Use of taper crimp die

[Marsh1]

I am loading a few rounds for my .480/.475 FA and am concerned that I'm not using the taper crip die properly. I have the 4 die Hornaday set. How far down should I run the die?
Marsh

[MS Hitman]

By seating and crimping in two different steps, you greatly reduce the chances of buckling the case wall on your cartridges.  I load with the same brand of dies and adjust my crimps depending on how heavy the loads are.  That way I can look at the cartridge and tell how bad my hand's gonna hurt after I touch it off. 

I suggest you just ease the crimp die down a little at a time until you get a nice crimp in the cannelure or crimp groove on the bullet you are using.  Just be careful if you use Speer bullets as the cannelure on these is shallow.

Hope this helps.

[Marsh1]

MS Hitman are you refering to a roll crimp or taper crimp. The way I did it was doing a roll crimp as I seated the bullet, then moving to the taper cripm die and running the seated cartridge into it. My concern was how far to adjust the taper crimp die to get a round that will chambe in the tight FA chambers.
Marsh

[dubber123]

Not he Hitman, but I use the Hornady dies, I can best describe it as a slight "bump" in and out of the taper crimp die.  I can do it with one finger.  If you go too light, you can always go back through when you get your pistol.  If you get carried away, you can actually reduce the size of the bullet, which will result in more bullet pull and likely poor accuracy.  You can experiment with the roll crimp too.  When I first loaded for my .475, I put a heavy roll crimp on, later I reduced this to a more moderate crimp as an experiment, and still got no bullet pull, and actually picked up a few fps. which is the opposite of what they claim normally happens.  I would use the minimum of taper crimp that will reliably chamber after the maximum number of rounds you are likely to fire at one sitting.   Good luck, and have fun!

[Marsh1]

Thanks Dubber, that's exactly what I was looking for.
Marsh

[MS Hitman]

I just put a roll crimp on mne.  I have yet to have a cartridge not chamber in my revolver.

[dubber123]

Marsh1, you may get lucky like MS Hitman, but mine would only chamber about halfway into the cylinder, no matter how light I roll crimped, and boy was I glad Hornady gave me the taper crimp die right in the set!  I would have been peeved at having to wait for one die before I could shoot my new gun.  Try a few without the taper crimp when you get your gun, maybe you won't have to taper crimp at all, which saves you some time, giveing you more time for shooting little tiny groups!

[MS Hitman]

The only time I had to do anything like taper crimp was when I loaded several .45 Manstopper loads. Then I just ran them through the sizing die with the stem removed to swage them down to fit.

[Marsh1]

Thanks for all the responses guys. The gun came today and it is a stone beaut! My gunsmith/dealer was very impressed with the fit and tight tolerances.
As it turns out, all it needs is a nice roll crimp and it chambers without a taper crimp.
Anyway, I'm headed to the range in the morning. I'll shoot some in the .480 cylinder first to warm up, then change the cylinder to the 475 with the 425 gr bullet and 23 grs of LilGun. I'm a tad nervous!
Marsh