Hoping for a straight answer here. I've been reloading for 3 years now on a lee turret and never used a crimp die. I'm just a plinker. I load for 9,40,223,308. Just reading some info on the lee crimp die and think I Might try it out and see if it will improve on what I've done so far. My question is in rifle cases is trimming now obsolete with a crimp? According to what I'm reading from the lee catalog "trim length is not critical". If this is true wow this will take away a huge amount of prep time on each case. Can anyone confirm on this? Thanks for the help.
Crimp dies?
- Thread starter ice2152
- Start date
Exceeding max length can cause a kaboom. Consistent length helps accuracy( maybe not so critical with lee fac crimp on rifle). All rimless straight semi-auto pistol need a taper-crimp, and your regular seating die has that ,to be applied either separately or same time as seating.
While most seating dies are cabable of crimping, separating the two operations has its advantages:
-Easier to adjust one or the other function independently
-Less potential for bullet deformation
If you have the room on your toolheads, I would recommend a crimp die for 9mm and .40. .223 and .308 probably don't need it, but the crimp dies aren't that expensive if you want to experiment.
As far a case length goes, I would not worry about getting them all the exact same length. Set your calipre to the maximum length and trim any cases that do not pass through the jaws. Hopefully this saves you some work.
-Easier to adjust one or the other function independently
-Less potential for bullet deformation
If you have the room on your toolheads, I would recommend a crimp die for 9mm and .40. .223 and .308 probably don't need it, but the crimp dies aren't that expensive if you want to experiment.
As far a case length goes, I would not worry about getting them all the exact same length. Set your calipre to the maximum length and trim any cases that do not pass through the jaws. Hopefully this saves you some work.
