I am fairly new to this reloading thing. I have been reloading for my .270. I have had good accuracy from my spitzer, flat based, reloads. I originally purchased SSTs, but could barely keep them on the paper. Tried different powder, but could not improve consitancy. I have also tried some sierra's that have a boat tail, and a couple of barnes. The barnes had the best group, about 2". I know Barnes recomends crimping (though I didn't know that when I loaded the sample bullets). From another post I got the impression that factory loads are crimped. Would crimping my reloads improve the accuracy of the boatails?

Probably not...

It may or may not,depending on the load.I don't find the need to crimp any of my handloads.

I am a big fan of the Lee Factory Crimp Die. It works very well and has improved accuracy in many of my rifles. That said, I don't think crimping will help you at all. It will not take a 2+ inch croup and make it happy. You haveother issues that should be addressed first. With loads that will not find paperor 2 inch plus groups you need to look at the Rifle, Scope, Mounts, Fouled barrel, Loading tech., Shooting tech, Shooting rest, etc. etc.

Tell us more about your rifle, scope, loads etc. Then maybe we can help you zero in on your accuracy problem.

The only thing I crimp other than shotshells are my handgun loads.

The accuracy issues are with the bullets in my opinion. With the flat based spitzers I can get loads with bullets that touch regularly on the target and average an inch. Since my loading technique, bullet setting technique are the same, and have been adjusted to try to make the load more accurate I think it is the bullet. My gun does not seem to like boattails. Ufortunately most of the perfomance or premier bullets are all boattails. The rifle is a late 70's era Remington 700 ADL. I have it bedded by a gunsmith, the barrel is free flaoting, the scope is a Nikon Monarch 2-7.

You may be right, your gun may just not like boat tails. Have you experimented with different weight BTs? There are a few flat based premium bullets available. Nosler Partitions, Swift A-Frame, Speer TBBC, Speer Grand Slam and theBarnes Triple-Shock X bullet in 150gr. If you like the premium bullets you may be stuck with these few FB.

I have seen crimping help, but rarely and in unusual circumstances like brass with harden necks.

I only crimp handgun rounds and levergun rounds for the most part. The reason for crimping handgun rounds is the obvious need for the round to develop a complete burn, and the reason for crimping levergun rounds is so that the gun doesnt push the bullet in when loading in the tube, or it being fed into the action. I have tried crimping some .270 and .243 with no added benefits as far as I could tell. But then again, if I can get a consistant 2" group at 100 yards I am happy.

You didn't mention the bullet weight, the powder charge, or the range that you are shooting.

Boattails like a lot of speed and may not fully stabilize at 100yds.

I also have an early '70s Rem700 in .270 that I have several loads for. All boat tails. They seem to prefer the upper end of the book-recommended loads.