Greetings all.
New to loading and have a possible issue with my crimp.
I've read quite a bit, websites, forums, and a Lyman manual, and watched a lot of videos, so I thought I was ready to start.
If anyone wants all the details, let me know and I can post the whole saga, but I want to try and keep this short for now to get clarification for the crimp setup.
Using a new 550B with new Dillon dies, I went through each stage and set the die to what seemed to be right, according to the directions.
As I set up the dies, of course I made a couple of dummy rounds for case flare, seating depth, and crimp, and took them apart with an inertia bullet puller.
When I used the puller, I really had to whack it pretty good 15-20 times to get the bullet to release.
I started to think this seemed far too difficult, so I thought I might be not set quite correctly. I read and watched more and went to reset the flare and crimp dies.
Flare is now .005+- which was more like .015-.020 before.
Crimp die is set to just enough (plus 1/8th turn) to allow cartridge to pass the Lyman case gauge.
It still takes 15 or more whacks to dislodge the bullet.
Still unsure, I tried a factory Federal cartridge and was surprised to have the bullet come loose at 2-3 whacks.
I'm not sure where I need to be at here.
I increased the crimp die 1/16-1/8th turn each try to get just enough to allow the round to fit the case gauge, so I don't know how I could do any less crimp and still be functional.
My few test loads have all seemed fine, except a start load that wouldn't cycle the action, and don't seem to show any signs of over pressure.
Am I doing something wrong or is this normal?
Thanks much for your help.
New to loading and have a possible issue with my crimp.
I've read quite a bit, websites, forums, and a Lyman manual, and watched a lot of videos, so I thought I was ready to start.
If anyone wants all the details, let me know and I can post the whole saga, but I want to try and keep this short for now to get clarification for the crimp setup.
Using a new 550B with new Dillon dies, I went through each stage and set the die to what seemed to be right, according to the directions.
As I set up the dies, of course I made a couple of dummy rounds for case flare, seating depth, and crimp, and took them apart with an inertia bullet puller.
When I used the puller, I really had to whack it pretty good 15-20 times to get the bullet to release.
I started to think this seemed far too difficult, so I thought I might be not set quite correctly. I read and watched more and went to reset the flare and crimp dies.
Flare is now .005+- which was more like .015-.020 before.
Crimp die is set to just enough (plus 1/8th turn) to allow cartridge to pass the Lyman case gauge.
It still takes 15 or more whacks to dislodge the bullet.
Still unsure, I tried a factory Federal cartridge and was surprised to have the bullet come loose at 2-3 whacks.
I'm not sure where I need to be at here.
I increased the crimp die 1/16-1/8th turn each try to get just enough to allow the round to fit the case gauge, so I don't know how I could do any less crimp and still be functional.
My few test loads have all seemed fine, except a start load that wouldn't cycle the action, and don't seem to show any signs of over pressure.
Am I doing something wrong or is this normal?
Thanks much for your help.