Rcbs seating and crimp die.

[Overalls87]

Thanks to you bunch of enablers I have bought an old rcbs jr3 press and a new set of rcbs dies for 38/357/ 357 maximum.lol. I have already posted about my excessive crimp of 38 special reloads. Is the seater/ crimp die always supposed to be such a ***ch to adjust properly? It's either it has too much crimp or it seats the bullet too far into the case. I'm half tempted to separate the two steps like I've been told. I'm looking at the redding profile crimp die with micrometer adjustment. What say you? Should or do I need to spend 70 bucks on a single die???

[runfiverun]

it shouldn't be that hard but it does take a few seconds to go through the steps.
you have to adjust the length then back that off.
then adjust the crimp and set the die.
then screw the seater stem back in to get the length again.
then make an actual round to double check everything.
and probably make a small adjustment from there to get it just right again. :lol:

[smoked turkey]

First off, yes the RCBS crimp/bullet seating die can be a little difficult to get set just right. A lot of advice is to do each operation as a separate step. This is pretty good advice. However, I normally perform both bullet (or boolit) seating, and crimping in a single step. One thing that will allow this is to ensure your cases are all exactly the same length. So case trimming, or at least lengths must be verified before the seating/crimping operation will work as a single step. Another must is bullet (boolit) must have a crimping groove.
Adjustment of the crimp must be done as a series of very small changes in the depth of the die in the press. You cannot rush this step. After getting it just the way I like it, I will do a few to make sure the crimp is right. This is what usually works for me.