Seating + Crimping

[SpiritNugent]

It seems the rifle didn't mind the slight tapered crimp the die put on. Here's some results from the first day out with that rifle...

 

[jo191145]

Realtree

BTW if you can raise your die .005" the crimping should go away.
At least until your brass length begins to grow.
An extra .005" should'nt interfere with your mag length but its a football field when rollcrimping a noncanellured bullet.

 

[kelbro]

Redding competition shellholders may solve your problem.

 

[SpiritNugent]

Realtree

BTW if you can raise your die .005" the crimping should go away.
At least until your brass length begins to grow.
An extra .005" should'nt interfere with your mag length but its a football field when rollcrimping a noncanellured bullet.

You would be shocked, but if I raise the die .005" they won't fit into the magazine. Maybe the next lot of bulets but not this one. I spent alot of time trying to get these to fit, and the magazine on this gun is very small. Bullets have to be as long as factory ammunition.

I keot running 3 bullets together through the die, then into the magazine. They were going in and coming out of the magazine crooked. I was adjusting the die .002-.003" at a time until finally I got to where I am now, and they fit.

It started crimping .015-.020" before this point. It's a taper crimp.

A Redding Competition shellolder will jump me higher .002" at a time. This will make me higher yet, and will therefore put more crimp on then there is now (since the die seating stem is all the way down, and it started crimping over .010" ago (I believe .010" is as high as you can go with those shellholders)

 

[jo191145]

Ouch, I thought you might have .005" to spare

Even though you fully intend to buy a new seater I would still contact Redding. They'll send you anything you need to rectify the problem. Free.

All dies are to be built with specific model # parts to make a specific die.
I know Redding has "substitute model #'s" they can use in a pinch. Sounds like yours are just that. Throw enough "close enough substitutions" together and you'll get problems.

First thing to check is that plug. It should have "I think" a 23 stamped on top. Don't hold me to that. Redding would know much better than I

 

[SpiritNugent]

jo,

Thanks for keeping up with this thread.

When I first bought the rifle, I intended to start .020" off the lands. When I measured with the OAL guage, I didn't have a rat's rear end in the neck with the bullets I use (Nosler 50 grain BTips)

So my next step was to seat to fit into the magazine. When doing this, I soon realized with the seater pkug all the way down, and the die 1 turn out from shellholder (Redding recommends atleast 1 turn out to avoid crimping), the OAL was still too long to fit into the magazine. I was close, but still wouldn't fit. I slowly started turning the die in, and started crimping about 3/4 turns out from shellholder contact.

I got them to fit into the magazine after about .025" of crimp. The crimp is a slight taper, I have a hard time seeing it. In fact, if I didn't "feel" it crimping on the press, I would have never known. You have to hold it in different light angles to see the crimping I am working with.

I was a little worried at first, because I never crimped before, and trust me, I am an accuracy fanatic just like everyone here. I never in a million years wanted to crimp this at first, especially a .222. But I then soon thought, I am not shooting a BR gun. I am shooting a factory sporter. And my goal was to achieve consistent 1/2" groups. With the thought process behind crimping and consistent burn rates with powder, I thought it would be possible. Now, if I was chasing BR records, yes, I wouldn't crimp.

I am thinking, for the time being, if I can replicate these results again, I might stick with what is working. This rifle is going to be used for hunting so a slight crimp and fitting into the magazine might be a good thing, especially if I can replicate these results at the range time and time again. After seeing how it shot with 3 different powders yesterday, I don't think that will be a problem.

I am going to contact Redding in the next day or so to see what they say.

My seating stem has a "24" on top.

 

[SpiritNugent]

Here is more results with the crimped ammo... shot a few groups this afternoon with H-4198 and Reloader 7.

I think I am going to stick with using this die. I am getting great consistency.