9mm dies - seating / taper

[pipeline1]

Second post here. I'm reading my books and learning!

But as I'm readying to choose some dies for my Hornady Lock and load classic single stage press, I ran into some questions.

I was looking at the three piece Hornady dies with the seating / taper crimp all in one die. ( https://www.midwayusa.com/product/11...th-taper-crimp ) I was thinking of these because of the lnl bushings. They seem to make changing a snap.

My main question is, does the seating / taper crimp take a lot of skill to get ready? Or should I just use the die to seat only then get another die to do taper crimps?

Thanks!

[9mmepiphany]

I prefer to use two separate dies as it makes changing OAL or amount of crimp easier.

Using a combo die,you adjust the amount of crimp by adjusting the depth of the die body, which affects the seating depth. If you want to add crimp, you have to back out the seating stem first

[noylj]

The initial set-up is you adjust the COL, remove the seating stem, adjust the crimp, lock the die body down, and screw the seating stem back down to just contact the bullet.
Once you have the crimp set, you never have to change it, you just have to adjust the seating stem for COL with different bullets (and, in some cases, replace the seating stem with one that fits the different bullet better).
That said, I found back in 1974 that I got better accuracy in .44 Rem Mag, 9x19, and .45 Auto when I separated seating and crimping.

[rdtompki]

If you're loading one bullet for one gun you can get good results with a combo die, but a micrometer seater and a separate taper/crimp die make it very easy to change loads for different guns. HK, SA 9mm 1911, Kimber 9mm 1911 and EMP can require different OAL. Or, I'm using 122gr Acme bullets for competition while my wife uses 115gr Acme. Now, with bushings die are very easy to change and the combo dies are inexpensive so you can set up one for each gun you load for.

[smoothy8500]

Shooting lead I find it's better to have the crimp separate from the seating....the combo starts to constrict the mouth as the projectile is still getting pushed down causing lead to shave slightly. FMJ's don't have that issue.

[TexasJackKin]

Since you are using a single stage, you can seat your whole batch, then screw out the seating punch, then screw the die down to crimp. So, you can seat and crimp in separate operations, with just one die. Back in the day, that was common practice, nowadays not so much, but it's still possible, and effective, just slower.

[Michael in California]

I use the Hornady dies on my progressive and seat and crimp at the same time with good results. The method above to set the crimp is what I did. It works fine for me.

[pipeline1]

I use the Hornady dies on my progressive and seat and crimp at the same time with good results. The method above to set the crimp is what I did. It works fine for me.

Which user? There were 2 methods by 2 different users.

[Michael in California]

The initial set-up is you adjust the COL, remove the seating stem, adjust the crimp, lock the die body down, and screw the seating stem back down to just contact the bullet.
Once you have the crimp set, you never have to change it, you just have to adjust the seating stem for COL with different bullets (and, in some cases, replace the seating stem with one that fits the different bullet better).
That said, I found back in 1974 that I got better accuracy in .44 Rem Mag, 9x19, and .45 Auto when I separated seating and crimping.

This.