Yet another Hornady LNL question, .40 crimps

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at the risk of making some of the more experienced here cringe I need to ask another Hornady LNL question. YES I am reading as much as I can in both the loading manuals I bought and on the innerweb, YES I know I should take a class and will if I can find time, and YES I know I should find an experienced reloader near me who will offer insights in exchange for witty banter and/or a case of beer or two...BUT for the time being I have approval from the boss to get a press and I need to act before she comes to her senses [thinking]

my question (for today) is about crimping 40 SW rounds. my understanding is that this round needs a taper crimp, but I also understand that the Hornady 3 die set comes with a combo seat/crimp die that does some hybrid bastard part taper part roll crimp. If I want a true taper crimp I need to run the seat die and taper crimp die in seperate stations; which of course sucks up the spot I had allocated to my powder cop die. apparantly if I want to run the taper and cop die I need to combine the expander die and powder drop into the PTX expander die, which internet people seem to hate because it's not at all adjustable and doesn't do a particularly good job of expanding. [banghead][banghead][banghead][banghead]

Is anyone here using the LNL to load .40 rounds and if you are what's your setup? Are you using Hornady dies or another brand? I plan on selling the sigpro and g22 (gotta pay for the reloading setup somehow right?) so I'm mainly concerned with feed performance in a HK USP and want to try some minor loads for IPSC if that makes a diff.


Thanks!
 
The die will taper crimp or roll crimp depending on how it is set. It's a 'true' taper crimp too. Screw it down the right amount, and it will taper crimp; if you set it lower (screw it down farther) it will roll crimp.

The Hornady seating dies are awesome. They have a sliding sleeve that centers and aligns the bullet prior to seating.

With that said, I prefer a separate crimp die because it's easier to set and change. I've had an L-N-L for years and have loaded over 100K rounds on it. Not one of those rounds was double charged, or not charged, and a powder cop was not invloved. I think they're a waste of time.

You can see right down inside a .40 case, and you need to look at it anyway when you're placing the bullet. Why set it up so that you have another place to look at to 'verify' that the little donut is in the right place?

If you want to take a ride to Groton, you are welcome to come over and see/use my setup. Lots of other members have.
 
Good info, thanks guys. I'll be looking into each case as I go, but as I'm very new to making my own ammo I wanted to run the powder cop as an extra precaution...belt and suspenders and all that. maybe it's too much to look at during the process and I should rely on looking into the case and be done with it, guess I'll have to decide that. but if I do decide I want it all then that powderfunnels die looks like it might be the way to go, time to wander around the net and see what the anonamyous posters have to say about it.

might take you up on that Eddie, have to see how the work/home schedule shakes out; thanks for the offer!
 
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