how to check for best possible crimp?

[Fasthenk65]

Changed to .40 recently. All set-up for Ares bullets. Changed to H&N bullets and had a failure to FTF today (one out of 150) bullet was in chamber but brass hanging... Collegue said yr crimp is not good enough. So, adjusted for more crimp. Checked a factory bullet. Factory ammo is still more ' smooth' though. Should I increase crimp further? What is the best way to decide om crimp level? Feel? Compare with factory ammo? Measure??? If so, how? Help greatly appreciated!

 

Henk

[Furrly]

Pull apart a completed round.. Proper crimp does not show any markings on the bullet 

[Hi-Power Jack]

The brass should be straight - no flare or indentation.

 

BUT, I've never had to change the crimp when I change bullets.  Are the H&N lead ?

 

Because, I've had trouble with lead hanging up.

 

As Furrly mentioned, pull a round and make sure there's no markings on the bullet,

but it sounds like you might not have fully removed the belling - that would require

more crimp, not less crimp.

 

I added crimp, ten years ago, until I could PLUNK all my rounds into my chamber,

and backed off when accuracy was adversely affected.

 

There are also quantitative dimensions that you can use - but for me, it was just

experimental, until I got accurate loads that would feed properly     

[72stick]

On 6/3/2018 at 3:09 PM, Fasthenk65 said:

Changed to .40 recently. All set-up for Ares bullets. Changed to H&N bullets and had a failure to FTF today (one out of 150) bullet was in chamber but brass hanging... Collegue said yr crimp is not good enough. So, adjusted for more crimp. Checked a factory bullet. Factory ammo is still more ' smooth' though. Should I increase crimp further? What is the best way to decide om crimp level? Feel? Compare with factory ammo? Measure??? If so, how? Help greatly appreciated!

 

Henk

 

You didn't mention what gun you are using. I'm not familiar with Ares or H&N bullets - jacketed/plated/lead? Every gun is different. Even when my hand loads pass the chamber check tool, my STI Edge still needs a little extra crimp with lead bullets to feed correctly. Jacketed and plated aren't quit as sensitive to get them to feed. You can easily over crimp plated bullets and that reduces their accuracy potential.

 

I've found the most useful way to know how much crimp I need is to remove the barrel and crimp until the round passes the "plunk test" with a few rounds to make sure they drop into and fall out of the barrel chamber freely.