A first for me and I hope the last.

[Pittsburghunter]

I was shooting my .44mag rifle today and one of the rounds I loaded for the thing would not chamber and I noticed the bullet had seated below where it was crimped.

I was shooting a batch of 240g wad cutters and I believe the problem was a weak crimp on that round. It was in the middle of the magazine(tubular) and all the other rounds shot fine.

Do you think it was a weak crimp? What else would cause this?

[handloader1]

It sounds like a light crimp. What brand name are your dies? Did you trim all cases the same size? Sometimes if the cases are not all the same size, the case mouth (or crimp) may miss the cannelure. I like a heavy crimp on .44 Rem. Mags.; I will crimp them to the point just before the case turns into a accordion. Good luck.

[HighDesertWolf]

ORIGINAL: handloader1

It sounds like a light crimp. What brand name are your dies? Did you trim all cases the same size? Sometimes if the cases are not all the same size, the case mouth (or crimp) may miss the cannelure. I like a heavy crimp on .44 Rem. Mags.; I will crimp them to the point just before the case turns into a accordion. Good luck.

ill second that, on my magnums wether it be a 357 or 44 mag I like a good tight crimp especially if their gonna be used in my lever guns because of the combination of recoil and spring tension in the magazine tube.

[Pittsburghunter]

RCBS dies the bullet did not have a crimp cannelure it was a lead bullet but I am sure I crimped it in the right place. I was using new brass never fired and did not do presizing because I never have done that with pistol cases.

I am mad at myself right now because I threw the round into the swamp near where I was shooting for safeties sake. I should have brought it home and found out what happened. When I have other shooters around me I want no chance that someone else will try to shoot the round.


I do because of the fact I shoot the .44 out of a lever gun always crip pretty hard. I suspect I may be at fault at the loading bench somehow. I may not have noticed the round being that deep before the crimp but also say to myself that the die would crimp it anyway because it is only lead and brass and the die is steel.

I think I got a short piece of brass....

[HighDesertWolf]

straight wall rimmed cases like a 44 mag not so much 44 specials but deffinately magnums need to be checked for case length, even factory fresh brass should be checked ive noticed a varience in length as much as .003 on factory fresh brass, thats enough of a difference to effect your crimp.

with my 44 mags and 357 mags after firing ive noticed them to grow asmuch as .002 to .007 from just being fired once depending how hot I loaded them or brand of case. its always wise to check case length. just add it in as a step as your case prepping, i check and sort my cases while watching tv. its a simple task I think you will be amazed just how much a case grows from firing. good luck

[vangunsmith]

One should always resize your brass (new) before reloading and double check your dies to make sure they are set proper and the lock rings are locked before reloading. Then one should not have any problems. vangunsmith

[Pittsburghunter]

Thanks for the advive I always pre-size new bottleneck cases but thought the pistol rounds would be fine new out of the bag.

[vangunsmith]

Its better to resize all new brass,pistol or rifle. Especially in rifle,nickel plated,and deburr the necks as well. vangunsmith