Need help reloading pistol.

[Auk1124]

I've been reloading rifle shells for years, but just got a set of Lee carbide 38 special dies to try some pistol reloading. The little manual with the die set talks about a "roll crimp." This is new to me, I usually don't bother crimping rifle ammo, or when I do, I do it with a "factory crimp" die from Lee.

How do you set up a Lee seater die to do a "roll crimp"? I can set it up to seat bullets crimpless like I do my rifle ammo, but I must be braindead or something because I cannot figure out this roll crimp stuff. If anyone can walk me through the setup of a Lee pistol seater die to do a roll crimp I'd appreciate it.

[tomtom78]

The bullet seating die has a crimping shoulder that wedges the case mouth into the cannelure or crimping groove of the bullet.

With a properly sized and flared case in the shell holder, move the ram all the way up to the solid stop.
Screw the die in until you feel it stop against the mouth of the shell. Be shure to hold the handle while doing this, otherwise the die will move the ram down.

The die is now a half turn from a heavy crimp and three-quarter turn from a heavy crimp. Leave it whew it is until the bullet seater is adjusted to the correct depth.

Back out the bullet seating adjusting screw until you see some threads.

Now start a bullet into the case mouth and raise ram to seat the bullet.It should still be out of the case too far. Thats ok, because it's not yet crimped.

Adjust the bullet seating screw in some more and retry until the mouth of the case is at the base end of the crimp groove.

Turn the entire die in Three-quarterturn and crimp the case. The bullet will be moved into the case mouth .055 and the crimp is completed.

[trust me]

All my die sets came with pretty good instructions. RCBS and Lee.

I used to get all worked up about crimps, and I finally found that the cast lead bullets I was making just didn't need a crimp.

[Auk1124]

Thank you tomtom, great instructions. I normally wouldn't bother with a crimp at all but I'm using Unique for a test run of 38 specials, and everything I've read says Unique likes a heavy crimp for 38. So like a lemming I'm trying to figure out roll crimps, but don't have enough sense to understand the die instructions.

Pistol reloading is different than rifle for sure - such tiny amounts of powder. It's actually scarier than rifle; I'm going about twice as slow to make sure I don't do a double charge.

[tomtom78]

Crimping is an important step when reloading for heavy recoiling pistols. The recoil can cause other bullets to move out, like an inertial bullet puller. It also holds the bullet firmly enough to allow the powder to fully ignite before releasing the bullet.

[rick243]

To add to the above: Measure the length of your fired cases. If they vary by much you might want to trim them all to the same length. Varying case length causes the crimp to vary and plays hell with accuracy, if that is important to you.

I use a very heavy crimp on loads with WW296 in my .41 magnum.

[Multidigits]

You need to crimp when using "hard to ignite" powders. Keeps the bullet in place long enough for the primmer to make it go bang instead of just pushing it half way up the barrel, creating a big problem for the next shot.