Crimping or not ?????????

[BOWTIE4X4295]

I have never done any crimping while reloading, but I have always reloaded for bolt rifles. Now a friend wants me to reload some for his Browning BAR which is semi-auto. Will the bullets br plenty secure in his rifle with no crimp. It will be 140gr BT's in 270 cal? Just curios because of all the jerking going on in the magazine. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[rick smith]

Best way to find out is to try some rounds in that rifle. I have loaded for several autos and have never had to crimp. Nosler 140 BTs don't have a crimping groove so trying to crimp with standard dies could result in problems. I haven't tried the Lee factory crimp die so can't speak from experience on it.Rick.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I very highly doubt the 270 has enough recoil to make a difference. My dad has a Browning BAR in .338 and we reload and have no problems. I wouldn't suspect you would, but like Rick said, best way is to load a couple and just shoot them to find out. There is no substitute for shooting sometimes, darn huh :grin:

 

[steve4102]

I have a Browning Bar in 300WSM. I use the Lee Factory Crimp Die and it works great. With the LFCD you do not need a bullet with a cannelure. It will work with any bullet. The LFCD will also crimp rounds that have inconsistent brass length with no problems.
I tested my BAR as follows, seated the bullet to the desired length, cycled it through the action a few times manually, and checked the OAL, the bullet DID creep out. The recoil is not what causes the bullet to creep out, it is the round being slammed into the chamber.
Here is some interesting reading on the LFCD and accuracy.

http://www.accuratereloading.com/crimping.html

 

[Blaine]

I use a Lee Factory Crimp die on everything I load. It will work on any bullet and any case length. I did a test on several of my best loads with everything exactly the same except for the crimp, and found that the crimp DID improve SD's as well as accuracy on every load. Some improvement was marginal but others were quite significant. It convinced me that crimping, although not absolutely necessary in every case, does improve most loads. I think it has to do with a consistent release pressure from cartridge to cartridge. Once the die is set up, taking the extra step to crimp after each bullet is seated takes only seconds. I use a second press along side my bullet seating set-up so there is limited motion/time involved. I will continue to crimp as long as I hand load. I know there are a lot of opinions on this and some say that bench rest shooters don't do it, but I can't argue with the results of my tests.


Blaine