.308 Remington 700 bolt action. Once fired in rifle, and neck resized only. I got a good deal on some Sierra #2135s which have a cannelure. My question is not whether it's better to or not to. I have read all the debates. My question is because the bullet has the cannelure, is the crimp required? Or will the bullet still have enough tracking without it. Reason why i'm asking is because I only have the Lee collet neck sizer and bullet seater dies. If it has to be crimped. I will go buy the Lee factory crimper.
Does a cannelure bullet have to be crimped ?
- Thread starter radmacks
- Start date
As long as you have the correct neck tension/bullet grip you do not need to crimp any bullet. All my .223/5.56 fired in my AR15 rifles are not crimped for shooting at the range. And since the vast majority of dies reduce the neck diameter more than required before the expander is pulled through the neck, normally you have more than enough neck tension.
Simple test with your Lee Collet Die, after the bullet is seated push the loaded case against your loading bench and see if the bullet moves. And if pushing on the bullet tip and the bullet doesn't move you have enough bullet tension/grip on the bullet.
If more bullet neck tension/bullet grip is needed then you reduce the diameter of the mandrel and thus increasing neck tension.
Many people swear by the Lee collet dies, but I just do not like them and prefer to full length resize with a Forster full length benchrest dies.
Simple test with your Lee Collet Die, after the bullet is seated push the loaded case against your loading bench and see if the bullet moves. And if pushing on the bullet tip and the bullet doesn't move you have enough bullet tension/grip on the bullet.
If more bullet neck tension/bullet grip is needed then you reduce the diameter of the mandrel and thus increasing neck tension.
Many people swear by the Lee collet dies, but I just do not like them and prefer to full length resize with a Forster full length benchrest dies.
I personally crimp all my cannelured ammunition if I plan on putting it in a semiauto. I've had incidents with a T97 where the bullet got smashed in to the casing on me. It's not fun to have to clean loose powder out of a rifle. In the end it's really up to you. I'd say if you have had issues where your bullets have gone in to a casing on you then yes, crimp (I like the lee factory crimp the best). If that's never happened to you then you can probably get away without doing so man.
What does the cannelure even got to do with loading for a bolt? If your loading for a semi , then use the cannelure, but for a .308 bolt, I would think the cannelure is immaterial??? I loaded some Hornady SST 7 mm with cannelure and the cannelure was no where near the mouth (and that was right out of the Hornady manual). I gave the 7mm a slight crimp because of the heavier recoil (at least that's what it said in the instructions).
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