10 gauge reload Issues

[Stan Hoover]

Originally Posted by Craig Larter

Stan is the crimp die cracked?

I took a look at the die there Craig, it appears to be fine with out taking it apart,

I’ll have to look at the links provided by Pete and educate myself on the adjustment and disassembly of that piece.
Something must be going on inside that piece that’s allowing part of the shell to slip past what ever does the final crimp.

Reloading RST shells was just easy for me, I saved the hulls that I shot in the past and just started reloading, no trimming involved. I should probably be looking to upgrade.

I appreciate all the great suggestions, I’ll have to take things apart, see if I can come up with a conclusion.

After shooting the 10 gauge Hammer at the Fall Southern yesterday, it is a gauge that is just allot of fun, I enjoy the Big 10.

Stan

[Keith Doty]

Suspicion here is the start crimp isn't getting a deep enough start and some of the hull is "outside" of the center flat of the final crimp and hooking the edge of the shell mouth. Has your adjustment on start crimp slipped or moved?

[Stan Hoover]

You are correct Keith, after doing a little more digging, I found that Mec says the start crimp should close the shell far enough that a primer will not fit in. My start crimp had worked loose and after some adjustments, I loaded 30 that looked like this.
Thanks for all the advice,
Stan

[Keith Doty]

Glad to help. Nobody should have to shoot ugly ammo!

[Paul Harm]

Those shells don't have enough crimp. Take your starting crimp to where the shell is almost closed - this will give you more material to work with for the next stage. Then your plunger should be adjusted so it pushes down more and your final crimp is deeper. You want about .060 depth, or the thickness of a dime. The center should be slightly down and in - this way it will lock the petals together and the shell won't open. And last but not least, I'm going to post a reply in a thread I copied about 5 years ago. It's how to adjust the final station so it's not flared out. It's actually two replies, one after the other. Good luck.
paul harm

When adjusting the crimp station, the CAM is the LAST thing you adjust. Adjust the crimp starter first, then adjust the seating stem to get the proper depth. When you are getting a correct fold of the crimp petals, and the correct depth set, THEN adjust the cam to eliminate the flare. NOTE The cam adjustment should be set at least 2/3 of the way up, while the other adjustments are being made. Then, and only then, lower the cam enough to eliminate the flare.


The roller will not touch the cam (or at least not have any force put on it by the cam) at the very bottom of the stroke. BUT, more cam means the cam will touch the roller and apply force to it longer (further down) in the stroke. The cam has a fairly sharp shoulder or lobe on it. When you start down with the press the roller rolls on the cam (because this part of the cam is circular) and the outer (plastic) part of the die is pushed down by the cam and roller. Until you get around 1/2-3/4 of the way down, everything I have said so far remains true regardless of where the cam is set. However, the cam is rotating as you come down. Eventually the cam rotates to the point when the roller goes past the shoulder on the cam. Past this point the cam is no longer circular. As you come on down the cam puts less and less pressure on the roller. But, the center punch will come on down because it is fastened solidly to the top of the press. If the roller gets past the shoulder of the cam too early in the stroke you will end up with the punch coming on down on the center of the crimp and this tending to squeeze the top of the shell outward. But the plastic part of the die is not coming on down, which means it cannot prevent the top of the shell from flaring outward. It takes a lot of fine tuning to get this just right. There is a reason why Mec adds the final taper die to the Grabber and 9000. Having a separate die that is used strictly to get some taper makes things a lot simpler.

Most people do NOT have straight in their minds what the CAM actually does. There are all kinds of convoluted beliefs as to what it actually does.

Adding more cam, (Lowering it at the adjustment slot), causes the crimp die to lower slightly at the near bottom of the stroke. The die has a taper at the top of the die, that when pushed lower, will in fact push the flare at the end of the hull inward, closing the hole in the center tighter, and usually will eliminate the flare and in fact may leave the end of the hull slightly rounded.

SO, in most cases, a properly adjusted CAM will reduce or eliminate the flare on the end of the hull, and probably leave it slightly rounded.

[Keith Doty]

Paul is correct, more plunger depth in the final crimp will clean those up.

[Paul Harm]

Mec has a 12ga smooth crimp starter for paper hulls, and a longer plunger for 12ga. You have to call and ask for them. Years ago I called and complained the plunger didn't have enough thread and couldn't be adjusted out enough. Well, I guess there must have been enough other guys with the same complaint because BINGO, they came out with one.

[Woodcock survey]

Paul i sent you a PM.

[Randy Roberts]

Finally got the new Sizemaster setup and all the ingredients delivered. After many adjustments this is the final product. You can kind of follow along left to right and see where I ended up. What are your thoughts on any final fine-tuning adjustments that might be in order? These are new factory primed Chef hulls that I have trimmed to 2 7/8 by the way. This single stage stuff is labor intensive, whew

[Craig Larter]

Randy they look good, You may want to follow Paul's advise above to get more tapper and a less gap between the peddles. Here is my reload