45 Colt loads and crimping
- Thread starter Typetwelve
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black mamba
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- Feb 29, 2020
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For bullets without a cannelure you can always use a roll crimp over the ogive. Just deep seat the bullets until you see the case mouth stick up slightly above the taper of the ogive. This does several very positive things: 1) it puts more bearing surface inside the case so you get better and more consistent bullet pull, 2) it reduces the powder space so you get better ignition of light loads and it takes less powder to achieve a certain velocity, and 3) this leads to better accuracy.
Bullet on left crimped over ogive, one on the right is in the crimp groove.
Bullet on left crimped over ogive, one on the right is in the crimp groove.
Typetwelve
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One last update to this.
One piece of info that I didn't add was that for the most part, all I'll be loading in 45 Colt are Berry's 250g projectiles, which don't have a crimp groove. Anything FMJ or something I want some "umph" to, I'll just load 460.
With that said, and following the (always welcome) advice of you fellas here, I opted against the Lee FCD and just went with a Lee taper crimp instead. It was cheap, got it off of Amazon.
Persaonlly, I do not like the seat+crimp action on any of my loads so regardless of crimp the Hornady die can do, I'd rather have it in a separate step.
One piece of info that I didn't add was that for the most part, all I'll be loading in 45 Colt are Berry's 250g projectiles, which don't have a crimp groove. Anything FMJ or something I want some "umph" to, I'll just load 460.
With that said, and following the (always welcome) advice of you fellas here, I opted against the Lee FCD and just went with a Lee taper crimp instead. It was cheap, got it off of Amazon.
Persaonlly, I do not like the seat+crimp action on any of my loads so regardless of crimp the Hornady die can do, I'd rather have it in a separate step.
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