Still getting the feel for .44Mag reloading. Tightest crimp is on the left, lightest on the right. A 200 grain JHP is on top so you can see the height of the cannelure. I tried to seat so that the case mouth was approximately in the middle of it. I’m getting some conflicting information on whether the cannelure is to aid crimping or is ONLY to help attach the jacket to the lead, therefore you should ignore it when seating/crimping.

This is using a Lee factory crimp die. You can see that the jacket has been deformed in the first two crimps, but is fairly straight in the third, lighter crimp.

Thoughts on the crimp level? COAL is 1.59”, thought I feel like I could go a hair deeper so that only the top third of the cannelure is showing.

I will be acquiring some 200gr or less Hi-Tek coated lead bullets with an actual crimp groove for light target loads in the near future.

Just some general comments. Of course referencing the data for loaded length, it ‘seems’ your bullet could go a tad deeper, to get the groove more centered on the case mouth, helping the crimp.

I often use the Lee FCD, other methods work.

The standard ‘check’ would be to shoot a cylinder full, minus 1, then see if the last bullet was pulled any.

With heavy revolver loads, I go a little heavy on the crimp, of course not deforming anything. If you look at factory rounds, normally a very heavy crimp.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:

The standard ‘check’ would be to shoot a cylinder full, minus 1, then see if the last bullet was pulled any.

Ah, that's a good idea. That way I can check it for both hotter loads and lighter target loads. Now I just have to remember to bring calipers to the range.

With a healthy crimp, I think most wouldn’t be jumping any crimped COL.

I put a pretty healthy crimp on mine as I shoot them out of a lever action as well as the revolvers.

Another casual check is just to push the loaded cartridge against the bench, moderate+ force. The idea being to see if the bullet moves any.

Again, factory loads have to work in most any gun, reliably. Those factory loads will have a serious, strong & deep crimp. Most of us reloaders don’t do that much, just by looking. Then the Lee FCD says it’s ‘almost’ impossible to over-crimp the round.

I say almost, because some will have a notion to find a way.

Mine look like your one on the left, possibly even more. I shoot these out of a tube-fed levergun, as well as a 329PD airweight, so I absolutely do not want these bullets to move. I use a Lee FCD, and I crank it down. So far it's been fine, and I've never had any problems with accuracy or jacket separation as a result.

Good to know! I was worrying about damaging the jacket and affecting accuracy. I’m still going to check to see if the bullets are walking out next time I’m at the range.

Get a Redding profile crimp for the .44. You can set the crimp as hard as you want which will allow for the sweet spot of a nice uniform crimp on the cannelure without buckling the case nor undesirably compressing the projectile.

When I am setting up a crimp die, I take a handful of loaded rounds and one at a time, place the nose of the projectile against the edge of the reloading bench and push HARD using hands/fingers.
Measure first, do the bench edge push test, re check the length.
When the two OAL numbers are the same, the crimp is sufficient.
I've never had a projectile move after changing to that crimp die setup procedure.