357gp

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum & have recently acquired 2 Rugers (a GP100 & a Mark II). I have been reloading rifle & shotgun off & on for about 25 years so I'm familiar with the process. However, I've only been reloading handgun ammo for about 8 months. I received 500 Laser Cast 158gn RNFP bullets from the guy I bought my GP100 from & would like to load them up. Here's the problem I have encountered. I'm trying to obtain a col of 1.570" w/ Laser Cast 158 rnfp for my 357. I get the seating die set at the proper length & then when the cartridge goes into the next station & crimped, the roll crimp pulls the bullet down another .010". I tried seating out further but the crimp seams to grab the canalure & pulls it down to 1.560" anyway or it becomes around 1.580" & the crimp winds up below the canalure. I obtained the col directly from Laser Cast & it states not to go below 1.570". The brass is unfired new Remington so it has not been shortened. The finished rounds look perfect to me at the shorter length. I'm loading 14.1gns of win296 over a win SPM primer. Am I fussing too much over .010" or should I just load & shoot them at the shorter length?

Thanks for any help,

357gp

mikld

FWIW: I'm not familiar with that bullet. For the first 10 or 12 years of reloading for my revolvers (Ruger, Dan Wesson, S&W, Taurus), I crimped in the crimp groove. I never ran any loads at or over max. so a little difference in OAL was not an issue. I ran the bullet down so the case mouth was even with the top of the crimp groove so when the mouth was rolled in it would not push the bullet down any (much) further (tens of thousands of rounds this way). I use heavy roll crimps in .44 Magnum, and .357 magnum and lighter roll crimps in Specials. If you're worried about .010" OAL driving up the pressure to dangerous levels, I wouldn't...

357gp

Thanks Mikld,
That kinda what I was thinking. I just wanted to check with someone with more experience first.