Crimping Plated Bullets

What brand of bullet are you using? Some plated bullets should not be crimped at all. Also, 45 acp should not need to be crimped but rather just make sure you get rid of the bell. The cartridge headspaces on the case mouth so too much crimp could give you headspacing problems. Though I have never heard of anyone actually crimping that much it is theoretically an issue.

Greetings,

Cutting the plating may lead to some disastrous effect. Let's say you cut the plating, you shoot and the base of the plating stays in the barrel (as seen by one gunwriter I read a few months ago in a magazine) then you shoot another round...

Make sure you crimp enough to hold the bullet but not too mcuh to cut through the platting.

Thank you

THAT "plated" bullet looks like a full metal jacket.

THAT "plated" bullet looks like a full metal jacket.

Click to expand...

No, you can tell the copper covering is all way past the base lip and rounded. FMJ base shows more definite/sharper transition where you see the lead base.

Many quality plated and bonded bullets (Rainier/Berrys, etc.) have thicker copper plating now and it's harder to tell the difference - you gotta look at the base.

I use plated but also crimp. I taper crimp my semi automatic rounds and roll crimp everything else. But remember that plated velocities (this from the rep I talked to at the factory) are likened to lead bullet velocities. They're not designed to be driven at maximum jacketed loads.

So reducing velocities means reducing recoil which means the crimp doesn't have to be as pronounced as if you were loading jacketed.

Greetings,

Walkalong is right. Don't be scared. He is right .45 does not need much crimp.

I use plated in 500 S&W and the cimping issue came up for me. No accident occured, but H110 that needs heavy crimp and plated bullets are not good friends.

Thank you

CVO,

Your bullet looks OK, just don't allow your crimp to cut through the plating. With plated bullets, it is best not to impart a noticeable crimp, just remove the bell from the case mouth. Even then, your bullet will look like yours.

It does not look as though the plating is cut at all on that bullet. When the plating cuts you will see lead. I have taken the bullets I sell and given them the maximum crimp I could and none of them cut the plating. Have you ever pulled a FMJ after crimping? It will look pretty similar. Don't be afraid to shoot that bullet. It will be okay.

The jacket is certainly thicker than the plating, but the lead core is likely to be harder than the lead is the plated bullet too.

Here's a Lee Factory Crimp Die on a 148 grain DEWC by Rainier (plated). And a loaded .357 Mag cartridge. Looks much the same as your's. I have no problems with cutting the plating. I think you are doing fine.

Kestak,

You are right you will have problems with that combination most of them will bullet jump as well as produce very poor accuracy.

I contacted the company directly, Berry's stated their 500S&W bullet has been tested up to 1800FPS so if you keep it below that you should be good to go.

With H110 you will need a heavy crimp to ignite the powder even with a Rifle primer like the 500S&W requires.

I have started using 2400 with Berry's and I am very pleased.
38.5gr of 2400 produces 1530-1568FPS The key for me is it requires very little crimp because 2400 is a lot easier to ignite compared to H110.

Of course make sure you consult your loading manuals before try to use any of my data.