Noob Handgun Reloading (Straight Wall Revolver)

[DocRDS]

Ready to try some handgun loads in the offseason--I've got my rifle rounds pretty well squared away.

Was setting up for 44 Mag according to instructions (Redding Dies). The seating die was "crushing" my brass (luckily I had some hold brass and was practicing with dummy rounds).

Instructions were to screw the die all the way down to get the roll crimp. But after some crushed brass and some "wtf cursing" I ended up backing off the die a good 2 turns--it seems the crimp comes pretty "early" and I had to back the die WAAAAY out (4-5 turns) to get my seating with no crimp. Is this normal? Dillon 550/Redding dies. I know Hornady does this as well but since I dont crimp rifle, I just back the SOB off (and 1 turn is fine) and get the seating right. But 44 mag--different beast.

TLDR, instructions say screw it down for roll crimp, I found I needed to back off 2 turns to get a proper crimp and not crush brass--Dangerous or not?

Thx.

 

[LR308guy]

Question for OP, is the pistol brass the correct overall length?

 

[Hoser]

Best practice is to seat and crimp in separate steps.

 

[LR308guy]

^^^^^^^^ this is the correct answer ^^^^^^^

 

[RegionRat]

Instructions were to screw the die all the way down to get the roll crimp.

All the way down is not the same as raise the ram with a case in place and then slowly turn the die body down to contact the flare and then start adjustments. If that is how they said it, to screw it down all the way, then they let you down.

Keep in mind, there is a ways to go between the first contact when hitting the flare, and then the progress till you finally have the case mouth "curled" into the cannelure.

The main difficulty in teaching beginners to do the seat and crimp in one step, is that the thread pitch on the die body is often not the same as the one on the seating stem. So, you have to just develop a feel for how much to move the stem up or down to counteract the die body and learn to hit the two goals of bullet depth and crimp level all a the same time.

The advice above is a good way to separate the learning curve when you either taper crimp or roll crimp separately from seating.

BTW, if you were my student, you wouldn't touch a 44 Mag load that requires a roll crimp till you mastered something less dangerous like low pressure 38 Special and learned to handle several different types of bullets first. There are differences between wad cutters, cast lead, plated, jacketed, etc.

Most straight wall pistol loads don't "require" a heavy roll crimp, but full pressure 44 Mag certainly does if you are running powders like H110, 2400, etc.

All of these learning steps should be run at low pressure till you are ready. The low pressure 38 Special loads don't really require the workmanship up front. They will perform at some level even when rookies butcher the workmanship, but you don't get this forgiveness from a 44 Mag at full pressure. So please be careful.

Good Luck and Safety First.

 

[Hoser]

Some flavors of 44 Mag die sets are also set up to handle 44 Special.

If that is the case here, screwing the die all the way down to the shell holder without a spacer, you would have started crimping waaaaay early. About 0.125 early.

 

[DocRDS]

Sounds like some new Dies need to be on order.

@RegionRat : we're on the same page. I plan on doing some lower power rounds first at the "starter" end of load data (and you can tell which ones are more like 44 special loads based on estimate MV) before going "whole hog"-- plus full power 44 mag is cool for hunting, but for target and plinking, I can do about 25 full power loads before it hurts. 44 special or "weak" 44 mag can go all day in those big heavies revos.

But yeah the instructions said raid the ram up and screw the die down for contact, then back off 1 turn for no crimp. With me crushing the brass and seeing the crimp go in, even backed out a turn or two, I at least had enough knowledge to go "thats not right"

And as @Hoser said, this was a mag/spec die so it makes sense that magnum rounds need to be backed out.

Still gonna get some dillon dies as I really don't like seat+crimp (I tolerate it in rifle as I just don't crimp)

Ty all for the help and sanity check. "Magnum" and "things not going right" are 2 things that warrant some extra caution.

 

[redbullitt]

Would love to seat and crimp at once... but I got better results in separate steps.

If crushing brass, likely too much crimp and or need more case neck bell/expansion