Rocky or any Crimping Pro's????

[HogginHank]

I took some of rocky's advice last year about crimping 22 Hornet rounds.

Well I changed my load to "Lil Gun" and those nosler 45 gr "Hornet" bullets and WOW!! The groups went from 1" to .3 to .5", with .5" being average..

With that being said I loaded up a number of rounds and some of the cases were 1.39" and a few were 1.405"..

I did crimp all the rounds and everything else was the same.

I am still new to crimping and I shot this morning with some pretty good results.3 shot groups at about .45" to .55"...

BUT! there were a few shots that were flyers in the group or a couple it seemed..

I asked the fella at the range that was one of the gun smiths and he said it is probably due to the fact that the cases were different length..Though not a lot of difference since they were CRIMPED it might make the longer cases crimp MORE??

I brought him all the loaded rounds I had left..7 of the longer and 10 or so of the shorter.

I shot 2 - 3 shot groups of each SHORT and LONG cases..

I founf that the longer cases had a .5 to .6" group.

The shorter cases had about 1" groups.. I guess that is why I had FLYERS in some of the groups

Does this make sense to anyone??

Any input would be great..Thanks in advance

[Rocky Raab]

I don't have any reference material with me while I'm on the road, so I don't know if the short ones were TOO short (under the minimum trim length.)
But if they are, the crimp die may be hitting just the very lip of the neck, which would turn it in and leave a sharp edge, possibly even cutting into the bullet jacket.
The would throw shots wide, for sure.

[Brithunter]

Hi There,

Whilst trimming so that all the cases are the same length is best. Using a Lee Factory crimp die makes it not as important as it crimps using a collet which squeezes sideways the case mouth onto the bullet and not by crushing it downwards like the normal three dies sets do. This may help you, again it may not only by trying will you know for sure if it works for you.

[Mickey Rat]

Spend the 8.00 for the Lee Crimp Die. Case length doesn't matter as much.