Let me start by saying I have never been a fan of crimping rifle ammo. Except for 30-30 ammo to be used in a rifle with a tubular magazine, I have never crimped any rifle ammunition.

I have loaded shells for several 375 H&H rifles and one 378 Wby Mag. (Quite a few shells, actually.) I have never crimped any of these.

Now it appears I may be working up loads for a friend's new 416 Rigby. I am wondering if you experts here on the Big Bore forum could tell if you think I had better crimp that ammunition.

If it were a bolt gun with a magazine, I am sure I would crimp a cartridge of that size, but this gun is a double rifle. There is no magazine for the shells to jump around in.

However, I am not sure if you might get some bullet pull if you loaded both barrels and then for some reason wound up shooting just one of them several times.

I am open to suggestions here.

Crimp.

Ditto.

Send a dummy cartridge to Lee, and order a custom factory crimp die. Do not complain about the price. It will be some of the best money you have ever spent.

It is NEARLY impossible to get any sort of decent crimp using your normal seater die. When the crimp is applied as a separate step with a Lee factory crimp die, it works beautifully 100% of the time.

if you plan to load from the mag, crimp ..if its a double, CRIMP!!!! if its a single shot, it doesn't matter

I crimp my 416 Rigby rounds (and yes I learned the hard way).....the secret to crimping is a little will do the job. I use Redding dies and it is easy to get a nice roll crimp. Others prefer the Lee set-up.

Crimp if the brass will let you. My RCBS seater bends the shoulder on NORMA and Hornady brass. If my hunting loads in older Federal nickel brass weren't already prepared I'd have to get a crimp die made.

I have never Crimped Any shells for my 416 Rem.
And I do not plan to.

Crimp,

I use RCBS dies and you need to seat and crimp in separate operations. Once you seat the bullet, usually to the very top edge of any cannelure, you can sneak up on the crimp with the seater die by screwing it down so very slightly into the press and checking. I measure the amount of crimp with calipers and you can do it successfully if you are careful. All of your cases must be of the same length. Go slowly and yes a little is all that is needed.

I've heard that the Lee die works well but they wanted $75 to make one as it is a custom/extra large size...but Lawndart tells us not to complain about the price and I'm sure he is right, all my other Lee crimp dies work great. I know from previous postes that Lee would reduce the price if they had multiple orders so if you go that route let the Forum know and you might get other takers, me included...and I promise not to complain any more...

Good luck

you can crimp and seat with the same die just not at the same time. set the die up high and seat bullet to make a dummy then back off the seating stem move die down to crimp the bullet. lock off the die ring. know to load remove die and place a washer under ring to seat bullets by adjusting the stem to the dummy then remove washer and back off stem crimp hope this helps clint

I crimp everything all the time. It's cheap insurance.

Get a Lee Factory Crimping die. It's mindless and makes a beautiful crimp. MMP