Yesterday I got out to the range to make final scope adjustments to my Marlin 336 .35 Remington "short". Since I had never played with crimping outside of the cannelure, I wanted to see if my crimped rounds would stay the same length. I measured 5 rounds and wrote the lengths on the case. Four of the rounds were 2.544" and one measured 2.545". At the range, I loaded the four shorter rounds in the mag and they stayed there during my range session. Powder charge was 41.5 grains of Leverevolution and a 200 grain FTX bullet, a max charge according to the Hodgdon data for this combo. Number of rounds fired were around a dozen with the test rounds in the tube mag.
I then measured all four of the test rounds which were originally 2.544". Rounds measured 2.555", 2.546", 2.552" and 2.545". What I failed to do was record the position of each round in the tube.
When I crimped the rounds, I placed a washer on top of the shell holder and adjusted the die so that all four sections of the collet were just touching. I then set the rounds on top of the washer and proceeded to crimp. I noticed that when the ram was all the way up, there was a wee bit of separation between the four sections of the collet. When inspecting the crimped round there was a visible ring at the case mouth that I estimate to be roughly 0.040" wide and that I can feel with my finger nail.
My question, Is this movement of the bullets acceptable? If not, what do you think is the solution?
I then measured all four of the test rounds which were originally 2.544". Rounds measured 2.555", 2.546", 2.552" and 2.545". What I failed to do was record the position of each round in the tube.
When I crimped the rounds, I placed a washer on top of the shell holder and adjusted the die so that all four sections of the collet were just touching. I then set the rounds on top of the washer and proceeded to crimp. I noticed that when the ram was all the way up, there was a wee bit of separation between the four sections of the collet. When inspecting the crimped round there was a visible ring at the case mouth that I estimate to be roughly 0.040" wide and that I can feel with my finger nail.
My question, Is this movement of the bullets acceptable? If not, what do you think is the solution?
