9mm reloading question

quinnjoblow

quinnjoblow

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I have been reloading for years. Mostly .357 and .44 mag and some rifle,.243 and .308. I just got a 92fs and a CX4 in 9mm. I am having problems setting up the seating die. I cant seem to set the die to seat and crimp in one step. I end up having the bullet too far out or I crush the brass when it hits the crimp taper. Should I seat first then go back and crimp in a second step?
I was looking at some factory ammo(Winchester) that I have. It doesnt look like it has a crimp. I am using a new set of RCBS carbide dies on a Rockchucker press
 
The crimp on 9mm is just to remove the belling you did before seating or maybe a hair more, and that's literally a hair's width. Don't crimp it like it's revolver ammo, it headspaces on the mouth.

You're just taper crimping, right? Not roll or something. Did you read the instructions that came with your die?

Crimping at another station is what I do, mainly because those are the dies I have, though there's no reason not to do it in the same step as long as it gets done right.
 
Like the guys above said, all you need to do is remove the belling of the case, if you don't have a case gauge an easy way to check your rounds after crimping is to remove the barrel from your 92FS and drop the rounds into the chamber and see if they will seat fully forward on their own. To do the seating and crimping at once I would get a round loaded to length then back the seating stem way up then set the crimp on the cartridge, once that is done just screw the seating stem back down onto the bullet.
 
quinnjoblow said:
I was looking at some factory ammo(Winchester) that I have. It doesnt look like it has a crimp. I am using a new set of RCBS carbide dies on a Rockchucker press
Click to expand...

I have new RCBS dies in 9mm and I've found if you bell just a hair, not much, but just enough so the bullet won't fall off you don't need to crimp at all. The RCBS sizing die I use makes the case mouth a bit smaller than the bullet. Bell just up to the bullet size and you'll be able to press them in with no crimp needed.

Edit for more info: I'm using Frontier 115gr bullets that have the edge of the base rounded. Bullets with a sharp back edge may not work like the one's I have.
 
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toothpick said:
I have new RCBS dies in 9mm and I've found if you bell just a hair, not much, but just enough so the bullet won't fall off you don't need to crimp at all. The RCBS sizing die I use makes the case mouth a bit smaller than the bullet. Bell just up to the bullet size and you'll be able to press them in with no crimp needed.

Edit for more info: I'm using Frontier 115gr bullets that have the edge of the base rounded. Bullets with a sharp back edge may not work like the one's I have.
Click to expand...

I have had the exact same experience with the Frontiers. 124gr and 147gr in 9mm and also Frontier's in .40 S&W and 45ACP. A good sizing by an RCBS die, and a very light bell ends up with a cartridge that most often does not need any further tapering after seating the bullet, according to my caliper (and that's without crimping within the sizing die). I will find the odd one, especially in .40 S&W that needs to be further lightly tapered in order to take down the bell to fit nicely in the case gauge. I have and use both the Redding taper die, and the Lee carbide FCD, depending on my mood.

Further to that, for 45ACP I use a Redding expander die, which I find allows me to put an even more gentle 'bell' than my equivalent RCBS die. After seating, the taper is almost always perfect, without having applied any crimp pressure at all.
 
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I followed everyones advice and lightly tapered the case mouth. you guys are right about only having to lightly seat the bullet to remove the bell. I though they needed a heavy crimp like on the magnum revolver loads. I now have 192 rounds of finely crafted 9mm. Maybe tomorrow I will go to the range and make the CX4 go BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!
 
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