coondogger
Member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2009
- Messages
- 552
This is a 38 spl round. Low end charge; 4.6 gr of hodgdon universal. The xtps were all I could get my hands on in a 125 gr. They’re scarce around here. For that, do you think I should screw the crimp die in a little more?That depends on what your loading it for. With Hornady XTPs I would think your loading heavy with a magnum type powder and if that is the case, I would say no.
Walkalong has some good crimp pictures of how they are supposed to look.
Maybe he will put one of them on here.
This is how I crimp my rounds with heavy loads. View attachment 817626
This is a 38 spl round. Low end charge; 4.6 gr of hodgdon universal. The xtps were all I could get my hands on in a 125 gr. They’re scarce around here. For that, do you think I should screw the crimp die in a little more?
They look good for 38spl and Universal. Probably more crimp than you needed.This is a 38 spl round. Low end charge; 4.6 gr of hodgdon universal. The xtps were all I could get my hands on in a 125 gr. They’re scarce around here. For that, do you think I should screw the crimp die in a little more?
You ought to get on RMR's web sight or MBS bullets web sight and look at what they have to offer. Rocky Mountain Reloading has good plated bullets that will work well for you for practice and be a lot cheaper than Hornady XTPs and Missouri Bullet Company has coated bullets that a lot of people on here like and use.
Powder Valley sells Berry's plated bullets also for practice or you can buy bullets from them directly, as you can with RMR and MBC.
If your loading for self defense than I know why your using XTPs.
The OAL in the recipe means nothing, you should be crimping into the manufacturers supplied groove regardless of the OAL. The bullets in the first pictures should be seated deeper but the crimp looks fine.The recipe says 1.425 minimum OAL. These are 1.435, and chamber in my revolver. Whaddya think? Should I finish the batch?
Your first pic looks like the bullet needs to be seated a hair more to get the case mouth where it will roll into the center (deepest part) of the cannelure and crimped a hair more. Very close to great though.
tightgroup tiger's look great.
Your second pic has the bullets seated too deep.
Forget about the listed OAL. Seat the bullet so that the case mouth is rolled into the deepest part of the cannelure.
Medium Roll Crimp on a Magtech 240 gr JSP in .44 Mag.
View attachment 817660
Agreed, the depth in jacketed bullets the cannelures are the limiting factor with standard roll crimps.Trying to get a deeper crimp once the brass bottoms out will just bulge the case.
Absolutely, some so called cannelures these days are barely more than roll marks.One of my pet peeves is bullets with shallow cannelures of which many seem to be these days
My understanding is that OAL is important only as a minimum. As long as the cartridge exceeds the minimum OAL, there’s wiggle room and the cannelure is the most important reference point. While the two cartridges that are seated too deeply look crappy, they are still longer than the minimum OAL and therefore safe to shoot. Agree?