Crimp or No Crimp .38 special Berry's plated 158 grain flat nose

[au_prospector]

Been watching this thread and need to ask....
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=753703

Crimp is needed because the bullet is lead and it is lubed and there is something to crimp in to?

Currently I am loading 158 grain Berry's plated flat nose for revolver.
Using 4.8 grains of Unique, I have yet to have one creep in the case due to the physics of firing a revolver. I suspect bullet tension is sufficient to prevent bullet movement within the case on plated bullets.

Some of the posters state to ALWAYS crimp .38 spl. However we are not talking about high powered rounds here and besides there is NOTHING to crimp in to on a Berry's plated .357 158 grain flat nose.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I have yet to have one creep in the case due to the physics of firing a revolver. I suspect bullet tension is sufficient to prevent bullet movement within the case on plated bullets.

I have never crimped any of my 38 special or lower powered .357 mags rounds and have never had a problem from it.

I load a lot of .357mag cases with pretty high doses of power pistol and the bullets seem to always hold tight. They are a whole lot hotter than 4.8 gr of Unique.

Your doing it right by testing your loads for set-forward like I have been doing with mine. As long as you don't take it for granted that it won't happen to you, and you keep testing them as you go, you should be fine.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I have a question for you. What kind of brass are you using? I won't use Remington brass for my Power Pistol loads because of them being thinner and the neck tension isn't sufficient for it.

Starline and the old Winchester brass are what I use so I have a lot of neck tension.

Like I said before, never take your eyes off of them. You could also use a taper crimp die for the plated bullets.

I am going to buy one for my 38/357 plated bullet loads just on principle.

 

[Walkalong]

I use taper crimps for plated bullets in .38 Spl. I use anywhere from a very light to a fairly heavy crimp depending on the load. All you need for that load is good neck tension and a light taper crimp to remove the bell and a bit more.

Here is a medium and a heavy crimp. (Note the shine at the case mouth) You need much less than these.

More like this one.

 

[au_prospector]

Yes I have noticed less to almost no resistance when seating bullets into Remington Brass. Some other brands of brass very in resistance to seating bullets. I guess this means I have varying neck tensions from round to round which would effect accuracy and velocity from shot to shot since I have been loading mixed brass.

Thank you, I had meant to ask about this point as well.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I have varying neck tensions from round to round which would effect accuracy and velocity from shot to shot since I have been loading mixed brass.

In the extremes, yes, but most of the time the small amount of variances in the mixed cases that have good neck tension is so small that you'll never see it or won't be able to prove an accuracy issue is a neck tension issue. Especially with Unique.

Remember your not using slow burning pressure building powder in the .38spl like you would use in a full house magnum. You would really notice a variance there being that the slow burning powders for magnums have to rely on all the neck tension and crimp you can get to hold back the bullet so it can build pressure to make that kind of powder burn correctly.

The fast to medium fast powders do a pretty good job of burning without the help of a crimp. A little taper crimp, like Walkalong said, is always a nice insurance policy though.