Question #1,028

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  • John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,734
    Socialist State of Maryland
    I may be crimping the cases too much. I will try to correct that.

    The 35 Whelen headspaces on the shoulder, not the mouth so your crimp should not affect your light strike problem. Perhaps you should reread the previous posts and see how many people have been telling you that.
     

    E.Shell

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 5, 2007
    10,244
    Mid-Merlind
    The 35 Whelen headspaces on the shoulder, not the mouth so your crimp should not affect your light strike problem. Perhaps you should reread the previous posts and see how many people have been telling you that.
    John, I had suggested that too-heavy crimping might be his culprit.

    I had also suggested that the bullet may present excessive seating resistance, also slightly deforming the shoulder in the same way.

    My line of reasoning is this:
    Excessive crimping/bullet seating pressures put a lot of down-pressure on the case shoulder. While almost any cartridge case can be deformed this way, the Whelen cases are relatively thin in that area and the shoulder can sag under this excessive crimping/seating pressure. I have loaded these things for 30 years and have done this to myself in the past with the crimp I formerly thought I needed. Live and learn...

    Further evidence of this is that his primed cases fire, but his loaded cases do not. Something is happening to headspace between charging with powder (no effect), seating the bullet and/or applying an unnecessary and potentially unnecessarily heavy crimp. Pick one...

    I suggested to the other poster that his Carbine ammo headspaces on the mouth and would be similarly affected by excessive crimping, by turning the case mouth in excessively, and that may also be his problem.
     

    E.Shell

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 5, 2007
    10,244
    Mid-Merlind
    I've never had a single problem reloading 35 Rem in my Marlin 336.
    My reference to the.35 Rem above has to do with comparison of the shoulder area vs the Whelen, that many criticize for having a small shoulder area. Both are trouble free with correctly adjusted dies.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,734
    Socialist State of Maryland
    Well Ed, I made them for a long time for an old bring back K98 and I don't ever remember having issues like he is having. I remember that, if I misajusted the crimp die, it would squash my case and it was readily apparent.
     

    Uncle Duke

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 2, 2013
    11,667
    Not Far Enough from the City
    I think Ed is all over this. Depending upon seating die adjustment/misadjustment, the shoulder is being set back, and probably as little as a few thousandths, so as to be largely unseen by the eye. From the sizing step, setback was fine. But it isn't fine now.

    To try to visualize this further, further misadjustment would actually begin to roll/crush the shoulder edge perceptibly, which of course we have probably all done by mistake at some point. Also worth mention I think is that, unlike '06 for example, the 35 Whalen shoulder isn't pronounced to begin with. It would be quite a bit harder to eyeball a small problem, but a problem large enough to impact headspace sufficiently to allow case movement sufficient to cause light primer strikes.
     

    E.Shell

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 5, 2007
    10,244
    Mid-Merlind
    Well Ed, I made them for a long time for an old bring back K98 and I don't ever remember having issues like he is having.
    No doubt, K98 = 'headspace on the extractor' + ample firing pin protrusion...you could have probably shot .308s through it...(don't try this at home) I know my K98 Whelen wasn't too particular either. Excess sizing would separate the case heads in a few firings, but it would always go 'bang'. \
    I remember that, if I misajusted the crimp die, it would squash my case and it was readily apparent.
    Absolutely, but in the OP's case, it might not be far enough to look crushed. If the OP is compounding a marginally adjusted FL die with only a slightly heavy crimp and/or inadequately chamfered case mouths, it wouldn't have to be visibly distorted,
     

    Melnic

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    15,282
    HoCo
    Well Ed, I made them for a long time for an old bring back K98 and I don't ever remember having issues like he is having. I remember that, if I misajusted the crimp die, it would squash my case and it was readily apparent.

    I have a vauge recollection of this happening to me on 8mm. I can't recall if it was the seating die or the crimp die. I do know that all my dies are Lee except the 8mm Mauser which is RCBS. I"m wondering if my seating die was set for a roll crimp that was too hard? (seating die turned in too much, the die, not the adjustment for the seating depth) I pretty much never use a roll crimp on a necked case, always a Lee FCD, some straight walled cartridges, I will put a small roll crimp on if I dont' have the FCD.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,734
    Socialist State of Maryland
    Lee FCD's and the other Lee crimping dies are relatively new to the world of reloading. While I started my reloading experience with Lees original die set ( the type you hammer) in the sixties, I quickly graduated to RCBS dies. I used a Brown and Sharpe vernier caliper as there weren't any digital versions and Hornady's fancy bullet seating stuff was just a gleam in Joyce's eye back then.

    Most of what I learned came via a California shooting club and the Fairfax Rod and Gun Club. They had lots of experimenters who also happened to be engineers. Crimping was always a pain as case length had to be perfect or you didn't get a crimp or you got a crumpled case.

    Back in the days I shot bench rest, we didn't crimp but then again we always loaded single shot into the chamber so the chance of bullet setback was slim.
     

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