Anyone loading 224 Valkyrie? Die question

11B CIB

Administrator
Staff member
Charter Life Member
Multi-Factor Enabled
Joined
Dec 17, 2016
Messages
6,877
Location
Gilbert, SC
Rating - 100%
36   0   0
I don’t normally crimp, but it seems like ALL the 224V dies I can find out there have a built in crimp in the seater die.

I normally buy RCBS competition seater dies (not available yet), but the only dies I can seem to find have a built in crimp. The small base dies I got have a taper crimp, which I don’t think I can bypass by lowering the seater plug, and their standard full length dies for 224V say there’s a built in roll crimp (on their website and others)

Redding’s version of the competition die doesn’t say one way or the other from the pages I saw

I’ve sized, prepped and primed a bunch of brass but I may be buying a new seater die (if iI can find one, unless the taper crimp is the way to go with this one
 
All of the seater dies that I have seen control the crimp by adjusting the die body up or down. If you don't want crimp, adjust the die up so that it does not touch the case mouth. Then adjust the seating stem as necessary to control the seating depth.

FWIW, most people will crimp for semi-auto, and most will not crimp for bolt action. It has been my experience that neck tension has been enough to keep the bullet in place for my semi-auto rifle, and I get lower standard deviation and better accuracy without crimping (tested), so I don't crimp for my one precision AR. When I do crimp, I use the Lee collet style crimper.
 
I’ve loaded tens of thousands of really accurate semi auto rounds with no crimp. Like you, I prefer it that way.

The seater plug stem is REALLY short. I don’t know if I can eliminate the crimp by raising the die and still seat the bullet.

I still have a seater plug for a .223 standard die; if it’s longer I might swap it in and see if that works. I use Competition dies for 223 now so I forgot about it
 
I will tell you what I would do if I were to buy any dies for 224V. If Wilson made a chamber style seating die for it (which I just found out they don't), that is what I would get. It does not work in a standard reloading press, instead it is used with an arbor press, or with just a mallet. I've gotten the lowest runout with those of anything I have tried, in 223 Rem, 30-30, and .308.

Otherwise, a press-mounted Forster seating die gives comparable results. They do not crimp.
 
Last edited:
I did some serious fooling with the RCBS die. I used a few of the longest cases I had (unprimed) and some various pulled bullets and tested it out.

I was able to seat 73gr ELD and 77gr SMKs with no crimp at 2.265” OAL.

The stem was putting the ole ring on the bullet so I chucked up a pulled bullet in my my drill, put some toothpaste in it and spun it for a sec. So far, the only rings now wipe off (CLP from cleaning the stem).

I think I’m in business
 
yYds40j.jpg



I might need to build an annealer but otherwise I’m set
 
Back
Top Bottom