32 Winchester Special with Lyman #319247 overall length

[LonesomePigeon]

Thw Lyman 50th Edition Reloading Handbook has load data for the .32 Winchester Special using the Lyman #319247 165 grain cast bullet.

My question is about overall length. The book gives an overall length of 2.400" As you can see from the photo below if I go by 2.400" it will be crimped inside the lube groove and won't really even be crimping onto anything. If I seat the bullet at 2.380" it will be crimped just underneath the first band. This looks more correct to me because it will be supporting the bullet and preventing it from being driven deeper into the case under recoil. Plus if I seat the bullet to 2.400" there would be a good chance it's going to be driven down to 2.380" under recoil anyways.

Should I just seat at 2.380"?

Or maybe go a little bit longer than 2.400" and leave the entire first lube groove exposed? That way I could crimp either right on the second band or just below it for better support?

[Coffinmaker]

  Lonleybird 

In my sordid past, in an absence of an actual "crimp" groove, I crimped as you bullet shown on the right.  Crimped into the lube groove so the crimp is under but butting against the front driving band.  I feel it is especially important when used in tube magazines.  I greatly dislike turtles.

Further, having the crimp tucked into the lube groove will also tend to facilitate smoother feeding of the round.

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello Pigeon,

I agree with Coffinmaker.
I've had Remington factory loaded 30-30 ammo which did seat the bullet deeper with recoil while in the magazine.
A good solid crimp in the groove will prevent this from happening.
As far as the 0.019" difference in length, you'll never notice anything different.

AntiqueSledMan.

[LonesomePigeon]

Thank you for the replies. My thinking was in alignment with yours and I tried this shortly after I posted. I loaded them with a light charge of 20 grains IMR 3031 and I crimped just underneath the front driving band. I got the charge of 20 grains from and older Lyman book. The current Lyman book lists a start charge of 25.5 but the older book has a lower start charge for this and many other bullets. The accuracy with 20 grains was very poor, giving about a 7 inch group at 50 yards. In this case the bullets were cast from 40:1 so they were very soft. Maybe a harder alloy like Lyman #2 might work better. I probably will not do much more with this bullet as I think it was really designed for the .32-40.