45 Auto Reload Issues

[Walkalong]

Unfortunately it is not. Hornady

Hornady is doing its customers a disservice putting the 45 degree crimp ledge in auto caliber pistol seaters. You can clearly see the effects in the pic where the round is .479 below the crimp,

and that, as you found out, was the problem.

Buy a taper crimp only die and crimp in a second step, or buy another seater with a proper taper crimp built in.

The round should look something like this random round I photographed some time back.

 

[RealGun]

How is Hornady wrong, if many want to seat and crimp at one station/operation? There would need to be a crimp feature in the seating die. Is the 45 degrees the issue? The damaged bullet shown simply needs less crimp, doesn't it?

 

[Blue68f100]

Hornady has 2 sets of dies for the 45acp. The original set has roll crimp for AR or Win Mag.

So unless you have the newer die set which is TC you will need a TC die.

 

[Echocrewchief]

Blue is correct, and Hornady didn't do anything wrong - I just wasn't an informed purchaser at the time. You can purchase their 3-die set with taper crimp. I've since purchased the taper crimp die and added the step to my process. Not a waste since I see myself moving toward a progressive press in the future, although the single stage and overall therapeutic effects of reloading are quite enjoyable.

The damaged bullet shown simply needs less crimp, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, with my current seating die, that was the crimp I could get just beyond getting the bell out from the expander die. I did test 14 rounds at 1.260" without the taper crimp (just getting the bell out) and they cycled through the 1911. The issue again being a combination of COL and crimp on my original cartridges (less than 1.260" a taper crimp made the rounds feed reliably).

I may try Gamestalker's suggestion for kicks!

 

[RealGun]

As it happens, I have not had but a couple Hornady die sets, and they did not come with a crimp die. I already had a Lee FCD for each. Since moving to lead bullets, I have been buying Redding crimp dies. In other words, I have no experience with Hornady crimp dies. That is especially true, since I don't seat and crimp in the same operation.

My question was well answered that Hornady has two die sets, one that apparently is misrepresented as suitable to include 45 ACP rather than just 45 AR and Win Mag.

 

[Walkalong]

How is Hornady wrong, if many want to seat and crimp at one station/operation? There would need to be a crimp feature in the seating die. Is the 45 degrees the issue? The damaged bullet shown simply needs less crimp, doesn't it?

The 45 degree ledge will not properly taper crimp. If your brass is all the same length, and you set it very carefully, it can do a halfway decent job, but it simply doesn't work well and isn't a taper crimp. It does a pretty good roll crimp. I call it a modified roll crimp.