Crimping 230 gr BBTC lead bullets

[nonpcnrarn]

I just took delivery of 2000 .45 230 gr Truncated Cone bullets. I figured I could get double duty out of my 1911 and various 45 Ruger SAs in 45 Colt. For CAS is a taper crimp enough to keep the bullets from being pushed back in the case when used in a carbine with a tubular mag? Can a slight roll crimp be used in a lead bullet without a crimp groove? What about a Lee FC die? I had heard that they will resize the bullet along with crimping the case. PS: They came in a USPS flat rate box and I thought the letter carrier was gonna have a hernia bringing the box to the front door.

[Markbo]

Buffalo Arms makes what looks to be a good cannelure tool for about $65"


There are plenty of other manual units out there but I believe this one is the CH Tool design that is pretty popular.

[Aggie01]

My lee factory crimp dies dont resize the bullet. They will however, resize the case if you stuff a big bullet in there that bells it out past whatever they decide the right dimension was. They have a carbide sizing ring in them just like a size die. The only bullets I have roll crimped that did not have a groove were alberts' swaged lead 240's in my 44 special, no problem roll crimping into the lead with a lee FC die.

[COR]

Use the Lee factory crimp die and crimp it where you want too. You'll be fine.

[fltbed]

I have loaded these before with great success for a Winchester 94 and a S&W 25-5 using the taper crimp die from my acp die set.

I will add that case tension is what hold your bullets in place. You can add a small amount of “grip” to a revolver bullet by roll crimping the mouth into a crimping grove but no amount of crimp will overcome not having any neck tension. You can actually lose grip from over crimping. (the case tends to bulge out just below from where the crimp die touches it). Lee overcomes this in their Factory Crimp Die by adding a carbide sizing ring to the mouth of the die and basically resizing the loaded round. The down side is accuracy normally suffers due to bullet distortion.

Just adjust your expander die to only allow about 1/64-1/32” of the bullet into the mouth of the case. Over expanding the case mouth will result in decreased case tension on the bullet. Adjust the taper crimp die till the mouth of the casing is tight with the bullet. If you have a dial caliper the crimp at the mouth should measure .471-.472.

If you want maximum bullet tension. Full length resize with you Colt die then run about the top 1/3 of the case into your acp sizing die. (I normally only do this with my +P max Ruger only loads as it tends to work harden the brass and decrease case life).

Hope this helps.

Jeff