I've personally never crimped a .308, either for the semi-auto LAR-8 I had or the Rem 700 I had.
just aquired a savage 7-08, I`ve been loadin for a little over a year but never this caliber..my re-load manual doesn`t say anything about crimping...
I've personally never crimped a .308, either for the semi-auto LAR-8 I had or the Rem 700 I had.
FTR in 223, BA LE Tactical in 308, 110 Flatback in CBI 6mmBR Norma, Others
Generally crimping a bottleneck cartridge isn't necessary but part of that is to have about a 1 1/2 to 2 thou smaller neck to bullet size. Once you start watching things annealing becomes part of the game also. Exceptions "might" be heavy recoiling rounds or when there is a channellure. It's pretty well a frowned on thing to crimp any bullet without one.
Hi, I have 3 7-08s. One an XP-100. I never crimp. I like to seat bullets close to the rifling and this usually (!) puts the cannelure quite far from the mouth of the shell.
ron
I'll share my loads, but the usual disclaimers apply....
Since this is a Savage forum, I'll only share the Savage Axis data. This is a new rifle and as with the rest of my Axis rifles, it NOW has a trigger slightly under 2 lbs as measured with my Hunter guage. The stock has been stiffened and weight added to make it more stable. This Axis has a Pentax 4-16X50 scope. ALL bullets have been coated with HBN, as has the bore. All COLs were derived using a Tool that places the bullet .010" off the lands. Private range, homemade shooting bench, bipod front, sandbag rear.....
- 110 gr Speer TNT / 48.0 gr RL-15 / CCI 200 pri OAL = 2.760 " Awesome combo!
- 139 gr Hornady (old school bullet, I have thousands of these from my silhouette shooting years) / 41.0 Varget / BR2 pri OAL = 2.840"
- 140 gr Nosler BT / 42.0 Varget / CCI 200 pri OAL = 2.825"
This rifle has < 100 rounds down the tube. From shot #2, it has shot all three of the above loads into ragged one hole groups. I can PM the photos of the targets if you think these are just "internet groups".. ha ha
I guess I'm just lucky, because all my Savages shoot like this. It took me 'forever' to get my M700 Varmint Spl (.243 Win) to shoot decent groups!
ron
Photos not necessary but I like fotos HAHA...thanx for the info ron...I just went to the toy store and no 140`s but I got a few boxes of hornady 139 interlocks, No H4350 either but you got me leaning toward trying Varget for some test loads....
I have never crimped on my 7-08s (bolt guns) & been loading then for so long I forget when I started.
You will not find a consistent answer about crimping; too much debate and no concensus from what I researched on a number of forums.
IMO crimping is mostly only good for keeping the bullet from setting back and thats about it.
I can see the need for it in a full auto machine gun, or a partially filled case, heavy bullet with heavy recoil gun, but not so much in a normal bolt gun.
I was looking at some old 444SS cartridges I have laying around, and some of those bullets were set back so I guess they did not have much of a crimp. Those are the only cartridges I have ever has setback on.
Everybody here that reloads generally is running compressed rifle loads, at least I do, so bullet setback is not much of an issue.
Besides if you are trying to set the bullet a certain distance off the lands that dimension never lines up with the channelure.
For hunting I just load at mag length so it may hit a channlure. If so I might give it alight crimp.
For barnes bullets I try to start testing jumped about 20-30 thou or so. That might or might not line up with a groove.
For VLD I usually start testing jammed about 15 thou. No channelure on those anyway.
For flatbase bullets I usually start testing jumped about 15 thou. Might or might not have one.
Last edited by tammons; 03-01-2013 at 05:01 PM.
Bookmarks