To Crimp or not to Crimp?

[Greenbear]

Hi guys,

 

Any firm opinion on crimping home loads, does it improve performance/accuracy?

 

I am mainly stalking/fox shooting if that makes any difference.

 

 

 

cheers

 

 

 

Wayne

[6mmBR]

Hi Wayne, I've never bothered myself. I've had great results without, I feel it's just adding another variable to the equation

Cheers

Dave

[Andrew]

I believe that it does, especially in (but not limited to) non match grade brass, loaded on common machinery, the crimp goes a long way towards making otherwise slightly irregular loads more uniform. I have seen substantial increases in accuracy in many cartridges with certain powder and bullet combos. Most notably, the 22 Hornet round. I use Lee Crimp dies myself. The one caveat to crimping is that you must trim religiously (and that means every loading) or you're peeing up a rope. ~Andrew

[Greenbear]

Hi Dave/Andrew

 

Thanks for that, I have never bothered myself and got reasonable results, just wondered if it was worth giving it a try. I really don't want to go down the road of trimming every loading session.

 

 

Thanks again

 

 

 

Wayne

[charly hunter]

I have started crimping and to be honest I can't say I have seen any differance, but saying that it may show up at longer range, I don't shoot long range so I wouldn't know, the long range lads on here may know better. I would say if you shoot like I do out to 300 yds then it makes no differance, but I do it anyway as I have a loading turret with 4 dies in it so it takes no time to do. I do wonder though if it puts extra stress on the mouth of the case though??

[silentsoulsleave308holes]

I did quite a lot of testing crimp vrs un crimped over several years and even talked to top manufacturer regarding the matter

 

all the tests over them years showed the exact same results

 

tests were to see if no crimp, light crimp, medium crimp or heavy crimp were best and light crimp and medium crimp were the least accurate at 100 yards 200 yards and 400 yards

 

heavy crimp and no crimp showed best results at all ranges but all tests showed heavy crimp was a tad better for accuracy as well as shot to shot variation and the crimp gave slight increase in pressures which meant loads could be dropped by about 0.2 to 0.3 gr which saves on powder a wee bit

 

rounds that are crimped are also less likely get damaged,knocked to one side or pushed back in the case

 

I recovered rounds (pulled) from seated and light crimped, medium crimped and the heavy crimped put some big crimp in the bullet which when checked with a mic, lengthend the bullet and also swelled the round either side of the crimp by a tiny amount

 

I have had a change in cals and also a new bbl on another gun that means things have changed a little and I have not had a chance to buy new lee crimps for two of my rifles and the 300 's new bbl means its loaded a little different to other guns

 

when I get the chance I shall be buying more lee crimps for a couple of my new guns

[Bambi-basher]

Like some of you I tried crimped and without crimp, and in my stalking rifle I could not detect on difference in accuracy or POI.

 

I crimp rounds that I use for stalking or foxing but while working up loads or rounds for zeroing/practice I don’t bother. I like to increased durability of the crimped round for when in the field.

 

Best rgds

 

B-b