38 wc crimp ?

I have read where some guys crimp over the end of the wc. when you do that doesn't it seem the wc could slide back in the case ? Could anyone post a pic of that crimp ?
I have loaded some flush which still gives some of the wc for the crimp to bite into and I have loade some with about 1/8 inch of wc sticking out of the case. Is there any advantage as to how the wc is crimped ?

I taper crimp mine with an OAL of 1.18" (just a bit outside the case).   Case tension keeps them from sliding back in the case, not the crimp, unless you roll crimp into the bullet or bullet's crimp groove.   For the guys with S&W Model 52's, how you crimp is important.   For guys like me with a Model 14, not so much.

Don

Like this.
Precision Delta

I use a roll crimp like store bought. The bullet never moves back in the case. Remember these are mouse loads and don't have the recoil of a .44 mag. I do leave a tiny bit of the bullet past the end of the roll. Also like store bought.

With the .38 special and 148 gr wadcutters it's a don't waste your time reinventing the wheel.

After the 10 Commandments, GOD etched in stone..

2.7 WST 148 gr HBWC flush mounted, roll crimp, and Federal primers...

Thank you for the replies. I can see now I am crimping too much.

I taper crimp only. As a matter of fact Winchester used to taper crimp only. The other major manufacturers (Remington and Federal) used to roll crimp. I always considered the roll crimp to aid in reloading revolvers. That would be important for PPC shooters.

will too much crimp affect the accuracy of 158 gr lswc's ?

rebs wrote:will too much crimp affect the accuracy of 158 gr lswc's ?

I can't say. A lot depends upon the type of crimp and maybe even the manufacturer. If it has a crimping groove, you should be able to put a medium roll crimp into that groove without distorting the bullet and be good to go. I did some accuracy tests with .45 ACP. Accuracy started to deteriorate after the crimp got very heavy. I stay with a .470" crimp for the .45 ACP. That being said, John Giles used to recommend, I believe a .465" crimp and others have confirmed very good accuracy with that. I think that Star dies were being used and that might be the difference.

rebs wrote:will too much crimp affect the accuracy of 158 gr lswc's ?

Not much. They are not very accurate to start with. Cynical but true. I am still trying to work up a decent 50yd load for that bullet.

Len

I tried every taper and roll crimp die I had and found that NONE gave me the accuracy of using a Redding Profile Crimp Die. Never found crimp to effect accuracy before, but it does for 148gn wadcutters in MY guns at least.
You want just enough roll crimp that the case mouth edge doesn't hang-up on the cylinder or feed ramp, and not more.
For 158gn SWCs, I always set the COL such that the case mouth was just below the top of the crimp groove in the bullet and then, in a separate step, I roll crimped into the groove. I found not real effect from just slightly rolled completely into the groove to just barely NOT contacting the bullet with the case mouth. More or less than that die affect accuracy.
For .38, I use as little crimp as possible.
I also found, with revolvers in .38 Spl, .357 Mag, and .44 Rem Mag and in my M52s semi-autos, that trimming the cases has no effect on accuracy and, in general, the untrimmed or mixed head stamp rounds gave slightly smaller groups and Std. Dev.--but a Student t-test still showed that there was no statistical significance to it.