what crimp for Contender?

[barber]

I have .44 mag  cartridges that have a heavy crimp for my SRH, Do these heavy crimps shoot ok in a Contender, or do I have to use lighter crimped bullets in the Contender?

[securitysix]

The crimp in hard kicking revolvers is at least partly to help keep the bullets from jumping forward during recoil and causing the cylinder to lock up.  This can also be important in some magazine fed rifles.  It's important in lever-action rifles to keep the bullets from setting back into the case during recoil since they're placed end to end in the tube.

Theoretically, you could shoot .44 Magnum loads out of a Contender or any other single shot with absolutely no crimp whatsoever.  That said, you may find that some powders get more consistent ignition with a moderate or heavy crimp while others may work best with a light or no crimp.  That's one of the things you kind of have to experiment with on your own.

That said, as long as the loads you've rolled for your Super Redhawk are within safe pressure limits, they should work fine in your Contender.

[Lager]

A lighter crimp will also increase brass life since its compressed and stretched less.

[barber]

Thanks for the replies.   Now I don't have to change anything.

[Grumulkin]

There is no need to crimp 44 Mag. loads in a Contender.

[barber]

I know you don't have to crimp for the Contender, but most of my shooting is with a revolver, and I'm not sure I'll shoot the (.44 mag) Contender, as the recoil is about too much for me. And I love the Contender, I hunt coyotes with a .223 Contender.  I guess I'm just a Wuss (or something) I have the 10 inch and 14 inch barrels.

[Steve P]

I beg to differ with several of these posts.  Many of the book loads using slower burning powders utilize that crimp to build pressure and give the powder the chance to completely burn.  Failure to crimp with these loads can give you erratic powder burn, velocity, and accuracy.

If you work up a load using a given powder without a crimp, you may be ok.  If you pull up a book load and don't crimp, you could also be ok.  Some book loads you may try could leave lots of powder residue in your barrel and accuracy could be aweful.  If you work up a load and it is not giving you the performance you expect, crimp it.

All of mine are crimped, no matter what I shoot them in.

Steve

[Grumulkin]

I have crimped and I have not crimped.  I crimp for all cartridges with heavy recoil to be fired in anything but a single shot firearm.  Having tried the crimp/no crimp route the ONLY time I ever found a crimp to be of some accuracy advantage was in some low pressure 45 Colt loads using Titegroup.  There was no advantage in anything else; 44 Rem. Mag. included.

If a load isn't fairly low pressure to begin with, the amount of pressure that a crimp adds to a load is negligible.

[Lone Star]

I beg to differ with several of these posts.  Many of the book loads using slower burning powders utilize that crimp to build pressure and give the powder the chance to completely burn.  Failure to crimp with these loads can give you erratic powder burn, velocity, and accuracy....

The differences between a revolver and a Contender chamber can explain why most folks have none of these problems with their uncrimped loads in a Contender.  The long cylinder and thus long distance to the forcing cone means the bullet travels some distance before meeting resistance, and a tight case neck grip as well as a crimp may be needed to insure adequate burning of slow powders in revolver cases.  But most Contender chambers have short throats, so the bullet hits the leade not long after it starts to move.  This provides the resistance required for some powders to burn efficiently.

That said, many powders do not require much resistance to burn well.  Flake powders like Unique and BlueDot don't, and even 4227 and the AA powders don't seem to need much.  Bottom line is to load the way your barrel shoots the best regardless if a crimp is applied or not.



.

[Decapod]

Grumulkin is right. I've had a couple Contenders in .44 mag and have never crimped any loads, including those with H110, my favorite oomph powder. It always seemed strange to me that a light fold of thin brass would make any difference in overcoming the inertia of a 300gr bullet, or any bullet, pushed by 40,000psi. Try pulling an uncrimped bullet after a loading mistake, using the old pliers & press method.  Providing you've used a proper resizer die, it virtually ruins the bullet--if you can do it at all.

Besides, given the often longer chambers of a single shot barrel, loading the bullet long may not line up a crimp groove in the first place.

[rawhidekid]

Barber, try Trail Boss under a 240 Grn plain base bullet.  Six grains fills tree quarters of the case volume and out of a 10 inch barrel runs app 975fps.  Very mild recoil, acurate and no leading with my wheel weight cast bullets.