Need some crimping advice

[Mr. Farknocker]

I'm getting ready to reload some .32 ACP rounds for the first time and have a question about crimping. My Lee Precision Die set comes with a bullet seater and, with what I understand, a roll crimp. I understand that roll crimps are recommended for revolvers while tapered crimps are recommended for reloading auto rounds. Since I'm reloading the .32s for my semi-auto pistol, my thinking is that I need to use a tapered crimp instead of a roll crimp. Problem is Lee doesn't sell a Factory Crimp (aka tapered crimp) die for my .32 ACP. Should I be concerned about using a roll crimp on my lead cast bullets for my hand gun? BTW, the lead case bullets do appear to have a shoulder for the roll crimp.

Thanks in advance.

 

[rcmodel]

Your Lee auto-pistol seating die does a taper-crimp.

If you continue to screw it down too far, it will also roll crimp.

Don't do that!

All a taper-crimp should do is remove any trace of the case mouth bell.

It does practically nothing to 'crimp' the bullet in place.
The bullet is actually held in place by proper case neck tension.

rc

 

[dagger dog]

And a light bullet in a light recoiling hand gun magazine doesn't require much neck tension to keep it from setting back.

Now if you're shooting a 4 Thousand Magnum revolver ,THAT requires a firm roll crimp !

 

[Walkalong]

I have that Lee .32 seater die and the crimp ledge in the seater is very aggressive for a taper crimp. It works OK if you adjust it finely and the cases don't vary in length much, but I retired it and taper crimp .32 ACP with an RCBS seater with no stem in it. If you adjust that Lee seater down a hair too much you get way too much crimp. Watch that carefully. It will work though. I actually retired the whole Lee .32 ACP set in favor of RCBS dies. No more neck tension problems.

"Crimp" just enough to remove the bell, or maybe .001 more. Any more is a waste and can actually start to hurt neck tension.

I do not have a pic of a crimped .32 ACP, but it's all the same for auto calibers.

 

[Mr. Farknocker]

Thanks for the info. I just acquired a bunch of brass from two forum members here and the cases seem to vary in length so getting consistent crimps may be a problem. I'm thinking of sorting them by length and reloading them starting with the longest cases. I understand that accuracy is best achieved with cases of the same length and that all the cases should be trimmed to the same length but I'm not one of those guys....at least not yet.

 

[david_r]

send a PM to zeke and see if he ever got his FCD from Lee.