Spent a big chunk of time yesterday loading my 2nd full batch of 44 mag. I feel like overall it went better and I'm more confident in the quality I wound up with. All of the bullets I checked seemed to be seated and crimped acceptably and held in place firmly.

However, I feel like the part I'm most unsure about is the crimp. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for here. I believe these crimps are better than my first batch, but there's always room for improvement. I got some good feedback in a previous thread on this forum and I tried to work on it.

I'm back again looking for feedback about the work:
- What's good?
- What isn't?
- What should I be looking for?
- What is the best crimp here overall and which is the best one for each bullet type?

FWIW - I am loading on a single stage hand press. I know some people have strong feelings about seating and crimping in the same step. I would prefer to seat and crimp in a single step as it saves a lot of time with a single stage press. For this batch, I seated and crimped the JSP rounds in separate steps. I found this to be the best method for jacketed rounds. The LSWC bullets were done in a single step.

Nosler 240gr JSP:
Loaded in separate steps, the seating depth was a little inconsistent. I felt like the crimp, when done correctly (?) had a certain feeling to it. I don't know how to describe it right, but it just seemed like it was slotting in where it was supposed to be.
A

B

C

D


240gr hardcast lead semi-wadcutter:
These were seated and crimped in the same step. I felt like this worked a little better because the crimp groove is tapered, allowing the brass to be pressed in around the body of the bullet while still being seated. Am I correct in thinking that if calibrated properly, the brass should be fully crimped just as it reaches the end of the crimp groove?

E

F

G

H

I

if they chamber in you gun go shoot them. nothing wrong with them mate...

thewelshm

These are my opinions only. I'm a firm believer in working the brass the least amount you need to...that goes for sizing, flaring, crimping, etc. The only reason we crimp at all, is to keep the bullet from jumoing out during recoil of fired cases in the cylinder before it. If you were shooting single shot, you wouldn't need a crimp at all. Some people have discovered that more or less crimp has helped them fine tune a load, and I'm sure they're right. Testing over a chrono would be your only real measure of this. At any rate, I start with a light crimp and I head out back with a set of calipers. I load the cylinder, measure the last round to be fired, record it, and then shoot all but the last round. When I measure the last round I'm looking for zero growth, or 2 tho at the most. At this point I'm happy. To me (my opinion only) there is no need for any more crimp. This all depends on bullet type, jacket, etc. Lead or plated are different animals. From the photos, you appear to be using a significant of crimp but that's not to say it's wrong. If they fit the chamber and give you decent accuracy then I think you're OK. I dont see any sign of case buckle in your photos. I would encourage you to use two dies, and experiment with crimp pressure until you feel good about what you're using. The die manufacturer should have written suggestions on how to set up your crimp die and this is a decent starting point usually. You'll probably need to increase a bit but you wont know until you've shot a few, measure for length increase, etc.

Honestly none of those looks too bad. I usually go for something like B or C or F. All those appear to be medium to heavy crimps. Sometimes I go a little lighter and haven't had problems when going for a light load.

When doing lead with a crimp grove I seat and crimp at the same time. If the die is setup just right it's like the brass is riding down the bullets crimp groove. If the brass goes all the way down the crimp groove I consider that a very heavy crimp. A heavy crimp is not necesarily a good thing or bad thing it's more dependent on the intended purpose.

I like D and G.

On the jacketed bullets you should just see the top of the cannelure.

On Lead bullets the crimp should fold into the grove and not buckle the brass and be just under the upper top edge of the groove. This will vary if you have not trimmed all your brass to the exact same length. I do not trim handgun brass so just allow a little play between within the groove. A thousandth here or there will not matter as long as you are in the groove as they say. It will also vary on the jacketed bullets just be within the perforations.

There are two things, the seating depth and how much of a crimp. Just be in the groove and no need to crimp the daylights out of it. Just be sure the case mouth rolls over and in. You will feel it on the lead bullets not so much on the jacketed.

Bottom line they all look good other than A (to long) and C (to short). JMHO They will still work.

__________________
Still Running Against the Wind

I have a small magnifying glass at my loading bench. It really lets you see what your doing with the crimp.

Too much nit-picking over crimping (and COLs for that matter). Pick up some die shims from Sinclair and you can adjust seating/crimping by as little as .001" if you are that OCD.

Don't know what happened to my images. Looking into it now...

Use as much crimp as you feel necessary and worry about case life later. One suggestion is to put a really heavy crimp on and measure the case body. Keep going with the crimp until you see case distortion, bullet damage. Keep this cartridge as your maximum crimp example. Also you can go the opposite way; lighten the crimp until it's not enough to hold the bullet under recoil, and keep this cartridge as minimum crimp example. How much crimp is hard to describe on line and the way I started 30 years ago was comparing my crimp to a factory crimp.

Don't worry about case life now, shootable ammo is a bit more important and brass is still available and cheap, even Amazon has once fired brass for .44 Magnum...

I'm not concerned with case life at all. I'm more concerned with making sure I crimp enough to hold the bullet during recoil and secure enough for pressure considerations.

Your crimps are fine.

On the lead bullets as long as the case mouth is in the groove that is all you need. On the jacketed you can see that the case mouth is into the little grooves or dots

Take a dummy round (no primer or powder) seat and crimp the bullet. Now put the nose of the round on the bench and push as hard as you can with the heel of your hand. Might want to wear a leather glove, If the bullet does not move you are good to go.

Go shoot them

__________________
Still Running Against the Wind

Ditto. .44 Mag brass isn't all that cheap. I try to make them last as well. I don't even roll crimp my 200gr plated bunny fart loads anymore.

I'm having trouble with posting links here, but;

I found 3 sources of "once fired" .44 Magnum brass and 3 sources of new on google in 3 minutes...