it's a single event, instead of being spread out over the two. Any comments about that, Sir ???
 
The crimp isn't enough to create a pressure spike, at least you shouldn't be crimping that hard. You can get a significant spike if the bullet jams the lands prior to full ignition. I can feel it when I'm shooting. The slight crimp that @ButterBean recommends just prevents this from happening. Once we figured out what was going on and started using the LCD, the false pressure signs went away and we were able to increase the powder charge till we got to normal consistent pressure signs before backing off and finding a safe, stable load. Since some would jump prematurely into the lands and some would not, we were getting flyers until we started crimping. This pulled everything together remarkably. That was the 124 HH in a CM. Not all of our rifles had the same degree of trouble.
 
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The LEE FCD is adjustable, it comes with set up instructions and they work fine but i have found this a very effective tuning tool,This is my procedure, work up a load as you always do Brass Prep, powder, charge weight and seating depth, once you have this established set your die up and loosen til you just have a few threads left, raise a loaded round as if you were gonna crimp it and screw the die down until it touches, take a fine point Sharpie and mark both the Die and the Press, lower the round and turn the die in about 1/16th or so lock the die crimp 5 rounds shoot and compare ( you wont see any indication of a crimp but i assure you if you try to pull that bullet that it did) and then just keep increasing pressure on the Die in small increments until you find the sweet spot. This is my final step in Load Development, I am not a competition shooter by any means and I have never claimed to be. This has been discussed a million times but I will say again that I personally have never seen a load that i loaded that did not respond to FCD, Some more than others but that's another story
Thanks Bean I'm gonna try it for sure. On bullets with grooves like hammers do you want to have the crimp in the groove or on other part of bullet that's between the grooves.lm thinking on the hump between the grooves. Am I correct? Tribb
 
The crimp isn't enough to create a pressure spike, at least you shouldn't be crimping that hard. You can get a significant spike if the bullet jams the lands prior to full ignition. I can feel it when I'm shooting. The slight crimp just prevents this from happening. Once we figured out what was going on and started using the LCD, the false pressure signs went away and we were able to increase the powder charge till we got to normal consistent pressure signs before backing off and finding a safe, stable load. Since some would jump into the lands and some would not, we were getting flyers until we started crimping. This pulled everything together remarkably. That was the CM. Not all of our rifles had the same degree of trouble.
Awsome
 

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