16ga.com ~ View topic - Crimp

Greg, I have this issue of the crimp starter not aligning with the original folds in 16 and 28 gauge. It's not an issue in 12, 20 and .410 - I have no idea why it is not issue with the .410.

With the 16 and 28 gauges I wrapped a strip of masking tape around the crimp starter and used a black marker to mark the location of the internal ribs on the outside of the crimp starter. When loading I visually confirm that a fold is aligned with one of the black lines on the masking tape - Voila! no more "ugly" crimps.

By the way, your "bad" crimps look to simply be "swirls". These occur when the hulls are slightly longer than the hulls your crimps are adjusted to. They are not a performance issue at all and I am happy with crimps that look like those.

I would also shoot your "ugly" crimps because I believe they will shoot fine. The problem is that most of the time the hull will form an ugly crimp when it is reloaded again so it is best to avoid the "ugly" crimps in the interest of hull longevity.

Joined: 09 Sep 2006 Posts: 863 Location: NoDak

Thanks all for your great suggestions and thoughts on this. Well.....problem solved thanks to FlyChamps and Mark.

Did what he suggested and I loaded a box today with beautiful crimps. Not one was an Ugly!!!

Funny thing, as Fly said, I can load 12ga without any problems, just toss the hull under and perfect crimps. Well the 16ga is odd as we all know!

Thanks so much Fly and Mark!!!!

Best!

Greg

Some of the hulls may have been reloaded several times and the plastic gets brittle but does not show the condition in a visual inspection. If you're running 98% good reloaded crimps, just toss the baddies into a box and next winter sit down and unload them (or go ahead and shoot them). Worrying about a 2 or 4% bad rate isn't worth the anxiety. Pour yourself another glass of wine and open a book. JF