thumbs said:
I will be loading for a red hawk. Do I need to factory crimp for the 44mag?
Hi,
Two part answer to that:
Part 1: Yes, you do need "A" crimp for that cartridge. How much of one, from "mild to wild" will depend on the load. For example, a light plinking load with a copper plated bullet will require just a little, while a full house hunting load might need quite a bit. If you're not sure how much, try to duplicate what you see on a factory round for a starting point.
Part 2: How you want to do that is up to you. You can do it at least three ways I can think of before the second cup of coffee kicks in. First is to set your seating/crimping die to do it all at once. This has an advantage in that it saves time and a step over the other methods. It has a disadvantage in that it may take some fiddling about to get the seating/crimping actions working together. Maladjusted crimp settings while seating the bullet CAN crush cases, especially if the brass isn't pretty uniform in length.
Or you can use a two step process. Takes longer, results in fewer damaged cases and is easier to set up in most cases. There you screw the crimping adjustment out to where the die's not crimping, and just seat the bullet in the first step, Then go back, screw the seating adjustment out and screw the crimper in and run the shells thru one more time.
The advantage of the second way as far as making better ammo can be offset by having to reset the die over and over. This is where the third method comes in: using a dedicated crimping die, so you seat the bullet with your regular seating/crimping die, but don't use it for crimping. You then do your crimping with an extra crimping die of your choice, set up to do only the crimping job. This way you preserve your adjustments from session to session. The "extra" die can be either a properly adjusted (for the task) extra seating/crimping die from a regular die set, the Lee Factory Crimp Die, or the Redding Profile Die... Any of those three will produce good ammo if you do your part. Personal preference plays a lot into which one you like... for myself, I like the Lee FCD and the only problems I've ever heard of seem to involve at least a degree of operator error. Oversized bullets, whether by accident or design, are probably involved with most of the complaints I've heard. The handgun version's NOT adjustable for that kind of "customization" best I can tell (the rifle version's set up differently and gives you some wiggle room.)
I don't think Weshoot2's really a Redding spokesman, either! He's advocated the Lee die for SOME cartridges, and I find his advice to experiment and test whatever crimping method you use is far more valuable than which die he suggests for a given one... However, he's also probably loaded at least 100 rounds for every one I have, so his preferences are well researched!
Rick C