Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns First time adjusting my dies .45 Colt; this crimp OK?

I hope my seating depth and crimp adjustment is adequate. Crimp is from a Redding profile crimp die. Bullet is a 265 gr WFNGC. Reddish reflection is from the cell phone case. You can see the redding two ring die effect on the brass. Mouths were opened with a Lyman M die.

Thanks.

I like the one on the right which looks like it is tight and right up to the top of the crimping groove.

Put six in the gun, shoot five and see if there is any movement from the last round.

I like a heavy crimp even on my light loads. I find that I get very low velocity spread and complete powder burning... A lot of reloaders put on as mild a crimp as they can get away with because they think that the case mouth splits sooner with a heavy crimp. I have .41 Magnum brass from the 1970s that I am still shooting with no neck splits.

Bob

what size is your expander plug? A firm crimp is good but a tight bullet fit is also important.

I'm with RJM, looks about how I crimp all my .45 Colt loads......

I like the one on the left. I roll crimp revolver like that (as nearly as possible given the differences in case length) so I know I'm getting in the bottom of the groove.

But either way will work and yes your seating & crimping looks just fine.

Thanks all. Actually the dies were adjusted the same for both cartridges but may look a little different in the picture.

I did not measure the M die plug but bullets feel like a pretty snug fit when seating them.

I basically seated the bullets until the brass was almost to the top of the groove. I figured the crimp would roll down into the middle of the groove and really lock in.

I have to get used to the extra steps. I cleaned a couple hundred plus pieces of brass today. Is Star line the way to go? That's what I collected from factory loads.

Starline has a great reputation. I like to save it for my heavy loads. I don't know that it really matters though. My federal brass seems just as good.

Everyone of my revolvers gets fed Starline brass.

Your crimp looks good to me, for what that might be worth. I also prefer Starline brass.

Mike

Do any of y'all trim revolver brass? Sort brass in any way?

Ok, I'll admit it. I am anal about brass length. I trim when needed for consistent crimping. In your post, you state that the crimp die was set the same for both cartridges, but the pictures show the crimp higher in the crimp grove on the right. Should not be a problem if the brass is not too long, but inconsistent length is the cause. I especially trim new brass to the same length if there is variation. And IMO, you can't do better than Starline brass.

Ditto to all the above..

I like to see the expander plug be at least .005" smaller than the bullet dia, to get a tight fit. I've gone smaller and it worked fine.

Spot on. I had Alan Harton turn all of mine down.

Left one looks great.

mine look like the example on the right. Always works for me.

Thanks for input guys