I've been playing with the 400g Hornady RN's in my 416 Taylor and am compressing loads much below recommended maximum's for the round. It's my understanding that Hornady recently began placing the cannelure closer to the bullets nose than it previously did, in any case, the seated and crimpted bullet extends well below the case shoulder. I have plenty of room in the magazine and tons of throat so I was wondering if there is a slick way to cut an additional crimping groove at the correct position on the bullet. If so,would this weaken the bullet significantly and affect terminal performance? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Don't bother....order a Lee Factory Crimp Die and you will be able to crimp anywhere on the bullet.

goto www.ch4d.com
click on bullets
click on cannelure tools
56 bucks
jeffe

I have read that using a Lee Factory Crimp die anywhere on the bullet but in a cannelure designed for a crimp like that just crushes the bullet. That naturally throws it out of round, does who knows what to the ballistics and destroys any accuracy you might have had with it. This is just me reading, I have never used one. Makes sense if you think about it tho.

Ruger#1

Jeffosso is right, the CH bullet and case canellure tool is a great piece of equipment, I have one left over from my bullet swaging experiment days, still use it on some bullets, especially putting a new cannellure on Speer and Hornady 32 win special bullets for my 32-40 jacketed bullets for an old Winchester 94.

I got to agree with you as it certainly "killed" the accuracy of my Remington 700 450 Marlin.

So far I've used Barnes 250gr & 300gr XFNS, Barnes 300gr & 400gr Originals plus the Nosler 300gr plus several weights of cast bullets. Loads that develop in excess of 3500 ftlbs of muzzle energy and the very best I can get is 3 shots into less than an inch at 100 yards ...just think what they would do if I didn't use the Lee Factory Crimp Die.

Now I need to be honest and say that all the bullets don't always go under moa but most do most of the time and I believe it is mostly shooter error as recoil is stout in my light rifle at this level of performance.

I should also say that if you don't use the Crimp Die you can't hold the bullet down on the amount of powder needed in the 450 Marlin or the 45/70.

Appreciate the link to the cannelure tool--will the additional groove affect the terminal performance of the bullet, ie make it come apart due to the weakened jacket caused by pressing in a second cannelure? That's my main concern.

[ 04-01-2003, 09:07: Message edited by: snowcat ]

Snowcat,
I'm not an expert, but I never saw and evidence of the bullet's terminal performance being impacted by the additional cannelure, most of my experience with this is in the 32-40 where I had to add a cannelure in front of the factory one.

not sure if this helps or not, but hope it does.

Snowcat - I'll sell you my C&H canneluring tool for $25 + USPS Priority shipping from Alaska. I haven't used it in quite a while and don't foresee using it again real soon. lgregovich@gci.net

Snowcat: Corbin (in Oregon) makes a better cannelure tool than C-H, IMHO. They can be reached at (541) 826-5211 or at www.corbins.com.