by Siringo » Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:27 am
WoC -- I do not chamfer my cases or expand them. If I trimmed, which is rarely - if at all, I might just break the sharp edge, but you need some sort of a 90 degree edge on the case to "bite" into the bullet jacket and to headspace on. If you chamfer to much, there will be no edge. I will taper crimp to .476". I do not expand because I want as much neck tension as possible with the die set and definitely I do not bell. IF your seating die is adjusted correctly (set to a depth just before the case would contact the internal crimp) the bullet should enter straight -- especially with the 250 gr FXT with the generous radius at the rear. The Hornady seating dies utilize a floating straight seating system that has worked well for me.
I do not use the side crimp and rely on case neck tension instead. In preparing my cases, the necks are thoroughly cleaned -- no lube, no powder residue, no carbon before I would seat the bullet. I try to get them as close to factory new. When sizing using the Hornady die set, the internal neck diameter will be around .446". Using the expanding die, this brings the internal diameter up to .448". By not expanding, I increase my neck tension by .002".
Regarding your chrono -- shoot a 22 lr over it and see what velocity you get. Wildcatter does this for calibration - I think!
Please keep in mind that this is what works for me and others have different approaches, but my goal is to create a reload that is as close to factory fresh as possible -- with the exception of some weird project that has no bearing on anything other than I can just do it.