Crimping Die for 38 Spl WC

Hi All,

I want to play around with the crip on my 38 Spl loads for my M52.  I have been using a Lee 38 crip die. I noticed that it crimps differently than the match grade ammo you can by commercially.  The Lee die crips higher on the case, where the match ammo has a crimp that starts its taper lower on the case. Does it matter?  What crimping dies have people found to work best for 38 Spl WC?  I get about 2" group with 2.9 gr BE at 50 yards. Looking to see if I can tighten it up a bit by optimizing the crimp.

Best,

Joe

I thought a roll crimp was used on wadcutters?

@lanjo

Greetings,

2" at 50 yards!!! Excellent!!! What bullet and brass are you using?

Cheers,

Dave

I’d back it down to 2.7 grains BE..

Normally I would agree with Jim as 2.7 gr was the recommended load as far back as I can remember however Dave is spot on. 2” groups at 50 yards is great. I wouldn’t change a thing. 

To directly answer the OP question, I have always used the Lee Roll Crimp die. 

John

Here is the image of the target - attached.  I got 1 flyer that I excluded.  This is with 148 Zero WCHB using Star Line brass and Winchester primers. I had 5 more rounds of the 2.9 BE so I put them on a separate target, and they got a similar group. I tried BE at 2.8 and 2.7 but they grouped at ~3". I also tried WST and HP38, but the BE grouped the best.  I did not have a chronograph, but the BE 2.9 was throwing cases the farthest, so probably the fastest bullet was grouping the best.

I did have the Clark 1:10 twist barrel installed, and Clark tightened the slide to frame a few years ago.

It has been a bit of work to find a load that works for my M52, that I did not have to pay $1 a round for.  So, if this holds up, I will be happy.

Can anyone suggest a die to put a taper crimp for 38?  I might want to try that in comparison to my Lee die which I think is putting a roll crimp on the case.

Hi Joe- I use the Redding Profile Crimp as a second operation after building the .38SPL on a Lee Pro1000 with no crimp.

Ha! A 1-10” twist would make a difference. Stay the course.

What charges of wst and hp38 did you use?

Standard 52s ( with their slow twist) seem to like a faster load..say 730 fps.

Slow stuff, in general, can perform well from a RR but, for most of us, is much less forgiving from the hand.

2.8gn of WST, Starline, Win SPP, and:

Looks like the Clark Custom aftermarket barrel made all the difference! I'll bet that Clark Custom will see a rush of business in the near future. If I still had my S&W model 52-1, I'd be first in line!

I use two different set ups as it pertains to crimping.  On Dillon RL1050 I use Dillon's 38/357 crimp die on station 6 and then Lee Custom (ring honed to 0.375" if I remember correctly) on station 7.  On Dillon XL650 I use above mentioned Redding 38/357 Profile crimp die.

Clark's 1:10 twist barrels have been around for more than 5 years.  Good barrels, but I experience quite substantial leading.  There were rumors that KKM is going produce 10T barrels for M52s, but it never materialized TMBK.

Properly loaded and assembled 38WC ammo is capable of holding sub-2" (x-ring) at 50Y from other then 1:10 barrels as well.  One example of such ammo is old factory Remington TargetMaster.

AP

Revolver, 1-12 twist