Yes or No to Crimping?

johndeeretimex

johndeeretimex

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Hello everyone

I am just getting into reloading and I am shooting a M14 308! Now I have crimped before but me and a friend have loaded up 100 rounds uncrimped. He teached me almost everthing he knows about reloading but not a lot about crimping! Now my question is that when should you crimping? On everything,Somthing, bolt guns?

Thanks
 
semi autos normally get a crimp.
Although it adds a new factor to the reloading.........I don't know much about crimping, I don't crimp on my 7.5x55 bolt action

Gluck
 
I 'd crimp any of the large cals. that use heavy bullets, including for revolvers where bullets can jump the crimp and tie up the cylinder. Single shot rifles don't require a crimp.
 
It is a quick rough trip from the mag to the chamber of your M14, I would crimp. Easy to do with the Lee factory crimp die. Just may opinion and worth what you paid for it.
 
I also remember and read somewhere that crimping is neccessary for semi's, I don't crimp for my 30-06 bolt action, the bullet is pretty tight in place as it is.
 
I am like many others here. I don't tend to crimp for my bolts, but all others get a crimp. Depending on how violent the action cycles usually determines the amount of crimp I apply with a factory crimp die. For example, I place a pretty firm crimp on my .223 as my mini 14 slams them in there. Only a slight crimp is applied for my 7600 pumps.
 
I pretty much agree with everyone else as far as crimping everything with the exception of bolt gun ammo in general. However if you own one of the Lee FCD's in the caliber your loading for you owe it to yourself to put aside any bias you have towards crimping said ammo and do some test you just might find that in some instances it decreases group size increases velocity as well as lower standard Deviation. Your mileage may very.
 
My rule of thumb is thus; if I am loading rifle ammo that must feed through a magazine and the bullet has a cannelure, I crimp to uniform the bullet pull weight and to prevent the bullet from being driven deeper into the cartridge case by recoil. If I am loading handgun ammo (auto or revolver) I crimp to prevent the bullet from jumping ahead (revolver) or from being pushed back into the case (auto). When I load match ammo that is single loaded rather than being fed through the magazine, I seat the bullet into the lands (after working up the load accodingly) and don't crimp.
 
jasonburnsdundee said:
From the wisdom gleaned from the internet.

No need to crimp for a bolt action.
Click to expand...

The internet lied. I've got a photo somewhere of ammo that rode in the mag of my 416 Rigby for several shots, maybe up to 4. The ones in the bottom of the mag that didn't get replaced showed significant setback into the case. I also drove a bullet into the case when my rental 375 Ruger jammed during a reload. I'm not even certain that the factory ammo was crimped, or had a cannelure for that matter.

Also, anything that you're loading with plain cast bullets and thus belling the case mouth will require a taper crimp to iron the case mouth back down.

Anything that recoils hard and is loaded with heavy bullets needs a crimp. For me that's 9.3x62 and up.
 
I find it difficult to believe that a crimp is needed in a heavy semi auto like an M14 in 308. given good neck tension.
The reason for it, (in semi auto rifles anyway) is the battering the cartridge can take under recoil against the front of the mag, and or feeding issues, on rifles with square edged chambers, or poor feed ramps.
Now I've never loaded for the M14, however, If I did, I'd be trying accuracy with and without crimp, with the powder I'd chosen to use, and let field tests determine if recoil induced setback becomes an issue.
Some powders do seem to group differently, and have different consistency with or without a crimp.
 
i use lee factory crimp dies on loads for handgun, bolt guns and semi-autos. i have found it can increase accuracy. i always crimp handgun and semi-auto rifle loads but usually only crimp heavy recoiling loads in bolt guns. the force of recoil slamming the rounds in the mag could push the bullets further into the case.
 
I read a few articles about how crimping is beneficial for accuracy. So bullet movement aside (it does happen, even in bolts) I'm bought into the accuracy argument.

Check out some of the benchrest forums - those guys are uber-finicky. If they say that crimping is beneficial well that's good enough for me.
 
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