44 mag reloading question...

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Every so often, I find a very thin ring of brass being chopped off when crimping. I have not measured case length, but could this be an indication that I need to trim some brass? Either that or am I doing something wrong with the press/dies? Lee loadmaster/lee dies.

Thx!
 
You sure that little ring isn't from your jacketed bullets? Check your brass and see if the case mouth needs to be deburred/chamfered and also check to see if you are flaring the case mouth enough. If you're using the same seating die to add a crimp, you may get the odd one or two shavings esp when you use different length cases with a tight crimp.
 
44 mag usually doesn't need to be trimmed that often.

On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to trim them.

As Trinimon says it may also be from the bullet jacket.
 
Yeah, it's brass, not copper. It can be described as a shaving. Usually not the whole circumference of the case. Just wanted to make sure i'm not messing anything up.
 
If you've deburred the casing mouths inside and out this simply should not happen. Or possibly if you're taper crimping instead of roll crimping perhaps you are galling and wearing a little brass away and after a while the particles of brass in the die build up and come out as a ring. It's hard to say without looking at the makeup of these rings or ring like fragments.

If you are loading jacketed or plated bullets and you are using the seating die to crimp and seat all at the same time it could well be metal from the jackets or plating. What happens in that case is the crimp tightens up while the bullet is still being seated. This is fine on cast bullets with a cannelure groove because the case rim is already in the space of the groove when the crimp occurs. But on jacketed or plated bullets with no groove it puts a lot of load on the jacket, plating and brass rim.

If this last description is your situation I'd suggest getting a separate factory taper crimping die. Then dial out the seating die so it does not crimp at all. Just use it as a seating die only.

If you only have one of the three position presses then I'd suggest you adjust the seating die so it ONLY seats on the first pass. Then once you have all you loading done reset the seating die so it only crimps and back the seating adjuster well up so it doesn't try to seat the bullets. By separating the seating and crimping to different operations you avoid the wear on the jacket and possible wear on the casings that are producing the metallic debris...... hopefully.
 
I'm betting that you did not champfer the outside of the case mouth... if so, what you are seeing is natural... as the crimp is being applied the rim is shearing or breaking off... champfering should fix the problem.
 
I have that happen with my 44 mag reloads sometimes. It's from the outside edge of the case mouth. It only happens on cases that I don't outside deburr completely on.
 
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