Crimp die cutting brass ring

[wallenba]

I have been using Lee factory crimp dies for a few of my new loads. After finding that my crimp was inadequate for a 45 Colt load, I increased the crimp, but now I keep shaving very fine brass rings. Any good dies that don't do this? It will cut down on the life of the brass.

I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong. --Yogi Berra

[MtGun44]

Taper crimp won't do this, but it won't hurt anything if it is what I have seen, a very
fine scraping of the edge of the case.

Bill

[GSM]

Check for outside chamfer on the brass.

[hammerhead357]

+ 1 for what mtgun44 said. All of my roll crimped brass do this to some extent. The taper crimped auto loads don't. I haven't seen this to be detrimental but YMMV...Wes

[looseprojectile]

is most often left on the case after trimming without chamfering. I would suspect you won't get a ring if you load the same case again without trimming it.
Then again, if you get the ring every time you crimp, you have a sharp crimp ring in the die. In that case I would polish it out a little.
These days almost everything we buy has to be finished because the factory has to cut costs. I chalk it up to having to choose between buying it cheap or paying the price for quality and a good warranty.
I find that most stuff these days, like less expensive guns need to be finished by the purchaser. I'm good with that. On the other hand, if I pay for quality I damn well better get it.

Life is good

[DGV]

I had the same issue with .44 magnum reloads. I bought a Redding profile crimp die and the problem is almost nonexistent.

[wallenba]

Yeah my RCBS combo trim tool is a little dull. I took the offending die apart last night and the insert that does the crimping looks a little jagged on the rim. Don't know if this is normal or what to do about it if it isn't. Complain to Lee I guess. They always make things good....in their own time. Taper crimping on this soft bullet just resizes it down. I may just be going beyond the dies practical limit.

[Fire_stick]

I am traveling, so I don't have my notes at hand. But if memory serves me, the ring you are getting is due to the cases being too long, or longer than the "set-up" case.

To use the LFCD in a continuous production type fashion (without adjusting between crimping each cartridge), all cases need to be the same length. Shorter cases will not get a firm enough crimp (or no crimp). Longer cases will give you too much. I believe this is where the problem resides. Heck, I crushed some cases (I believe Lee says it can't happen) and I got the brass rings too. I was hot. But after cleaning all the brass rings out of my die, and calling Lee to discuss, I found a way that works for me.

Since I seem to not have the ability to trim my cases to the same length (consistently), what I do now is adjust the LFCD for each round like this


use a sharpie or make a mark on the top of the crimp adjusting screw, to have a reference point
back out the adjusting screw so it will not make contact with the case mouth when you lever the cartridge into the die
run a round in and adjust the crimp adjustment until it snugs up to the case mouth
then back out the cartridge slightly and adjust the crimper to where you want it using the mark made in step 1 (depends on the amount of crimp you want)
then lever the cartridge back in to the crimper and crimp.
remove the round
back off the adjusting screw a little more than the amount of turn you used to give the crimp on the last round, go to step 3 and repeat.


I get in a rhythm, and the crimping goes fast. I think it is faster than the time to case trim to equal lengths, load and then crimp. Now if you want to optimize accuracy, you will want to trim each case and only adjust your LFCD once.

For me it's a labor of love.

[lylejb]

i get the same thing with RCBS dies in my 44mag, when i use a heavy crimp for hot loads. i just wipe the rounds off before i put them in the box, so shavings don't get it the gun and have never worried about it. it doesn't seem to hurt case life or crimp strength. i have some brass that have 10 loads on them, with max loads, and no splits yet ;)