modern roll crimper for shot shells

[panhead pete]

Howdy All,

I now have a drill press and I am considering purchase of the steel roll crimper available through Midway.  I am curious if you used it on plastic or paper only.  And if the overall length of the shell needs to be trimmed.

Happy New Year,

Panhead Pete

[Dick Dastardly]

http://www.precisionreloading.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?

Scroll down and you will find one for about twelve bux.  You can roll crimp any length shot shell.  The roll crimp works well on both plastic and paper hulls.  It's the way I crimp all my scattergun bp ammo.

DD-DLoS

P.S.  I get my Circle Fly wads from Track of the Wolf.

[panhead pete]

Thanks Dick,

How's the weather over there? 

For my all brass shells, I use an overshot card that I stamp (self inking stamp -$12) a number 8 on.  Then you can see the 8 through the water glass(sodium silicate).  I am looking forward to seeing my 8 on top of a rolled paper shell!

Kind regards,

Panhead Pete (Who lives near Detroit and is very cold right now!)

[Dick Dastardly]

It's Wisconsin, it's winter, it's cold.  Likely to stay that way for a while.  We'll get the true poop from Jimmy the Groundhog come Feb 2.  He and the Farmers Almanac get the weather predictions done around here.

Occasionally we have calendar events occur on the same day that, when put together, seem to carry special meaning.

Two such events will coincide in America in February of 2011, when both Groundhog  Day and the President's State of the Union address occur on the  same day.

As you already know, Sun Prairie is the home of the official weather prognosticator.  He's Jimmy the Groundhog and he will make his official statement to breathlessly awaiting news hacks.

As Air America Radio pointed out "It is an ironic juxtaposition of events - one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of  little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog."

That roll crimp tool is shown at the bottom of the page.  It's a polycarbonate item, but it works good for me.  I wish they made them in other gauges.  I roll crimp .410, 20ga, 16ga, 12ga and 10ga.  I like to hold the loaded shell in a Mec Supersizer.  That does two jobs at once.  I use an inexpensive bench top drill press to spin the crimp tool.  Works great.

Keep loadin'.  Spring's coming.

DD-DLoS

[hellgate]

I only have trimmed those hulls that had very thin lips that were very tapered or singed from multiple firings. I have, just for fun trimmed and loaded very short 2" shells as gamer loads. They actually did shuck out easier and were quick to load but I am not advocating it as a speed technique.

[fourfingersofdeath]

I only have trimmed those hulls that had very thin lips that were very tapered or singed from multiple firings. I have, just for fun trimmed and loaded very short 2" shells as gamer loads. They actually did shuck out easier and were quick to load but I am not advocating it as a speed technique.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! I could find a ready market for them

[Noz]

I ventured into the roll crimp a while back.

They are slow to construct. They require a handheld antique device or a drill press mounted device. With the drill press application then a shell holder must be purchased or fabricated.

I built the 2" finished version.

They are not easier to load in a double.

They shuck about like a 8 point star crimped hull.

They tend to burn the mouth of the hull badly making it a probable one shot usage.

I abandoned the idea and went back to my 8 point crimped hulls.

One of our shooters uses an 87 and the shorter length is wonderful for him.

[Fox Creek Kid]

I had bad luck with the "new" metal crimpers. It is better IMO to search out a good antique one. YMMV.

[rickk]

The new double-pin crimper from Ballistic Products works well.

They also have a hull vise for holding the hulls, and a hull trimmer for cutting hulls shorter.

All work well for plastic hulls.

You can also trim plastic hulls with a larger (1"+) forstner drill bit in a drill press.

I have never tried paper hulls, no idea what would happen there.

I have used the MEC super-sizer to hold hulls in a drill press as well (DD's idea). It works really, really well, but my super-sizer is now permanently bolted to my basement reloading bench and the drill press is in my shed.

[Dick Dastardly]

My band saw does quick work of shortening shot shells.  The trick in roll crimping is holding the loaded shell straight and steady.  A Mec Supersizer does this for me.  You can use a hand drill motor, but a small bench top drill press works better.  I get real good roll crimps.

DD-DLoS

[Tequila Jim]

El Cheepo Tequila Jim uses a pair of vice grips to hold the shell when roll crimping.
I think the one I use is intended to hold pipe. Regards, Jim

[hellgate]

While roll crimping I set the hull down onto a block that is covered with fine grit sandpaper. The crimping head fits into the drill press. I think it has a 1/4" shank. The extra traction prevents the case head from spinning.

[Pappy Myles]

guess I got lucky,  about 30 years ago RCBS had a shotgun die for their Rock Chucker.  I bought one, used it about 50 times, then got smart and went to a Mec.     

A couple of years ago, I started shooting black powder and picked up some mag tec brass shot gun shells  (yeah yeah, a tad expensive but at a gun show in Houston, a guy had them and was getting rid of them .  So I picked up about 10 boxes from him.

So I'm having fun learning how to manually load them.  I noticed that RCBS has a cowboy action die set for shotgun, but a tad on the expensive side.  As I was rooting around in my box of junk, I found my old shotgun shell die.  and figured what the heck.    I use an old Lee depriming road to punch it out. and a little trimming off of the old shell holder and it fits on the old rock chucker with the primer arm.  The only thing its really good for is straightening out the brass and putting in a role crimp.  But it works......

[panhead pete]

I have also used Mag-Tecs with the RCBS cowboy dies.  They are really nice dies and the crimped end REALLY helps loading them on the clock.  I'm not that fast but I do get nervous Much better than straight walled.  If you can afford them they are well worth it.

[rickk]

@Pappy Miles...

The newer RCBS cowboy dies are designed for the Magtech Brass hulls with the smaller primer. The older dies are really meant for plastic hulls with 209 primers.

For what it's worth, the older RCBS dies tend to go on ebay for pretty much what a new cowboy die set goes for. If you don't need them any more, you can sell them to finance the purchase of a new RCBS cowboy die set. On the flip side, if you want to work with non-standard loads in plastic hulls, the older dies are a nice thing to have. You wouldn't want to run black powder thru a MEC 600 powder measure. The older RCBS dies are a bit handier than a MEC for black powder in plastic hulls, or slugs in plastic hulls that are roll crimped. I personally still use the MEC with plastic hulls to resize, deprime and reprime specialized loads (saves fiddling with the RCBS dies to set them up for those operations), but then switch to the RCBS die in a Lee Cast Press to seat wads and whatever else is going in there. It is a lot easier to adjust the seating depth on the RCBS dies than messing with a MEC that is already set up properly for something else.

@Panhead Pete... the taper portion of the cowboy dies works well for eliminating the slightly octagonal/mushroomed shape of plastic hulls coming out of my MEC 600. I run them through the RCBS taper die setup and the crimps become roiund and no longer mushroomed, and there is a definite taper for 1/2 inch or so on the walls of the case... makes for much easier chambering.  I believe that some of the more expensive MEC's as well as other brands have a provision for an accessory taper crimper to use after final star crimping to do the same thing, but as long as the cowboy die is sitting in a Lee press right next to the MEC 600 I am not missing anything by not having a more expensive shotgun press.

FYI, if you ever need a replacement wad guide for the old RCBS die set, RCBS no longer carries it but it is the same part as the still available MEC p/n 453P12 wad guide.

[will52100]

I've got a double pin modern and an old antique off of Ebay, the old one does nice rounded crimp, the new one makes a nice crimp and a slight tapper, but it's more squarish and less elegant looking.  Both work, but I prefere the look of the antique.

[Dick Dastardly]

Problem with 'em antique ones is that I'd need one each in .410, 20ga, 16ga, 12ga and 10ga.  As it now stands, I can do all Five of 'em on my bench top drill press.  Yup, I now use roll crimps on all my shot shells.  I've found that on other than factory new hulls they perform better.  On factory new ones, about the same.  What's not to like.

One thing I like about roll crimping is that it's easy to code the load on the overshot card and have it instantly visible on a shell to shell basis regardless of the hull.  Ever have a drawer full of odd loads and wonder just what they were?  I've been there, dun that.  With a roll crimp and load code on the card I can instantly classify my scattergun ammo.

Yup, you guessed it.  I'm a fan of roll crimping.

DD-DLoS

[will52100]

I hear you, but I only reload for 12 gauge, and I'm sure you could find an antique for 10 at least!  In any event, I prefere roll crimping, and I go back and forth from the drill press mounted roller to the old hand crank.  Depends on how many I'm doing and what my mood is.

[fourfingersofdeath]

I hear you, but I only reload for 12 gauge, and I'm sure you could find an antique for 10 at least!  In any event, I prefere roll crimping, and I go back and forth from the drill press mounted roller to the old hand crank.  Depends on how many I'm doing and what my mood is.

The antique roll crimpers seem to sell for a lot of money nowadays and teh Precision tool is cheap and really effective on plastic cases. Hard to go past.

[Dick Dastardly]

I taken me a hunk of hardwood and chucked it in the lathe and turned me about a 4 inch long cone.  A lil bigger than a 10ga on one end and a lil smaller than a .410 on the other.  I also turned a wood stem on the big end of the cone.  I chuck this hardwood cone in my hand held drill motor and spin it inside my star crimped hulls to recondition the mouth.  Spin till it warms up and leave it on the cone for about 30 seconds or so and the mouth is nice and round again.  Then, I pull the conditioned hull off and spin another one on and leave it while I load the previous one.  This way I have a nice progression of conditioned hulls to load.  The conditioned hulls are a lot easier to crimp with the roll crimper.  Also, this way I don't have to cut down a hull unless the mouth is too beat up to use.  This method works good on both plastic and paper hulls.

DD-DLoS