450+ wrote:Greetings:
I was browsing the index of calguns topics at:
http://www.450bm.comand have a request for the crimp tool described here:
http://www.450bm.com/?p=198Could 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..