Single stage presses, seating and crimping ?

[DIYguy]

I use my XL650 for 223 and 9mm loads but for 223 Match and 6.5 Creedmore Match loads I use the single stage press. I noticed when I used a combination seating and crimp die on the progressive I had die rings on my bullets. Changing to separate seating and crimping dies solved that problem and seem to give better completed loads.

I've notice I have the same die mark when I use the single stage press as I'm using a Hornady Custom Match seating/crimp die. Some rounds are more difficult to seat than other so thinking varience in neck tension or other issues.

Does anyone do separate seating and separate crimping on a single stage press? Lot of extra work as every round has to go through the process twice, lot of handling etc.

Thoughts?

[DesertTortoise]

-no need to crimp these rifle rounds at all. You can test with and without crimp but the general consensus is not to crimp and, if you do, use a very slight crimp

 

-the mark (ring around top of bullet) is probably from the seating stem vs a crimping function. It's cosmetic and can be eliminated by matching the seating stem to the shape of the bullet. 

 

-I've found more consistent neck tension by running the resizing die with the expander ball removed and then running an expander Mandel (sold by Brownells) as a separate operation

Edited September 29, 2019 by DesertTortoise

[AHI]

What DT said above no need to crimp all neck tension