I over crimped. Would you shoot these rounds?

Xman

Xman

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I over crimped a few rounds of .308 I'm developing for the M14, using a Lee Factory Crimp Die.

The uncrimped outer case diameter was .335 . I meant to crimp them down to .330 but I crimped them down to .320.

I can't be bothered to pull the bullets and start over. I'll either dispose of them or shoot them.

What would you do? Would you shoot them?
 
Xman said:
I over crimped a few rounds of .308 I'm developing for the M14, using a Lee Factory Crimp Die.

The uncrimped outer case diameter was .335 . I meant to crimp them down to .330 but I crimped them down to .320.

I can't be bothered to pull the bullets and start over. I'll either dispose of them or shoot them.

What would you do?
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Won't be a problem. The best thing about the Lee FCD is that it squeezes the crimp into the bullet. It does not roll the mouth into a groove on the a seating stroke. If you had done this with a roll crimp on your seating die, then chances are you would have bulged the case and the round probably would not even have chambered.
As it is, you are good to go. You will need to back that die off a bit if you are looking for a lighter crimp. Myself, I just screw the die down until the collet just closes when the ram is fully up (handle in the full stroke position). That way I get the most consistent crimp. I don't worry about whether it is a particular dimension.
 
:agree:

Also if your trimming all your brass evenly I find it much simpler to crimp with the seating die while seating the bullet, I have several FCD's and find they are best suited at station 5 in my progressive for bulk .223, 9mm, .40, .308... If I'm running load development on my single stage I often just crimp while seating to save the extra step.

Give it a bit, someone will call us all stupid for using a FCD...
 
it is the one of two things I like about lee dies ! shoot them


the second is there full length die the collet they use on the decapper never breaks!
 
I did the same with a batch of 223 when I first got the Lee fc die. No issues with shooting them but I did notice they stretched more than usual and all had to be trimmed. Not a big deal.
 
The first time I tried the lee crimp die, I gave my .270 win loads such a crimp, that they looked like they were wearing a corsette FFS! Shoot'm!!
 
blasted_saber said:
Does anyone else see the irony in a guy who reloads who "cant be bothered" to pull some bullets?

lol
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No, I don't see it? Where is the irony? It's not just a matter of pulling the bullets; I would have to dump the powder, deprime the cases, resize them, reprime them, re - charge them with powder, re seat the bullets and recrimp them. The worst part of all that is pulling heavily crimped bullets.
 
blasted_saber said:
Does anyone else see the irony in a guy who reloads who "cant be bothered" to pull some bullets?

lol
Click to expand...

No, I don't see it? Where is the irony? It's not just a matter of pulling the bullets; I would have to dump the powder, deprime the cases, resize them, reprime them, re - charge them with powder, re seat the bullets and recrimp them. The worst part of all that is pulling heavily crimped bullets.

My time is more valuable to me than the 20 some dollars I'd be saving doing this for a couple hours more...
 
Xman said:
No, I don't see it? Where is the irony? It's not just a matter of pulling the bullets; I would have to dump the powder, deprime the cases, resize them, reprime them, re - charge them with powder, re seat the bullets and recrimp them. The worst part of all that is pulling heavily crimped bullets.
Click to expand...
Well actually, you could pull the decapping pin, and just resize the empty cases after pulling bullets, saving the primer, and the work.
 
Don't bother.

Load & Shoot.

Just don't do it again - follow the instructions included with your die(s) and set them properly to avoid it in the future. This is a minor mistake, but a slight oversight can be catastrophic when reloading so be cautious.
 
As mentioned above, if you are crimping, trim all your brass to exactly the same length (after sizing) and a properly adjusted die will produce uniform and exact results. Once the crimper is set for that batch of brass you will not need to readjust it (for every slightly different case length!).
 
Why did you crimp? Oh, because someone sold you a criming die. OK

Me, I wouldn't feed any of my rifles a diet of overcrimped ammo. Pull the bullets, re-size the necks, throw the powder back in, re-seat the bullet if the excessive crimp (0.15 inch is a _ell of a crimp!) hasn't distorted them or damaged the jacket, and get on with it.
 
ykkid said:
Why did you crimp? Oh, because someone sold you a criming die. OK

.
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I crimped because I shoot these rounds in my M14. I was going to shoot them uncrimped but I was lucky enough to be suspicious and chamber and eject a small batch, without firing. Out of 25 rounds that I put through manually, 2 had the bullet pushed into the case by the chambering process far enough that it would have likely destroyed my gun or worse.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Well actually, you could pull the decapping pin, and just resize the empty cases after pulling bullets, saving the primer, and the work.
Click to expand...

Yup. I just had to do that with a whole wack of 38 super.
Bought someone else's reloads and the base of the brass was bulged. Wouldn't chamber without resizing.
 
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