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Posted: 12/19/2013 9:26:54 PM EDT
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Tried to setup my Hornady LnL tonight for 9mm.
Cleaned up the whole press and set of dies, and followed die instructions for adjusting each die. This was to be my first attempt at doing anything other than decapping and resizing. This is what I eneded up with. 2 rounds that came out at 1.100" COL, but had... issues. I beleive I didn't adjust either the expander die, or the taper crimp in the bullet seating die (or maybe both) correctly. They both required more pressure to extract from the bullet seating die that I would have figured it would need, what I noticed was some marks on one side of the brass, and the rim looked "waxed". Again dies were cleaned very thoroughly with CLP and inspected before they were reassembled. I extraced both of them with a bullet hammer. This is what I saw. Both bullets have a crimp mark, but one is actually through the jacket, and it also had a hell of a mark on top from the seater. 
Any advise on where to start? |
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Looks like the crimping action of the die is happening before the bullet is fully seated. What I do to prevent this when setting up my dies is to set the bullet seating depth to where I want it first. Next I will back out the bullet seater and set the crimp to where I want it. Finally with the crimp set I will run the press ram all the way up and with the ram in the up position I will set the bullet seater until it touches the bullet. On the next round I always have to play with the seating depth one more time. You will end up adjusting it in a little at a time measuring the overall length with calipers each time until the desired overall length is achieved. Once that is done you should be in business. I always check the next 3-5 rounds for overall length any way just to make sure they are right but I never have had to make any further adjustments.
Hope this helps. Good luck! |
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I had the same issue and did pretty much what the poster above said. Things looked and felt much better after getting my Redding die adjusted properly. The force required to seat the bullet is minimal now, too. My seater still leaves a little ring on the bullet.
I have a set of Lee dies with the FCD that I'm gonna try on the next batch. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Quoted:
Looks like the crimping action of the die is happening before the bullet is fully seated. What I do to prevent this when setting up my dies is to set the bullet seating depth to where I want it first. Next I will back out the bullet seater and set the crimp to where I want it. Finally with the crimp set I will run the press ram all the way up and with the ram in the up position I will set the bullet seater until it touches the bullet. On the next round I always have to play with the seating depth one more time. You will end up adjusting it in a little at a time measuring the overall length with calipers each time until the desired overall length is achieved. Once that is done you should be in business. I always check the next 3-5 rounds for overall length any way just to make sure they are right but I never have had to make any further adjustments. Hope this helps. Good luck! Success! Thanks guys! Worked perfectly using your suggestions. |
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Just a thought... the LNL AP is a 5 hole machine. That will allow you to seat and crimp in two different holes. With a jacketed bullet, I have never seen the need but when loading lead, seating and crimping in separate steps make the process cleaner and easier to me.
If you mean a singe stage LNL, you can still do the same thing but it does add a step to the loading process. |
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Great photographs. I think you are taper crimping a little too heavy. Taper crimping should not cause distortion of the bullet body. Also if you are plowing bullet gilding metal up ahead of the case mouth, you are changing the head space on the 9mm in the chamber. Try light chamfering of the case mouth internally before bullet insertion.
Seat, then crimp, in sequence, as suggested above. It is something I always do. Trying to compound seat and roll crimp the soft neck and shoulder of 5.56 bottleneck rifle cases has never worked for me even though the die instructions from RCBS would lead one to believe it would work. |
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I have a 3-Die Taper Crimp Hornday Die Set. Right now station 4 is empty but that will eventually have my powder cop.
After following the first couple suggestions above I now have a .375" crimp and the remove bullet shows no marks. I did have both my expander and crimp set WAY too aggressive. I said CLP but what I used was Rem Oil Teflon Spray, I figure it's pretty similar to the Hornady One-Shot cleaner / lube. Except for the threads, most of it was wiped away. I may switch to the bullet expander bushings for the powder drop at some point and that would free up a station in which I could switch to a separate taper crimp die if necessary. Thanks again to everyone responding. Appreciate helpful feedback and not a bunch of RTFM responses :) |
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Quoted:
I never seat bullets and crimp in the same die. Any caliber, rifle or pistol. Get a dedicated crimp die. This. The built in crimp in the Hornady die is a roll crimp; not something you really want in a semi-auto since it is headspaced off the case mouth. I use taper crimps for my pistols since all I have are semi-autos. EDIT: Just saw your post... Guess you got lucky with the taper crimp set. I bought a roll crimp as I did not know better when I started. |
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Quoted:
Looks like the crimping action of the die is happening before the bullet is fully seated. What I do to prevent this when setting up my dies is to set the bullet seating depth to where I want it first. Next I will back out the bullet seater and set the crimp to where I want it. Finally with the crimp set I will run the press ram all the way up and with the ram in the up position I will set the bullet seater until it touches the bullet. On the next round I always have to play with the seating depth one more time. You will end up adjusting it in a little at a time measuring the overall length with calipers each time until the desired overall length is achieved. Once that is done you should be in business. I always check the next 3-5 rounds for overall length any way just to make sure they are right but I never have had to make any further adjustments. Hope this helps. Good luck! This is exactly right. You can seat and crimp in one step as long as you set the die correctly and this is the way to do it. In the OP's pics, the case on the left was not flared or belled enough. Bell the case mouth just enough to start the bottom of the bullet into the case, and thats all thats needed. |
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Quoted:
This. The built in crimp in the Hornady die is a roll crimp; not something you really want in a semi-auto since it is headspaced off the case mouth. I use taper crimps for my pistols since all I have are semi-autos. EDIT: Just saw your post... Guess you got lucky with the taper crimp set. I bought a roll crimp as I did not know better when I started. Quoted:
Quoted:
I never seat bullets and crimp in the same die. Any caliber, rifle or pistol. Get a dedicated crimp die. This. The built in crimp in the Hornady die is a roll crimp; not something you really want in a semi-auto since it is headspaced off the case mouth. I use taper crimps for my pistols since all I have are semi-autos. EDIT: Just saw your post... Guess you got lucky with the taper crimp set. I bought a roll crimp as I did not know better when I started. Figured it out after I bought them from Midway. Promptly canceled the order then waited for them for 10 months on back order before finally getting them from Natchez. Don't load any revolver rounds. Didn't see the need for any roll crip dies when taper were now available. |
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