Seat and crimp at the same time

[Melman71]

The adjustments have to be just so. The bullet is moving when the die is crimping so the combination of movements has to be right on; the bullet is just above seating depth as the crimp starts. If the crimp is early, the case mouth will be formed around a moving bullet, often crinkling/bulging the case. I've been reloading for about 30 years and still separate the steps; seat all bullets, then crimp all. I'm not in any hurry so avoiding one step has no advantage for me...

thats exactly what has been happening to me

[number1wrench]

Ranch Dog and mikdd I agree, Factory crimp or uniform case length critical and almost a kentucky windage feel to do both simultaneous. Richard Lee goes to lengths how Lee Precision arrived at crimp angle for caliber specific dies then goes on to expound Lee's factory crimp die. I believe reading between lines he is recommending factory crimp die.

[Melman71]

Yeah I would say your right

[bayou]

I've completely abandoned using the seating die for crimping. It worked well on straight walled pistol cases, and not so well on necked rifle cases. This latter group resulted in many bent necks since case length was not exactly uniform.

In short, the Lee Factory Crimp dies for all calibers is my aswer. I use them for everything, and they all work real well.

Result - no more ruined case necks - ever!

bayou