Crimping

There is a very good reason why you will not find a 9mm, 40 or 45 ACP bullet with a crimp groove.................may I suggest a little more reading on reloading for auto pistol cartridges that headspace on the CASE MOUTH !!!! I personally use a heavy crimp on all revolver cartridges in which I load Win 296/H 110, it is recommended and is essential to proper ignition of this powder. I also used to trim all my 44 RM and 357 brass the first time, so as to get consistent crimp pressure to assure the most uniform and accurate ammo I could make. It is time consuming but is worth it in my opinion, and you only have to do it the first time as straight walled cases don't grow.
 
whoa, ease up there c-fbmi, and maybe read post #17. I am fully aware of the design differences between rimmed (.22, 38sp/357 mag, 44mag, ....) and non-rimmed/semi-auto (9mm, 45acp, 40S&W, .....) cartridges.

You will see that I mentioned the revolvers I have are the S&W 929, 610, and 625. Those are designed to shoot the 9mm, 40S&W and 45acp rounds by headspacing off of moon clips.

I prefer to shoot 9mm and 45acp out of my revolvers, because in competition, a loaded moon clip loads easier and faster than a loaded moon clip of 38sp/357mag or 45 Colt. And yes, I know you could us 38 Short Colt brass, and trim 45 Colt brass down for faster reloads, but I already load 9mm and 45acp for my semi-autos. The 40S&W and 10mm is not for competition, but hey, who doesn't want a S&W 610?

Interesting side note, I found in other forums some folks had measured their 929's and found the cylinder throat and barrel bore dimensions were oversized because they are produced with the same tooling as they use on their 627's. I had noticed in my 929 that my 9mm were ~80fps slower than when shot from my semi-autos. So I slugged my 929 and found the cylinder throats are .357 and the cylinder bore was .356.

So I loaded up some 38spl 158gr (.357) RN bullets in 9mm brass and worked up a nice 3.4gr N320 load that gets me 132pf. I know the preferred obturation is .001 at each stage (bullet to cylinder throat, cylinder throat to barrel), so I'll look around for some .358 bullets. May even find one with a crimp groove ;)


c-fbmi said:
There is a very good reason why you will not find a 9mm, 40 or 45 ACP bullet with a crimp groove.................may I suggest a little more reading on reloading for auto pistol cartridges that headspace on the CASE MOUTH !!!! I personally use a heavy crimp on all revolver cartridges in which I load Win 296/H 110, it is recommended and is essential to proper ignition of this powder. I also used to trim all my 44 RM and 357 brass the first time, so as to get consistent crimp pressure to assure the most uniform and accurate ammo I could make. It is time consuming but is worth it in my opinion, and you only have to do it the first time as straight walled cases don't grow.
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skookumchuck said:
Brand new to reloading and I'm not sure about crimping rounds. I've got a Lee hand press to see if I enjoy this aspect before dropping bigger dollars on a progressive. I've started with .357 magnum and I'm unsure that they're crimped properly. I'm going to invest in the fourth die, factory crimp, but for now would the 50 rounds I've loaded be safe to fire in a revolver?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
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Back to your original question, your rounds will be safe to fire from your revolver, assuming you have case gauged them. I would check after you fire a couple of shots to see if the remaining rounds experienced any bullet creep.

As you are new to reloading, I hope you worked up to a safe load? (ie starting from the suggest low load and gradually increasing your charge weight for each test batch until you hit your target fps?)

In general, in something lower powered like a 38spl load, a factory crimp will be fine. For something full powered like a 357mag round, you should use a roll crimp die, and reload with bullets that have a crimp groove.

For plinking, a lot of folks will put a 38sp charge weight in to a 357mag case. You will avoid the buildup of crud between the case lip and the beginning of the cylinder throat, and have a nice soft round to plink with. Just be sure to use a powder that is not sensitive to excess case volume as you may have problems with proper ignition.
 
nm - I see in post #10 they didn't fit in your cylinder chambers. Did you case gauge them?

VanMan said:
Back to your original question, your rounds will be safe to fire from your revolver, assuming you have case gauged them. I would check after you fire a couple of shots to see if the remaining rounds experienced any bullet creep.

As you are new to reloading, I hope you worked up to a safe load? (ie starting from the suggest low load and gradually increasing your charge weight for each test batch until you hit your target fps?)

In general, in something lower powered like a 38spl load, a factory crimp will be fine. For something full powered like a 357mag round, you should use a roll crimp die, and reload with bullets that have a crimp groove.

For plinking, a lot of folks will put a 38sp charge weight in to a 357mag case. You will avoid the buildup of crud between the case lip and the beginning of the cylinder throat, and have a nice soft round to plink with. Just be sure to use a powder that is not sensitive to excess case volume as you may have problems with proper ignition.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks again everyone. Ganderite, you nailed it. Too much case flair. I didn't gauge the cases before reloading but I did check everyone of them after. All + or - .01 of 1.59
I weighed every fifth load out of my RCBS powder thrower and all were within .1 grains of 6.8 grains of Titegroup.
 
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