New Reloader – looking for guidance

I recently purchased a Hornady LnL AP press, 45 shell plate & .45 dies.  I read 3 different reloading handbooks, the mfg documentation, I watched the mfg DVD and countless others on YouTube.  Feeling confident I embarked upon the task of setting up the press in a cautious and measured pace. I set a goal of making 5 dummy rounds (no primers or powder). Based upon postings from this forum I purchased some magnus bullets and Starline brass.  Setting up the press wasn’t difficult.  The seating & crimping die sent me back to the DVD for a review.  In a nutshell I cannot remove my case flare and get my crimp down to .468.  I’m at .472.  I tried reducing the flare to the point where I can hardly seat the bullet, still no luck.  The rounds will not chamber in my 1911.  They seat about 90% of the way and then i feel resistance. I don't want to force it or drop the slide on them.  Factory rounds slide right in.     I went back to the books and various forums but couldn’t find a solution.  I called Hornady and was told to use .451 bullet.  That’s what their dies are engineered for.     This doesn’t really appeal to me as the standard is .452 but there is a supply of .451s on the market.  I was thinking of purchasing a dedicated crimping die but as I thought about it I should probably buy a new set of dies that’s engineered for .452.  Anyone have any thoughts?  A recommendation on new dies, crimp vs. a whole set? A preferred manufacture?       Thanks in advance for your input.

Don you will get better results by using a seperate seat and crimp die.

Dave C.

I agree. A separate crimp die makes things a lot more simple (in my mind) than using the seater to crimp. I got a Lee Factory Crimp Die (probably the only Lee equipment I own) and it works quite well and it's inexpensive. That's certainly not to discount Hornady dies and equipment (I LOVE my LnL AP!) as their separate crimp die would do fine also.

I seat and crimp in the same stage on my Lee Pro 1000 cuz that's the only option.  Now that you have those rounds that have bullets correctly seated, remove the seating insert.  Put one of your rounds that needs crimping in the shellplate, index it to the crimp/seating station and run the shellplate all the way up.  Start turning the crimp die (without the seating stem in it's crimp only at this point) until it's tight against the case of your round.  Lower the shellplate a skosh and turn the die about 1/4 turn farther.  Push the shellplate to the top and measure your crimp.  Repeat with 1/4 turns of the die until the crimp is right.  After the crimp is right put the round in one last time with the shellplate all the way up.  Turn the seating stem in until it stops against the bullet and that is the correct seating setting for that crimp.

Let me know if that didn't make sense.

-Rob

Rob's got it, although I'm inclined to go 1/8 turns myself...

Jim

I am late to offer advice, the replies above have covered your answer.
I will add that I use both Lee Carbide Factory Crimp dies (mostly for my revolvers so far) and Hornady Crimp dies (for my .40 and .45 autos). Having learned to separate my seating and crimping operations a few decades ago, I could never go back to trying to do both at once and living with the compromised results. My Hornady crimp die puts a very nice taper crimp on the .45 acp rounds that I load.

Bruce

A 45 acp needs to be taper crimped in a separate station, that will cure your problems.

Thank you all for your guidance.  I'll pick up a crimping die.
Don

DavidR wrote:A 45 acp needs to be taper crimped in a separate station, that will cure your problems.

Note the taper crimp die is needed...

I don't mention to to disagree with the use of a taper crimp die, but rather as an side note. When I was first starting in bullseye, I met a guy who did quite well using a roll crimp for his .45 wad loads. I've heard of it since but he's the only guy I've seen use it. I've never tried it. A taper crimp seems like a much easier way to go and obviously works.

Generally a roll crimp would use a crimping groove, or over the bullet ala 148 wadcutters in a mod 52. As a .45 acp uses neither the taper crimp is preferred.

I don't remember what weight bullets he was using. I think they were not the usual SWC design that is common but something more round nose. In any case, I only mentioned it as a point of interest. I should have been more explicit. I agree that a taper crimp is preferred.

Thanks for all the input. I purchased a taper crimp die and the results are good.  As planned, I made my dummy rounds, measured the crap out of them.  Then my first 10 live rounds.   My trip to the range was a success. No mishaps and all 10 rounds fed, fired, and extracted flawlessly.  A complete success from my point of view

DonBrummer wrote:  My trip to the range was a success. No mishaps and all 10 rounds fed, fired, and extracted flawlessly.  A complete success from my point of view

Congrats! yup,  there is nothing like the 1st time one shoots their own reloads.

As a added measure get a check guage for 45 acp, then just drop your loaded round in and  if it fits it will fire

The case gauge is also good for testing cases before loading (after sizing). If it won't drop into the gauge then, it won't once it's loaded either. You can then set those cases aside.

Don't fire your match rounds in a Glock either. If you have brass that may have been fired through one you will want to run it through a Lee Bulge Buster before cleaning and reloading. I found just a couple thousandths shift at the rims of some brass I salvaged from the PD range. All once fired Winchester but much of it had been run through a Glock so it didn't like my match chambered 1911 at all with just normal resizing.