BHuij
Active Member
I’m getting ready to load a bunch of .223 today, both cast and FMJ.
The cast stuff is a little oversized, powder coated/GC, and has a flat base. To get it to seat well I have to flair the mouth of the case a bit. So it makes sense to do a light crimp with my Lee collet style crimp die as a last step, just to remove any leftover flare.
However, the FMJs all have boat tails and I can easily seat the bullet without flaring the case mouth.
I’ve read that crimping is a good way to uniform neck tension, and I’ve also read that neck tension has nothing to do with crimp and everything to do with sizing the brass. The latter makes more sense to me.
Any reason to crimp my FMJ loads? Any reason not to crimp my cast loads?
The cast stuff is a little oversized, powder coated/GC, and has a flat base. To get it to seat well I have to flair the mouth of the case a bit. So it makes sense to do a light crimp with my Lee collet style crimp die as a last step, just to remove any leftover flare.
However, the FMJs all have boat tails and I can easily seat the bullet without flaring the case mouth.
I’ve read that crimping is a good way to uniform neck tension, and I’ve also read that neck tension has nothing to do with crimp and everything to do with sizing the brass. The latter makes more sense to me.
Any reason to crimp my FMJ loads? Any reason not to crimp my cast loads?