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Joined: 26 Jun 2020 Posts: 143 Location: Spokane, WA

Reloading roll crimped RGL cases are difficult do to brittleness of the case mouth. Anyone have suggestions how to prep the cases or just scrap them after one roll crimping.

*Last edited by skeettx on Sat May 08, 2021 7:52 am; edited 1 time in total*

You can try a hot air blower, but I throw mine away.
Life is too short

Mike

Joined: 26 Jun 2020 Posts: 143 Location: Spokane, WA

Mike,
You are right, life is too short. In the recycle bin they go.

Jim

Joined: 17 Oct 2019 Posts: 456 Location: New Jersey

This is why I only roll crimp hunting loads and only do it when I can’t get the right stack height for a good star crimp.

Roll crimping a plastic hull a second time or more is often an uncertain thing, at best. However, a lot depends on the roll crimping device used, and how it has been used. Roll crimp tools that leave a square-ish top edge to the crimp are death on hulls. Tools that leave a nice, rounded edge give much better chances for a re-crimp. Spending too much time hovering or gyrating/nutating the tool while crimping (as actually advised by some!) cooks the hull mouth so it cannot regain a very re-crimpable form after firing. Another hull-cooking technique is too much tool RPM. Whatever one can do to reduce heating of the hull material during roll crimping is better.

It's best to bring the tool precisely straight down on the hull (drill press!), and finish the crimp quickly so as not to cook the plastic. Crimp depth is important -- it does need to be deeper than a good pie crimp -- I think about 3/32" or maybe as little as 2mm is OK. 1/8" would be deep but OK. 1/16" is not really enough. Take a look at some factory roll-crimped shells for guidance. Depth is not as important as finishing the crimp quickly. It takes a little fiddling with RPM, but it isn't super critical if the crimping is done quickly enough.

Roll crimped paper hulls regain their form after firing much better than plastic ones. Older waxed paper hulls can be satisfactorily roll crimped multiple times. Unfortunately current paper hulls, like Cheddites are not really waxed at all -- more like varnished -- so they can get pretty floppy pretty fast. I have done 3 roll crimps on those black paper Cheddite 16's, but that's stretching it. Either way, paper hulls often fail first from burn through near the base anyway, or primer leakage in the case of Federals (12 gauge - which are still waxed!).

No roll crimped hull is going to give a life as long as a pie crimped plastic hull. As time passes, I find myself mostly in the same camp as skeettx with regard to hull problems of any sort -- life is too short to spend much time on some inconveniences.

Cheers!
Tony