Compression Die Depth.

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concretus

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Hello,
What is the recommended depth you should compress a BP charge to seat a bullet. Would an 1/8" from the length of the bullet to the crimp groove be too much? is there any chance for the bullet to move forward? Thanks
 
It depends on your powder charge, lots of different variables. What are you shooting? GG or PP? Lead or other?
 
I'm testing black powder 45/70 loadings for an 1884 Springfield Trapdoor. Cartouche date is 1888....using Missouri .459" 405 grain LFP over various Scheutzen FFg charges. I've taken volume charges from 55.0 to 70.0 grains @ 5 grain increments, weighed ten samples of each, took the average for weighted charge to be consistent. I'll use a .025" card wad between the bullet and powder charge. Compress the charge with a Lee compression die. I've read that it is not recommended to use seating the bullet to do any compression; but you also do not want any gap between the card and the base of the bullet. I thought to compress the charge 1/16"-1/8" from the length of the base of the bullet to the crimp groove to insure no gap without anymore compression. Would that be okay?
 
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As long as it doesn't distort your brass you should be fine. Yes, compressing with the wad is the way to go .I use a taper crimp to hold my bullets.
 
Thanks..,I prefer to put a taper crimp also but taper crimp dies are unavailable right now (unless I use a .45 Colt TC die) Right now I just adjust the bullet seating die to take the flare out of the case mouth and give it a slight crimp…Thanks for the response..
 

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