"Factory Crimp Die"

[Pdvdh]

Nice. Glad to hear you had some positive results with the crimped shells.

Yeah, if you're already one-holing them without crimps, it will be hard to see improvement with crimping.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I think that is great results. Certainly no noticeable detriment. The more I think about it the crimp seems like a good idea in a mag fed rifle. It will certainly reduce the chance of a change in seating depth on bullets in the mag.

Steve

 

[Pdvdh]

The 300 Weatherby tightened up quite a bit. It was a good reliable 3/4 Moa gun with several loads, and the five crimped loads went into a 1 1/4" group at 300 yards!!! That's the best that rifle has ever shot.

Best $10 ever spent for the Weatherby.
After I tested crimped bullets in my AR 15, I went back and crimped all 1,500 of my previously reloaded shells.

 

[gohring3006]

Yea, 10 bucks!!!

 

[WildRose]

Bumping this for more info.
I ordered a Factory crimp die for 300 Weatherby, and 6.5 Creedmoor.
I'm going to do some velocity and accuracy test with in the next couple of weeks, I'm wondering if anybody tried it.
I'm hoping maybe it will make my 300 Weatherby less seating depth sensitive...

I've tried it with several different types of bullets in three different calibers.

On those that don't have a cannelure or drive bands I'm using just a very gentle crimp so as to not damage the bullets by adjusting the crimp die to where I can just see that it has marked the brass.

It definitely seems to improve the consistency of my neck tension and tightened up my groups.

I arrived at this by comparing loads that were exactly the same other than one being crimped and the others not shooting three and four shot groups through the .260's, .300 RUM and 7mm STW.

 

[Pdvdh]

On those that don't have a cannelure or drive bands I'm using just a very gentle crimp so as to not damage the bullets by adjusting the crimp die to where I can just see that it has marked the brass..

I was crimping 60 grain .224 Vmax bullets. I applied three different crimp levels. These bullets have no cannelure. My precision improved with all three crimp levels, and improved the most with the heaviest level of crimp applied.

The Vmax is not a stoutly constructed bullet, so if the crimp was going to damage the bullet and diminish precision, it should happen on the Vmax.

After my test results, I no longer worry about applying some crimp. Doesn't seem to be an issue, if a guy is at all reasonable and doesn't turn his bullets into gourd shaped Barbie Dolls.

The crimp on the case necks is clearly visible on my shells. I pulled a bullet or two and there's no visible crimp mark into the bullet jackets. I think you'ld have to be amped up on crack cocaine to damage your bullets crimping with the Lee FCD.

 

[gohring3006]

I used a damaged 208 ELD to set up my die, then I pulled it.
Not much damage, not enough to matter in my opinion. Especially considering the violent push into the lead, and the ride down the barrel.

Edited to add, the pic makes it look worse than it is.... I can barely feel the dip with my fingernail.

 

[Pdvdh]

I never saw that indentation on my Vmax bullets. Did you crimp that same amount on your 300 Weatherby?

 

[gohring3006]

I never saw that indentation on my Vmax bullets. Did you crimp that same amount on your 300 Weatherby?

I would say yea. I didn't pull any of the 225s but the press pressure is very light.
Both dies felt about the same. I used my calipers to measure the dip.
I'm getting .308" at the hearing surface behind the crimp. And getting .307" at the crimp. The shiny copper reflects the light very well. So it looks worse than it is.

 

[gohring3006]

Here's a pic of neck turned brass that I crimped. 30-06.

I also just realized I used a old piece of Winchester brass that I noticed wasn't neck turned. So the crimp on the neck turned brass is not as tight. And the brass I used for my test was the neck turned lot.

 

[WildRose]

I was crimping 60 grain .224 Vmax bullets. I applied three different crimp levels. These bullets have no cannelure. My precision improved with all three crimp levels, and improved the most with the heaviest level of crimp applied.

The Vmax is not a stoutly constructed bullet, so if the crimp was going to damage the bullet and diminish precision, it should happen on the Vmax.

After my test results, I no longer worry about applying some crimp. Doesn't seem to be an issue, if a guy is at all reasonable and doesn't turn his bullets into gourd shaped Barbie Dolls.

The crimp on the case necks is clearly visible on my shells. I pulled a bullet or two and there's no visible crimp mark into the bullet jackets. I think you'ld have to be amped up on crack cocaine to damage your bullets crimping with the Lee FCD.

Good to hear. This is still very much new territory for me so I appreciate the feedback.

 

[WildRose]

I used a damaged 208 ELD to set up my die, then I pulled it.
Not much damage, not enough to matter in my opinion. Especially considering the violent push into the lead, and the ride down the barrel.

Edited to add, the pic makes it look worse than it is.... I can barely feel the dip with my fingernail.

That doesn't look at all bad to me. You bring up a good point though, it would be interesting to crimp one like that and then recover it after firing. I suspect it would be very hard to see at all after that much heat and pressure was applied with the crimp having been released.

My only concern as far as damaging the bullets goes is that most of the reading I've done on the subject, even from pretty credible sources like Chuck Hawks warn people not to use a crimp on bullets that don't have the cannelure for fear of damaging them enough to affect their flight and more importantly to upset how they perform on impact.

To the latter point the only thing I can see happening is that it might tend to make a straight cup and core bullet perform more like cannelure/interlock designed bullets on impact.

I tend however to be pretty conervative when it comes to trying anything new at the reloading bench. Many years ago I came very close to blowing up a push feed Model 70. The firing pin blew back so hard it sheared the pin off that held the cap at the end of the bolt in place. Fortunately it was a .224 converted to .220 Swift so there was only so much damage possible.

The above is the same model. Winchester made this heavy varmint model for several years in the seventies. After that little incident though I traded it off because that bolt design scared me.

 

[gohring3006]

That doesn't look at all bad to me. You bring up a good point though, it would be interesting to crimp one like that and then recover it after firing. I suspect it would be very hard to see at all after that much heat and pressure was applied with the crimp having been released.

My only concern as far as damaging the bullets goes is that most of the reading I've done on the subject, even from pretty credible sources like Chuck Hawks warn people not to use a crimp on bullets that don't have the cannelure for fear of damaging them enough to affect their flight and more importantly to upset how they perform on impact.

To the latter point the only thing I can see happening is that it might tend to make a straight cup and core bullet perform more like cannelure/interlock designed bullets on impact.

I tend however to be pretty conervative when it comes to trying anything new at the reloading bench. Many years ago I came very close to blowing up a push feed Model 70. The firing pin blew back so hard it sheared the pin off that held the cap at the end of the bolt in place. Fortunately it was a .224 converted to .220 Swift so there was only so much damage possible.

The above is the same model. Winchester made this heavy varmint model for several years in the seventies. After that little incident though I traded it off because that bolt design scared me.

Never really thought about it changin expansion characteristics. That could be a good thing, maybe...
That Richard Lee guy, he's pretty smart. Everything he has ever put out works like he said it would. This factory crimp die and the collet neck die are great examples of this.

 

[tbrice23]

Some of us should do a BC comparison at ,say 600 or 800 yards with a heavily crimped vs non crimped bullet. Just to say we did it.