Dan Wesson .41 Magnum load development pics

[dubber123]

Yes it will. The crimp shoulder is still there. Think of the die like a throat, boolit needs to fit through.
I seat and crimp in one step with the seat die. Never seen a difference. But even the Hornady seat die for one caliber needed lapped, boolit larger then the hole.

I just lapped my Hornady 45-70 seater sleeve. The larger than normal boolits I was using would actually stick in it and rip it out of the die body. Got old fast.

[Whistler]

Allright, so here's an update on what is new.

I have tested about 20 different loads with different powders and OAL combinations. Nothing has given groups tighter than 5" at 50 yards.
So I cut a new forcing cone using a 11 degree reamer, and a new muzzle crown. Retested with the best 5" grouping ammo and saw no difference, but at least it looks nice.

So I started to play around with the brass.
First I figured that the full length sized brass had som slop in the chambers, causing misalignment when the bullet where to enter the chamber throat.
Testing unsized brass I noticed that the Redding Profile Crimp die was actually sizing the case after the bullet was seated. However, accuracy with this combination was slightly improved, I started seeing some 4" groups.

Here you can see the black area on the top third of the case where the Profile Crimp has sized the brass.
Attachment 208860

I tried wacking the bullet out with my kinectic hammer. Despite a heavy crimp, it only took two hits. I usually have to wack five-six times when using a Profile Crimp on my .44 Mag and .357 Mag. So obviously there was a lack of case tension. I started to think it may be due to worn brass, there have been two previous owners on this gun and brass, so I have no idea how many times they've been fired (though there has been no case splits).

I annealed the brass for the next test. Not to implement more than one change, I kept the same powdercharge, OAL and the Redding Crimp, despite it sizing the case.
This is the result. Change no doubt, but very strange stringing.
(50 meters / 55 yards)


I also tested some neck sized brass, that is, I backed the sizing die out to only touch the top third of the case to get some neck tension. I then skipped the Profile Crimp die and applied a roll crimp using the Lee seater die in a stand alone operation.
This made the cartridges hard to chamber, but with a steady push of the thumb they where in.
I have no idea what caused this group to open up. Perhaps the neck sizing misaligned things even more?
(50 meters / 55 yards)


The last test for the day was completely unsized brass, with the Lee roll crimp. I wanted to see what happened when the Profile Die did not size the case. These where seriously hard to chamber. I had one flier that I called due to bad trigger control, I saw the front sight whip away just when the hammer fell.
Obviously the neck tension is enough, because this group is starting to get somewhere! Now I can start doing a load ladder and compare different primers. Perhaps that 1-2" group is finally possible!
(50 meters / 55 yards)