Don't ever do this!

[madsenshooter]

Could also be titled "The crimp from hell" or "Just another dumb thing I've done". For your viewing pleasure is a pic of a load I worked up for my Garand, which has one of those gas plugs you can change the jet in. I'd worked things up without the crimp, pretty much a case full of RL19 under the Hornady 150grFMJBT. After I'd worked it up, and worked down to the proper jet to get function, I was piddling around in the garage one day, and the nice square crimping groove and a Lee Collet die got together and produced the crimp from hell. Then the ammo sat for several years. The other day I took my Garand to the range and fired a few off. Very flattened primers, 3000fps velocity, on some the primer even extruded into the firing pin hole. The crimp had greatly increased the chamber pressure because of the delay in getting the bullet moving, but it also reduced the port pressure to the point that the action only partially cycled. At first I though I'd bent the op rod, but subsequent testing with powder of the proper burn rate says all is ok. I think I have a couple hundred of these, and so far, with much whacking, the kinetic bullet puller has had no luck, in fact, hasn't budged the bullet. The bullet isn't squeezed down, that's just what it took to fill the crimp groove, I limited the stroke of the press so that all were exactly the same. Looks like I now need the bullet puller from hell![smilie=1:

[Ricochet]

I've run into unexpected signs of excessive pressure with boolits when a hard crimp was combined with a hard boolit seated against the rifling.

[Blammer]

shoot them in something other than the M1

[45 2.1]

A little tack hammer applied on the case neck, while on a hard surface, will cure that.

[Shiloh]

One can generate a lot of force with the leverage of a reloading press. What was the resistance like??

Shiloh

[StarMetal]

You might, just might, be able to just seat the bullet a little deeper and see if that breaks it loose for pulling. Try one and see if it buckles the neck first. That is the crimp from hell.

Joe

[Storydude]

Wow. I've made some nasty crimps for .223 with my Lee FCD but nothing like that.

A collet puller should get those out, but will probably ***** the bullet. Or, like was said above, send me a few to see if my 1903 likes them :)

[madsenshooter]

I may try them in my Madsen, at least I know the head is fully supported, unlike the 03, and the throat is very worn. The garand's short throat may contribute some to the pressure too. There was very little resistance in making the crimp, I use a tapered reamer as a deburring tool that leaves a cut probably at least half the length of the crimp, if not more. I had the press rigged up so that it just cammed over and stopped to make the crimp. I thought it looked really neat back then. There sure isn't much for a collet puller to get hold of. This wasn't made with the factory crimp die, I removed the decapper from a collet neck sizing die, can't recall exactly how I rigged it up. The press was pushing on the bottom and I had the round at the top, put a washer in the top or something to keep the collet from coming out. Anyway we don't need to know how to do it, just how to undo it. God o mighty, there's a couple hundred. Range trip with the Madsen! Aha! Star metal, the man with the plan, seating a little deeper worked, loosened it enough that the kinetic puller could do it. I gotta do something about my memory, it's not reloader19 at all, it's 60gr of H414 or 760! That would normally produce only 48000 CUP. Oh well, that was 10 years ago. There was a couple bags, maybe one of them is RL19. Thanks Star! Don't think I'll go through the hassle of pulling them all, just seat em deeper to break the crimp and then make the range trip.

[StarMetal]

I'm glad that worked for you. I wasn't sure if it would buckle the necks because that was some crimp there.

Joe

[sargenv]

I would use the RCBS collet puller if I were to remove these bullets from the case.. I've hade good luck with it albeit it's a little slow.

[madsenshooter]

Luckily Joe, there's a little roundness to the forward edge of the crimping groove, had it been square I'd have been screwed. Roll crimps from now on. It looks nice and neat, something to do when you have nothing else to do, (I was unemployed at the time) but not something I'll do again. With a grain or two less powder it may have been ok.

[BigDaddie]

I had a similar issue when breaking some 8x57 rounds down that I had made an error with seating depth. I found that the GC remained in the neck when pulling boolits (with the inertia hammer) with a moderate crimp......I think the solution for me is to just shoot them rather than pull em down.

[Phat Man Mike]

wow now that's what I call a crimp!:???:

[TAWILDCATT]

you might try running them up the neck die or the full length just over the crimp.if it was lead bullet I would say to the end of bullet in the case.:coffee:

[JeffinNZ]

That's not a crimp. That's a shoulder!

[madsenshooter]

Thanks Jeff! I needed a bit of a laugh before heading to work.

[Doble Troble]

I'd run them up through a single stage press without a die and grab the bit of cannulature left with wire cutters. Lower the ram and presto! Salvaged powder and bullets. Not sure about the cases, they made need trimming after that crimp.

I've used wire cutters, but I prefer a pair of "nippers" with the cutter perpendicular to the handles. Sometimes you get a mark in the cannulature, but I haven't found this to alter accuracy.

[Longrange]

I did something like that on .223 for my mini 14 several years ago while I was learning to reload. That was and experence as well. [smilie=b:

[JKH]

heres an old trick I use on military surplus that has a mouth sealant, install your seating die in your press, adjust the seating plug up high and rung the shell up into the die. With the shell all the way in turn down the seater till it touches the bullet, lower the ram and turn the seater down one full turn and lock in place.

Now, run all those rounds through and it should set the bullet back in the neck enough to break the seal/crimp and allow easier pulling with the kinetic puller.
NOTE* the only thing you might have issue with is the crimp groove being deep and the case mouth catching on it, this might cause the neck to roll. The die itself will support the neck though so if it does catch any damage should be minimal or non-existent, try a few first and see how it works.

Personally, I would get a collet bullet puller for your press, they work extremely well and a good one will not leave any marks or injure the bullet, I have used my RCBS puller on all kinds of nasty old surplus that a kinetic puller just laughed at, miking bullets afterward show no problems and you can re-use all the components.

I would be more than happy to loan you mine if you want to cover postage or share some of the pulled projectiles.

Jeff

[madsenshooter]

I appreciate the offer Jeff, but have things under control, except for finding the time.

[JKH]

very good! It sucks looking at a pile of ammo like that and knowing you have to go through a lot of work to make it right, I recently pulled down nearly 500 rounds of mil-spec equivalent .308 ball I loaded, wasnt paying attention to the load data on the WC846 I was using and went by standard BLC2 data, after firing about 40 rounds and noting some fairly hefty pressure signs I put a halt to my shooting any more until I checked things out.

I am glad I had the RCBS puller, it really worked well and efficiently and did not damage the bullets, nary a mark was left. Now I am in the process of re-re-loading the same ammo!

Jeff