Which .40 S&W crimp die?

[DeadWoodDan]

Have been doing my homework on this caliber for my XD. Have been shooting 180 cast with Hornady 3 die set and a few problems that lead me to the question.

I know i need to do it in a separte stage , BUT i became confused on what i need? will the Lee FCD work and is this a taper crimp? i had read i do not want a taper crimp for this round?

Thanks
DWD

[GRUMPA]

DWD,
Although I don't actually use a 40cal anything I do load a lot for the locals and I have always used a taper crimp on the final stage. After that they all go through the gage for my final approval and I never had a complaint. I have always done this procedure on all acp rounds and rarely will I get a reject. All of my crimp dies for acp rounds are all taper crimp RCBS that I've had for well over 15yrs now.

[HeavyMetal]

The Hornady die set will taper crimp. usually these are set up to do so when seating the boolit.

The down side of this idea is case lengths vary so boolits seat to same depth but crimp can be hit or miss depending on case length.

crimping in a seperate die / station can minimize this to some extent because you can "feel" the case hit the crimping portion of the seating die.

Once again the down side is case length variation but if your hands are sensitive enough you can sort by feel ( crimped / not crimped). Then re-adjust the die and crimp the untouched ones.

Taper crimping id usually way overdone and can ( and has) damaged boolits. Sadly the Lee FCD die can do the same thing. The only thing I use a Lee FCD die for is de Glocking brass.

Then I set down with my cordless drill and a Lee trimmer set up and make all the case's the same length. Keep new or "found" brass seperate from your already prepped brass and life will be better.

Not knowing what press your using I can only make a general suggestion: if your using a single station press back the seating die off enough that you can still see the "flare" your expander die left in the case to ease the boolit into place and seat it.

seat all your boolits. The back off the seater plug ( or remove it completely from the die) and re-adjust your die to do your taper crimp and run all your loads though the seating die one more time.

Keep in mind that the taper crimp just needs to remove the flare from the case mouth! If you can see the crimp with the naked eye you have way to much taper crimp and need to back it off.

You'll also find out how much variation in case length you have in batch of brass!

Now if your using a turret or progressive press I'd "pop" for a dedicated tape crimp die. Lee, and most other die makers, offer single dies for sale buy a standard seating die strip the seater plug out of it and use it as a dedicated taper crimp die.

My old 450 dillon has the #3 station set up to seat and the #4 station set up to crimp.

This has worked very well for me and I can see the difference in group size, on paper, when I've got the brass prepared correctly.

Hope this helps.

[subsonic]

Stay away from the Lee factory crimp die. It will squeeze the snot out of your loaded rounds, sizing down your boolits and kill neck tension.

Neck tension does most of the work for autos with cast. The taper crimp should only roll the bell away and make the case parallel over the boolit.

[garym1a2]

I do this plus the lee bluge buster before the sizing process and it works. I also use my barrel as a case gage 100% for 9mm, 40sw and 45acp. With this process I nearly never have a problem.

Stay away from the Lee factory crimp die. It will squeeze the snot out of your loaded rounds, sizing down your boolits and kill neck tension.

Neck tension does most of the work for autos with cast. The taper crimp should only roll the bell away and make the case parallel over the boolit.

[DeadWoodDan]

using the hornady progressive lnl. on some cases i can feel a slight "burr" on the case mouth. i'm starting to wonder if i have to much taper crimp?? will check it out tonight. i had a few hang ups on last loads.

As a side note, i've been doing a random check on case length and have not noticed the case changing? how often are you having to trim the 40 cases?

thanks everyone.

DWD

[Hammerhead]

I use an RCBS seater/taper crimper die with the seating stem removed, it's what I had on hand and it works well. I also like Redding taper crimp dies for other calibers, Redding uses a nice shallow angle for the crimping surface.

[Markbo]

Use my Dillon dies on a 550B. Never had any problem and haven't trimmed any cases after about 5-6 loads each.

[gray wolf]

Keep in mind that the taper crimp just needs to remove the flare from the case mouth! If you can see the crimp with the naked eye you have way to much taper crimp and need to back it off.


Neck tension does most of the work for autos with cast. The taper crimp should only roll the bell away and make the case parallel over the boolit.

All I could do is repeat the above, so I won't