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Joined: 21 Mar 2019 Posts: 523 Location: Texas

I use the gaep crimper to clean up my fold crimps also, it really works. I know those pretty crimps don’t mean anything once the trigger is pulled, but
I can remember my grand dad reloading shells and half of them either had a piece of tape on them or shot falling out. Didn’t really change the count of dead game we brought home. I will say it puts a nice bevel on the shells. I showed a few fellow shooters some reloads next to factory shells, they all picked my loads done with the gaep crimper as factory. They were pretty amazed when I told them the truth.

Not long after we were not allowed to work at school, I went below the house to check inventory. Found some Active hulls that I bought from a member here a few years ago and started looking for the hulls with crispy crimps that would be suitable for trimming and roll crimping. I trimmed the crimp completely off, so that the remaining length of the hull was 2 3/8 inches.

Thought I would share what tools I had on hand to cobble up some loads.

This is my hull vise:

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I use a hand drill and a BP roll crimper

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And a couple of pics of the finished product:
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Joined: 21 Mar 2019 Posts: 523 Location: Texas

Very nice. I’m gonna play with roll crimps here in awhile. For no other reason but to bring back some fond memories of my time with my great grand dad. That’s the only way he crimped shells. He used an antique hand one. I can remember cranking on that thing over and over. All of his loads were black powder.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1840 Location: Central ND

Nice stuff for sure.

Joined: 27 Jan 2016 Posts: 490 Location: Oswego, Kansas

I enjoy using roll crimps on my 21/2" loads because they work well for me and I don't have to keep adjusting my MEC with the short kit which had been a pain. I use the short shells in my LC Smith Ideal grade from 1924 which has the 29/16" chambers

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1840 Location: Central ND

I really liked the roll crimps, the ammo I made worked great. No issues......but........how many times can you roll crimp a hull?

The Federals that I used for roll crimping had been fired 3 times as fold crimped hulls. I cut them down to 2 1/2" exactly and rolled crimped. I fired the loads and probably half if the hulls have small splits in the last 1/8" at the mouth of the hull.

Just wanted some input.

Joined: 21 Mar 2019 Posts: 523 Location: Texas

My two cents.... if you got three out of them, cut and rolled. Leave them where they lay. No harm no foul. And you get to shoot some roll crimped shells, just like the old days. What could be better? Black powder time??

I've picked up Rio 12 gauge slug hulls that our local LEO have left at the range, trimmed them and have reloaded them with roll crimps. After three times times some have started to split, so I pitched them all.

The hull mouths are misshapen, so I take a tapered plumb bob to try to make them round again. Generally makes them round enough to use again.

I like to roll crimp paper hulls, as well. After firing, they come out nice and round, ready to be loaded and roll crimped again, not warped around the edge like plastic shells usually are due to the plastic taking a set from the heat of roll crimping. With modern wad/cup units and shot sleeves, paper hulls don't wear thin on the mouth end, which has to give them more life. In the old days, with conventional wads, paper hull mouths got a bit floppy and the roll crimps were not so firm. I don't know how many times paper hulls can be roll crimped -- I'm sure it would vary by hull. Older papers that seem to have been waxed roll-crimp nicely; the wax probably acts as a lubricant. However, I have roll crimped new black Fiocchi papers and the blue Cheddite papers in 16 gauge and they come out nice, though they don't seem to be waxed. I've roll crimped most gauges (10, 12, 16, 20, 24 and twenty eights), and papers in 10, 12, 16 and 20. If I remember right, I doubt I have re-roll-crimped paper hulls more than a couple of times, though.

I also wonder if one could re-heat the mouths of paper hulls and add a little paraffin or beeswax to get a few more loadings (before they burn out above the metal base Wink

-- that is possibly the practical limit for reloading paper roll-crimpers, so efforts to increase the numbers of roll crimpings are probably moot). MEC used to sell what they called the Electric Shell Former. It was an option on their first loader, the 300. Dad had one on his MEC 300. It is listed in the MEC 300 manual as an accessory: https://www.mecoutdoors.com/Content/documents/300.pdf Anyway, I wonder if by using one of these and a pan of molten wax about 1/2 inch deep one could coax enough wax into paper hulls that had gone a bit soft from the flexing of roll crimping and firing. Others also manufactured these hull heating devices, but the need has long since gone away. Some have suggested using a hair curling iron. Anybody got a good 16 gauge curling iron I could borrow? Laughing

Cheers!

Joined: 21 Mar 2019 Posts: 523 Location: Texas

Maximum smoke: I do remember as a youngster watching my grand father roll crimp lots of shells, and he used something like your talking about on the old papers. May of been wax or even lard. He was a serious old timer that really didn’t buy anything if it could be made or had from the farm. It may have been to help damp proof them. Not sure as I was very young. When your that age you never think- maybe I should pay attention, might need this some day.