Best type of crimp for 44mag?

Standard reloading dies do a perfectly fine revolver crimp with the seating dies built-in roll crimp.

It seems to me Lee's collet squasher crimp does a number on the cases that will probably shorten their life before case neck cracks develop.

But I'm just guessing because I don't find a need for them.

rc

Are you doing separate seat and crimp, or combined?

I do it in one operation, especially with cast bullets.

All of them have a deep beveled crimp groove, so the case mouth is clear of the bullet shank before much crimping begins to take place.

Thus, no lead shaving as you can get on lead auto pistol bullets with no crimp groove when seating and crimping in one operation.

rc

I load .45 Colt, include "Ruger" loads that are the same power as .44 Magnums. I just use the roll crimp built into the Lee seating die. I bought a Lee FCD to try to fix a problem I was having with a certain bullet that I bought, but it didn't help. (I needed more neck tension not a tighter crimp, so I "neck sized" the cases with the base of a .30-06 die and that fixed the problem.) I seat the bullets and crimp the cases in one step, and the FCD just collects dust.

Lee FCD on a cast bullet can squish them which can cause leading.

I have a set of older steel RCBS .45 Colt dies, and the seating die does a nice roll crimp if you adjust it right. You are probably not screwing it down far enough. Try it without a bullet.

I agree.
ALl older RCBS dies do have a roll crimp or taper crimp capability depending on caliber.

Your .45 Colt dies most certainly will roll crimp.

Take a sized case and run the ram up.
Now screw the seating die down until it contacts the sized case.
Now seat a bullet to the crimp groove.
Back off the seating stem and screw the die down another 1/16" - 3/32" more and it will roll crimp the case.

Now you can re-adjust the seating stem to contact the bullet again and you are in business.

rc

Take a resized case, put it under the crimping/seater die without expanding it first and without a bullet. Run the die down until it is snug against the case mouth, then screw it down another 1/4 turn for good luck. (this is very similar to my method of adjusting an expander die, except I use a fired unsized case for that.)

That's your rough set-up for any seating&crimping die; doesn't matter whether it's a roll crimp or taper crimp. It might not be exactly right but it'll get you close, then you can make your fine adjustments using an expanded case.