Crimp on 56-50 Taylors with Lyman dies

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Howdy to the camp,

I noticed that the Lyman 56-50 dies do not have much of a crimp, even bottomed out on the ram. The bullets (.512s) will actually turn in the cases mouth if the brass is fired and reloaded.  Virgin brass seems to be tight.

I took off about 1/16" of the bottom the the crimp die, and it does a much better job.  I like a tight crimp with BP and BP substitues.  I know some  books say you dont need a crimp on BP

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Yankee Bandit,

I think I already did this to the die set I sent you.

[Dakota Widowmaker]

Do you have much problem with bullets getting pushed into the cases with the starline case and .512 bullets?

Also, how many bullets will fit in the magazine tube? I think I read that the Taylors only holds 6, but, originals hold 7. True?

[Grizzle Bear]

The Taylor's Spencer will hold 7 in the magazine.  I think you can cram 8 in there, but they won't feed.

Grizzle Bear

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Shooting BP and Triple Seven, you fill the case and compress, so the 512s dont go back in.  I think with smokeless, though, that may be a problem with the minimal crimp the Lyman dies have if you do not alter them the way I did.  With the alteration, they would not push back in.  Nice tight crimp.

[Hell-Er High Water]

When I initally got my set of Lyman 56-50 dies there were three problems with them.  1)  The sizing die would not size the case enough to properly hold a bullet.  2)  The expander plug would bulge the case web when expanding the case.  3)  The seat/crimp die would not crimp the case properly before bottoming out on the shell holder.  After discussing these problems with Lyman they had me return the dies to them.  They either repaired and/or replaced the incorrect components and the dies now work fine.  Apparently the earlier die sets had some problems that have since been resolved by Lyman.  Just thought that I'd throw this in for you to see in case anybody else ends up with die problems.  It's not the individual, it's a die problem that Lyman now has a fix for.

Hell-Er High Water

[Dakota Widowmaker]

After loading 64 rounds of 56-50 with my new Lyman dies, there does not appear to be any issue with the crimp.

I am using virgin brass, which may be why I am not having issues.

The .512" sized bullets I have are held firmly in place with the crimp and there does not appear to be any issues with them.

I purchased my dies just recently from MidwayUSA. (they were backordered for several weeks...new dies appear to have all the problems fixed)