Pictures of Crimping Tool?

[450+]

Greetings:

I was browsing the index of calguns topics at:

http://www.450bm.com

and have a request for the crimp tool described here:

http://www.450bm.com/?p=198


Could someone post a picture of their modification? I'm having trouble picturing "insert a longer screw; put a jam nut on the opposite side and you are now ready for the drill/lathe chuck..."

Thanks in advance.

[MudBug]

I don't think there is a picture of it (Calling Wildcatter!)

If you look at the top of this forum though you will find a link that has a picture and specs on how to modify a Lee 45-70 Factory Crimp die to work with the 450b.

[wildcatter]

Greetings:

I was browsing the index of calguns topics at:

http://www.450bm.com

and have a request for the crimp tool described here:

http://www.450bm.com/?p=198


Could someone post a picture of their modification? I'm having trouble picturing "insert a longer screw; put a jam nut on the opposite side and you are now ready for the drill/lathe chuck..."

Thanks in advance.

Welcome aboard 450+ good have you here and am looking forward to you tootledge (or how ever it's spelled). Boy we have had a bunch of new guys over the last week and welcome one and all.

I believe the tool you desire is made from a tubing cutter and will preform the duties of the side crimp, albeit, manually. So, you'll have to keep track of where the crimp grove and base of the bullet are and remember it's hidden, now that you have seated the bullet. You don't necessarily need a crimp grove, because you can just crimp into the side of a bullet that doesn't have a crimp grove. If the latter is desired, then you'll need to pull the bullet to see if you are applying enough crimping action or you can use an inertia bullet puller and compare your crimp to the factory crimp or to a taper crimp you yourself apply. I myself want to see an actual denting of the bullet, but stay away from the base of the bullet, the slightest scratch or dent will greatly effect your accuracy or with a inertia bullet puller, it should take double or more swings to pull the bullet, when compared to a taper crimped bullet. If either of these cases are achieved then you are indeed on the road to burning the powder you are using much more efficiently.

The tubing cutter was my first attempt at what some have called the LeGENDRE SIDE-CRIMP. Of course I and many others have since gone over to using a mechanical die do do the same and this is for a variety of reasons, of which I'll discuss some Pro's and Con's. The First one I want to make perfectly clear is because using a tubing cutter, you can not tell exactly how much crimp you are applying, therefore, the pressures will go up and down, somewhat, meaning you'll have to stay away from some higher pressure loadings, for fear of an over-pressure condition. The good news is, the tubing cutter can be bought for $4.99 and less, and put you into business in a real hurry. Don't fret about the pressure differentials vs accuracy (again be concerned about approaching maximum loadings), using the tubing cutter side-crimp, because, the dramatic increase in powder burn efficiency, you'll then be getting, greatly increases accuracy and speed, all by itself, a side crimp die just makes things much more uniform and we all know why we want that. The comparison I'll use is, using a LeGENDRE SIDE-CRIMP DIE, might reveal groups of say sub MOA and the tubing cutter side crimp, might reveal groups, with the same loadings, of say 1.5+ MOA. This is only an example, but, representative of what one could see, but I'd like to point out that a Moose or Bear or Deer or even much smaller animals won't be concerned about or accuracy problems, get it, wink. What you will be doing, with your new side-crimp is akin to getting free speed (no-such thing, but you will get speed anyway) and that does equate into something the water-based targets have to worry about.

An, after thought, sometimes the side-crimp will cause the mouth of the cartridge to come away from the bullet slightly, not usually enough to cause feeding problems, but unsightly. Applying a slight tapper crimp after the side-crimp, cures this. Also you'll need to take the tubing cutter apart and round the edge off the cutter, as described in the article you sighted.

Good luck and keep us apprised of your work, believe me, all of us, me included, are very interested and will be paying attention..

[450+]

Thanks guys for the quick responses. I would like to use the 45-70 modification but I'll need to get the die and hunt down a machinist, so the tubing cutter modification seemed like the best start for now, something even I could do. Plus I just received my Lil'Gun and am aching to load up some 230gr FMJs. MOA accuracy would be sweet but realistically I'm loading up for plinking, hunting, and defensive purposes. "Minute of grizzle," as wildcatter has coined, is good for me, anything else is just gravy.

If no one has a picture, am I right that the longer screw is simply to hold the nut, or is it for something else? Does there need to be a gap inserted between the two "handles" and that's why a longer screw is used?

I guess I don't get why I can't just dull the crimper and get to crimping, leaving the factory screw/bolt alone.

[MudBug]

Thanks guys for the quick responses. I would like to use the 45-70 modification but I'll need to get the die and hunt down a machinist, so the tubing cutter modification seemed like the best start for now, something even I could do. Plus I just received my Lil'Gun and am aching to load up some 230gr FMJs. MOA accuracy would be sweet but realistically I'm loading up for plinking, hunting, and defensive purposes. "Minute of grizzle," as wildcatter has coined, is good for me, anything else is just gravy.

If no one has a picture, am I right that the longer screw is simply to hold the nut, or is it for something else? Does there need to be a gap inserted between the two "handles" and that's why a longer screw is used?

I guess I don't get why I can't just dull the crimper and get to crimping, leaving the factory screw/bolt alone.

You can, the drill is not required.

Did you get the Hornady die set? If you did it comes with a taper crimp, there is no requirement for any other kind of crimp. I called and talked to the Hornady folks about making a side crimp and they were kind of at a loss as to why people want one. They said the factory ammo is all done with a taper crimp and they feel it does a good job.

There seem to be twoe reasons that people are looking for a side crimp style die/tool.

1.) so far with some testing (a small testing pool) it seems to give more consistent pressure, and therefore more consistent velocities which will help tighten up vertical spread.

2.) shooting lighter bullets like the 185 grn bullets. They seem to be so light that they leave the case before all the powder is burnt. A tighter crimp would help with that.

Your 230 grn bullets should not have a problem with number two.

So you are really GTG on reloading without any other tools, a side crimp is not a requirement.

[450+]

Thanks for the tip, that makes sense. I did get Hornady dies, so looks like I'm set.