I am loading some CAS loads for a Blackhawk revolver. Has anyone used a taper crimp die for light loads in the LC? I am shooting 165 grain LFN bullets and there really isn't a crimp grove to roll crimp them. I have a 45 ACP Taper crimp die and it looks like they have a pretty good crimp. I am just shooting 6.0 grains of Tite Group.

Also, As I recall way back when I shot bowling pins with a S&W 45 LC revolver. It seems the diameter of the bullets was 454. Later when I shot single action with the Ruger, it seemed to like 452 diameter bullets better. Did Ruger go 452 instead of the old 454?

You can roll crimp cast lead with no problems I do it all the time. just because there isnt a cannelure doesn't mean a thing. cast lead is soft enough the brass will dig into it when ya roll crimp it. but if you are concerned about it go ahead and use the taper crimp it will work too.

what HDW said will work,

it's general practice to crimp it over the first driving band

I never taper crimp with lead bullets for revolver use! If you are using lead bullets, a crimp groove is NOT necvessary to roll crimp them-the brass will fold right into the bullet whether there's a grrove there or not!

To the best of my knowledge, Ruger never made any .454" groove diameter barrels in .45 Colt. The MAIN consideration is that your chamber throats be not a lot bigger than the barrel groove diameter. I once had a beautiful Colt New Frontier single action. But it was impossible from the accuracy standpoint. The reason was, I discovered, that the chambers in the cylinder had .458" throats, and the groove diameter was only .452".

The bullets swaged up to .458" going through the chambers, then were squeezed back down to .452" to get down the barrel! Bad news!!

Thanks for the replies. The only reason I like to taper crimp is that case length is not as critical with a taper crimp. These are very light loads and I doubt that they will move under recoil. However I am just going to try a few then if need be I will roll crimp them. I always roll crimp heavy loads to prevent a bullet from jumping out a little.

Well This didn't work to well. I went to the range today with some loads of 6.0 Grains of Tite Group with a taper crimp. I chronographed them and got reading from 385 fps to 610 fps. I had some backed out primers and totally incomplete burning of the powder. I suspect a few thing here, the loads are to light and are detonating rather than burning the powder. There is not enough powder in the case for decent ignition, or they need a roll crimp to hold the bullet longer for better ignition. A magnum primer might help if the poor ignition is due to just not enough powder.

I chronographed some Ultra Max CAS 200 grain loads, they checked out at 626 fps. I also chronograph ed some 225 grain Remington LSWC's which were very consistent @844 FPS.

I took some of the same loads to the range today with a good roll crimp. While not perfect the readings were much better. I am going to try a small batch with Magnum primers to try to improve the ignition. Tite group is supposed to be non critical when it comes to powder position in the case but 6.0 grains doesn'tdo much for capacity in a 45 LC case.

For light CAS loads, I believe I'd give that Trail Boss stuff a try. It should work well in the .32/40 and .38/55 as well for BP equivalent performance without the crud....

The Magnum primers really did the trick. Those loads are now averaging 850 fps and very uniform reading. I think I will try the Trail Boss when this cab of Tite Group is gone. The 160 grain bullets with that load are about like shooting a 22 Magnum. The 6.0 grains of Tite Group really worked well with the 255 Grain Hornady's They are also right at 850 fps. The suprise was the 160 grain loads that shot about 850 fps in the 6 inch Ruger, shot 1101 fps from the 22" H&R 45 LC Buffalo Classic. The 255 grainers shot 960 fps from the rifle.