Newbie needs help reloading with crimp

[XDRoX]

You can do so with a number of rifle seating dies, you just don't want to.

A link to one please? Or at least a brand? I'm intrigued...

[Sleighter]

Thanks everyone for the responses, you have given me quite a bit to go and troubleshoot. My original thought was that since the cannelure was recessed within the walls of the bullet that the crimp should grip it. What led me to believe that was the bullets could spin freely if they were seated to the depth of the cannelure.

Thinking back on it, I now see that if the neck was sized correctly that it should hold the bottom half of the bullet snugly without the cannelure effecting the tightness of the sizing and not needing a crimp. Is my thinking correct on that? Regardless, I am going to measure the inner diameter of the brass after sizing and make sure that is being done correctly and adjust if needed.

I am no longer at the same place as the press I use, but do have the brass and some calipers. I sized the overall length of the brass and it does vary from 2.740 to 2.755. So my issue with the shoulder may be the variance in length. I did not prep this brass, by brother-in-law did, and maybe he skipped the trimming phase. I know that he deburred and chamfered them, so I'll have to ask him what was different.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll report back on what I find. I've decided to go with some Sierra bullets in the future, so we'll see if I can't get a batch of them to reload smoothly!

[Horton Fenty]

I did not know companies made a seating/crimping die for rifle. I thought that was only for pistol.

Who makes a seat/crimp die for rifle?

Hmmm, I thought it was just the opposite. I thought most bottleneck rifle seating dies also had the ability to apply a crimp.

Sleighter you have a set of calipers yes? Resize a case. Measure the outside diameter of the neck, measure the wall thickness and measure the outside diameter of a bullet. Compare the neck diameter minus two times the wall thickness and compare that to your bullet diameter measurement. That should give you the answers your looking for.

[XDRoX]

A link to one please? Or at least a brand? I'm intrigued...

Never mind. I just did some research. I had no idea that a seating die would also crimp. I feel like an idiot. I probably have at least 7 sets of dies that I didn't know would also crimp.

Learn something new everyday.

[klewan]

I've read on a couple of vendor sites that some of the Armscor .223 bullets were running undersize. They would fall down into the case. Check the bullet OD, might be your problem.