WHAT ARE THE PRO'S AND CON'S OF CRIMPING?MOST PEOPLE THAT I KNOW THAT RELOAD FOR RIFLES SAY THEY PREFER NOT TO CRIMP,BUT YOU SOMETIMES READ THAT SOME PEOPLE ALWAYS CRIMP EVEN WITH BULLETS WITHOUT CANNELURES.EVEN LEE SAYS THEY RECOMMEND TO CRIMP,IS THIS JUST BECAUSE THEY SELL CRIMPING DIES?

One of the big advantages of a crimp is for use in a dangerous game rifle with heavy recoil. The crimp allows the bullet to remain in the case at a consistent depth.

Crimped rounds can also produce more uniform velocities in many cases.

Different people have different views of crimping and accuracy, some will claim increased accuracy while some the exact oppiosite. Saeed posted some of his experimental data elsewhere on the website.

I personally do not crimp most of my loads. I see it as an unessacry step for most of the calibers I load for besides pistol.

I've tried crimping (using the Lee Factory Crimp die) only a couple times as a last resort. I did see some improvement in velocity, uniformity and accuracy.

If you have a load that is generally accurate and has nearly the velocity you want, and especially if you aren't seating the bullet very deeply (say, the whole length of the case neck) it's worth a try.

Drop off a couple grains and work back up, of course, to allow for the increased pressure.

In rifle ammunition, I would ONLY crimp (1) extremely heavy-recoiling rounds and (2) ammunition to be used in an automatic which may tend to misfeed and jam a bullet back into the case.