Crimping below the cannelure?

[mattri]

Have a Marlin 336 in 30-30. It shoots best with 160gr FTX bullets seated out just beyond the cannelure. The rifle cycles fine and this seating depth has proven the most accurate.

Oviously the cannelure is there for a reason, but is there any harm in crimping a bullet below the cannelure?

 

[fdshuster]

mattri: You'll get a lot of dis-agreement over this. There are those of us who do not believe in applying any kind of a crimp to a non-cannalured area for fear of damaging the bullet jacket. Other's believe it's O.K., and have mentioned that the Lee crimping die will not damage the bullet jacket. Might be up to you to try it both ways and compare results.

 

[mattri]

Thanks for the reply. This is my first levergun, everything else I reload for is a bolt and I have never cripmed anything before. I was told that the recoil impact on the rounds in the tubular magazine could push the bullets into the cases, hence the need to crimp.

Loaded up some new rounds last night without the crimp. When the weather clears I'm going to bring a micrometer to the range, fire a few rounds and then measure the ones left in the mag, see if there really is any bullet movement.

 

[fdshuster]

Yes, I also have to crimp for my lever-actions, one being a Marlin 1894, 357 that I use in the Silhouette Match's, and I would never attempt to load without crimping the Hornady 158 XTP's, but always using the cannalure groove. Had a Winchester 1894 44 Mag several years ago, that, like yours had to have the bullet seated closer to the lands for any kind of accuracy, and had to use the Hornady 300 gr. XTP using the rear groove. Then the O.A.L. was too long to magazine feed, a requirement in the Silhouette Match's. Couple that with a 8 pound plus trigger, and it was a very bad choice all around. it was "gone" a short time later.

 

[mattri]

Its definitely a plus that the rounds feed ok. As far as the jacket being damaged- this is the most accurate load for this gun- would seem the jacket can't be torn up too bad.