Hi Gang,
I am putting a slight taper crimp on my .40 cal reloads. (Hornady dies)
I bought a gauge block online, and on a lot of loads, they will not feed into the block, as if the mouth of the case is too large.
I tried carefully increasing the crimp, it didn’t seem to make a difference.
Reduced the amount I “bell” the case mouth, didn’t make a difference.

What DOES help, is if I run the finished cartridge through a full length sizing die, I have a Redding G-RX die. (A friend shoots a lot of brass through a Glock, I get to pick it all up). Then, all the rounds pass with flying colors.

Anybody else experienced this, or have any taper tips?
Thanks!

The only purpose of a taper crimp is to close up the case mouth flare and slightly streamline the case mouth. And bullet grip is controlled by sizing and the expander diameter.

Pistol cases are seldom trimmed to a uniform length and the longer cases can bulge below the crimp.

Some case gauges only check headspace length and some gauges may also check case diameter. Some of theses gauges may have minimum case diameter to insure the cartridge will fit in any chamber.

If you are using cast or over sized plated bullets and thicker cases they might not fit in a gauge.

Bottom line, your barrel is your best gauge.

If a resized case fits in the gauge but a loaded crimped cartridge does not fit I would blame the crimp.

NOTE, the Lee factory crimp die with a carbide ring in it base is a "cheat" for reloaders who do not trim their cases.

The longer cases that bulge below the crimp will be sized down smaller by the carbide sizing ring. But it can also size over sized cast or plated bullets.

Place a straight edge on your case and eyeball the crimps.

Below no taper crimp and the case mouth is still flared.



And below a taper crimp, and the case is wasp waisted meaning it should have good bullet grip.

Yes, I was going to say;
Throw your gauge away.
Throw your taper crimp die away.
These items are sold just so the die companies can sell stuff: we did without them for the first 100 years of reloading.
Your barrel is your gauge and your FL die can be used to put the bell back straight if necessary.

Thank you,
Rich