Loading some copper plated flatnose and was wondering how much crimp do ya 'll put on your lead and copper plated loads for auto's. I have had some pushed bullets in the past and some others loads had alot of unburnt powder but the crimp I was using was for jacketed bullets. So what do you guys use? By the way Berry's.

Just enough crimp to remove the mouth belling.

If you crimp a lead bullet hard what you end up with is a bullet that is squeazed down in diameter while the brass springs back a bit leaving a loose bullet. It you are using a lead bullet it should be about .001" (.452")oversized anyhow giving a good tight fit in the case. My cast loads are sort of a coke bottle in shape, but they function flawlessly and are very accurate.

45ACP head spaces on the case mouth and some times heavy roll crimping can cause head spacing problems and accuracy can suffer. I use a taper crimp die ( lite crimp)to put case back where it should be in alignment with bullet and keep the case mouth undisturbed .

I just loaded 500, 230 gr. copper plated .45 ACP on my Dillon XL 650 using a taper crimp which is the required method since it headspaces on the case mouth. No feeding problems....

It's more a problem with the 185 FN bullets that I use in IDPA, they make a much better hole on the target.

I never use a roll crimp in my 45 loads I use the an extra die factory crimp die
as far as OAL I load a dummy round and remove the barrel from the slide and seat the bullet until the rear case is flush with the barrel hood:that will be my max: OAL

You may find that those shorter , 185gr.bullets will require them to be seated less in the case to acheive a better angle for feeding . As described above , is the proper method for maxOL. (I prefer them to be a hair less than extending to the end of the hood for max.)

If you want to see some good holes , try the Hornady match 185 or 200 gr jacketed semi wad cutters, if you haven't already. I used to shoot my hand casts of the 200 gr.swc bullet, but got tired of cleaning the bbl. and went to the 200 gr. JSWC and my Gold Cup just loved them.

I don't crimp .45 ACP ammo for use in autos at all! I expand the case mouths with a .450" OD plug that places a slight bell on the mouth to start the bullet. When I seat the bullet, the die straightens out the bell.

The .002" difference betweenthe ID of the case mouth (.450") over the OD of the bullet (.452") has proven sufficient to keep the bullets from moving at all...... lead or jacketed! If this doesn't work for you, reduce the OD of the expanding plug until your bullets stop moving on you.

I tried the very same thing to avoid crimping with a.450 Alaskan in a Model 71 Winchester, and at .004" undersize case mouth ID, the bullets stayed put during recoil while in the tubular magazine of the rifle. This was an ultimate test!!

Before a match, I remove the barrel from my Gold Cup and drop every round I intend to use into the chamber, and make sure they all drop in freely all the way, their headspace is all the same, and that they drop backout when I turn the barrel upside down. I used to reject any that failed this test, but haven't rejected any in years!