Crimping 45 Colt. Too much?

[diginit]

I am loading mousie loads for an 1858 with a .45 Colt cylinder using new Starline cases trimmed to 1.275 and 200g soft lead FP over 6.2g Trailboss.
My first crimps gave me a slight bulge in the case mouth(other than the .452 bullet.) Like it had been compressed too much and ballooned at the thinnest part of the case. Case interior measures .440 as does the crimp groove on the bullet. Crimping an empty case gave me an inside of .430. Is that too tight?
Could it be that the die is crimping before the bullet is completely seated and is pushing the crimp towards the case head bulging the case? Is the case too thick at 1.275 to roll?
Ive tried lighter crimps and the case mouth doesn't seem to roll at all until I get to this point, so I am abit puzzled and tired of pulling bullets.

['ol shooter]

The seating/crimp die does continue pushing the bullet in as it crimps. Set the die so it seats the bullet to about .005" up from the bottom of the cannelure just before the crimping starts. Then the case mouth will roll nicely into the cannelure as seating completes. They only need enough crimp to prevent the bullet walking forward when the gun is in recoil from firing previous rounds, especially with the light loads you are rolling. If you want you can experiment by numbering six rounds and loading the gun, then firing one round at a time and remeasuring each round to see if any walk and at what fired round they do.
The left round is what you want for a proper crimp.
crimped bullet.JPG

[Cowboy T]

You don't need a strong crimp for .45 Colt unless you're doing either Ruger/TC loads or loading in a tube-fed levergun. Try it without the crimp and see what happens.

I use a light to medium crimp on my .45 Colt loads. Here's another example of what a crimp should look like. The rounds are .38 Special in this case, but the crimp is the same.

[ojisan]

"Could it be that the die is crimping before the bullet is completely seated and is pushing the crimp towards the case head bulging the case?"

Yes, this is exactly what is happening.
When you seat and crimp at the same time, you compromise a bit.
You can't start the crimp too early or you risk collapsing the case.
You can't start too late because then you won't get a decent crimp.
The seat and crimp at the same time works best when all the cases are exactly the same length so you can time it all just right.

But cases are rarely all the exact same length, especially when you are mixing case brands like when loading range pick-up brass for plinking loads.

What to do?

Seat and crimp as separate steps.
Yes it is an extra operation and you may need an extra crimp die but the ease of loading, speed of loading (since you don't have mess with adjustments and rejects all the time) and the ammo quality all go up.

[Sandspider500]

Your seating die is just screwed in too far. Back it out, raise ram then screw in die until it touches the case, lower ram and screw die in about an 1/8th to a 1/4 turn.

[kendog4570]

...Seat and crimp as separate steps.
Yes it is an extra operation and you may need an extra crimp die but the ease of loading, speed of loading (since you don't have mess with adjustments and rejects all the time) and the ammo quality all go up.

Almost always crimp in separate step. With a seat/crimp die, set it up so the crimp is where you want it, then put a 7/8 drain plug washer (.125" +-) under the lock ring to pull the crimp feature away for bullet seating. After seating, remove the washer from under the lock ring, back the seating stem out and crimp.

[Sandspider500]

IMG_20211110_095217.jpg

IMG_20211110_095218.jpg


All seated and crimped in 1 step, notice the varying degrees of crimp. Anything more than the 4 in the first pic is overkill for what you're loading.

Again, just adjust your die. Set seating stem so your bullet seats to the middle of crimp groove and that last tiny bit of press arm movement, and I mean tiny, will crimp. After doing a few hundred you'll get the feel for it.

[Cowboy T]

I also seat and crimp in the same stage (step). It's just a matter of adjusting your die. All my brass is mixed headstamp, and I have no problems.*

* The one exception is from Hornady LEVERevolution factory ammo, wherein Hornady cuts the cases down by 1/10" supposedly to fit their special "FTX" bullets. That's the only exception. I separate that brass out when I find it.

[pennstater]

I just do what ojisan mentioned. Makes my handloading life easier.

MLC

[SnWnMe]

Luckily for you you don't need a heavy crimp so you can get away with seat and crimp. Just adjust your seat/crimp die. I learned by making empty rounds. I just disassembled them with an impact puller afterward.

[diginit]

Thanks folks,
I'm going to crimp in a seperate process for the Colt. Now if I can just stop pulling to the left...

[pennstater]

Thanks folks,
I'm going to crimp in a seperate process for the Colt. Now if I can just stop pulling to the left...

That is probably due to not having your trigger finger on the trigger properly.
I founf this out on one of my 1873 Italian replicas. Had to place trigger right in the middle of first part of finger. Between finger end and that first crease.
Simple and it worked for me. Worth a try.

MLC

[bruce381]

Almost always crimp in separate step. With a seat/crimp die, set it up so the crimp is where you want it, then put a 7/8 drain plug washer (.125" +-) under the lock ring to pull the crimp feature away for bullet seating. After seating, remove the washer from under the lock ring, back the seating stem out and crimp.

yes seat in a seperate step will stop the case bulge which is what causes the cartridge from fully dropping int the cylinder also do not over crimp too

[Sandspider500]

[bruce381]

I have to say the biggest improvement I have seen is when i started to trim all cases to same length, Then crimps got very uniform even when seating and crimping at same time but is a balancing act now do it all in seperate step.