44 mag and special case prep question

bodyalter

ok so here is my question of sorts....I'm relegous about following every step with care when doing my case prep. but as I was deburing all this 44 special brass I thought, "why am I doing this? it needs to be belled and then it will be crimped anyway so why bother?" Any thoughts?

Jack · Member Joined: Oct 19, 2005 Posts: 98

My first thought is that if you're belling cases enough that the case mouth isn't touching the bullet base at all when you place the bullet ready to seat, you're belling more than you need to.
Bell your cases just enough so that the bullet can get a start, with the emphasis on 'just'.
With your cases belled just barely enough, the inside chamfer on the case mouth will help the bullet sit, and seat, straight.
Why not bell enough that you don't need to chamfer? Because, the more you work the brass back and forth, sizing, belling, then crimping, the faster the brass work hardens and cracks. Usually, on straight wall pistol cases, cracks at the mouth are what ends the life of the case. So, less belling=longer case life.

Pumpkinslinger

You're deburring to clean up the case mouth and make for more consistent loads. I have seen case mouths that weren't deburred shave lead and copper off of bullets.

Bushmaster

It is important to debur and camfer the case mouth. Do it...

SwampFox

To obtain the best accuracy with a straight wall case, rifle or handgun and especially in a revolver, it is important that the cases all be the same length. You need to trim the cases, deburr and champher.

The crimp serves two purposes, it holds the bullet against recoil and it provides a consistant bullet pull when the cartridges cases have the same usage and the same length. Consistant bullet pull and a hard crimp are critical for accuracy when using most of the 44 powders, like #9, 296 or H-110.

When you bell the case, make very sure the bell is open enough not to shave copper or lead at the end of the press stroke. The bullet should seat and crimp without piling metal up on the case mouth.

The hardest crimp to get right is the roll crimp, easiest crimp to use is a taper crimp, which allows a bit of play in length. I prefer a profile crimp myself, which is a taper crimp with a slight roll.
Ed