Bullet Pulled Question
 

I am a newbie when it comes to reloading and I messed up on the amount of powder. I had to pull 50 rounds and start over.

When I pulled the bullets I notice they were dented like a mushroom.

1st question... am I crimping them too much?

2nd question... can I re-use these bullets?

( side info... I am going to be using 10.4 gr of Accurate #7 and the bullets are 180 grs. with a Remington primer)

Yes you are crimping too much, I personally wouldn't reuse them, they appear to be way undersized now. Whats your procedure for crimping ?

-Josh

#1 yes too much crimp
#2 yes...
AA#7 is a fast powder you could re-use them but you might want to resize the cases. Try for less case expansion to maintain good bullet retension and place the crimp back in the same spot. Test for bullet spin or set back but I doubt they will as they will hold on the crimp groove you made. Shoot them up, that way you can still have some fun!

I use a lee 4 die kit ... I use taper/ crimp die. I put a bullet in the die and screw it in till it makes contact with the bullet, then back the bullet out then screw the die in a 1/4 turn.

Is using the last die even necessary? I size and deprime then bell the case just enough then seat the bullet then crimp the case to debell the case. I am new still and learning the lingo but I believe I don't crimp but I tapper

Using the Lee FCD (4th die) is not necessary. But I find it more consistent to crimp in a final step using it. If your using the bullet seating/crimp die to crimp, I would suggest you seat a bullet in an unprimed, uncharged case to your required OAL, with the die backed out to not contact the case mouth. Then, back out the bullet seater, loosen the die lock nut, and with the ram in the full up position with the same round in place, screw the die in until you contact the case mouth, you will feel it touch. lower the ram slightly, and turn the die in 1/4 turn. Raise the ram to taper crimp the round. You should see just a tad of shiny brass where the taper crimp took place. I would disassemble the round to verify the crimp did not deform the bullet. if it did, repeat using 1/8th turn and a new bullet and resized, re flared brass. After you've got that figured out you can lock the die down, raise the ram, and lower the seater plug until it contacts the bullet. Make a note of how much you turned in the die for the desired taper crimp and you won't have to repeat the process again.

Back off some on the FCD a little, it has a collar which squeezes the case neck while taper crimping.

Too much crimp, but it shouldn't hurt anything, as long as you're not maxing out your powder. A really heavy crimp like that can drive up pressure. I pulled some CorBon .40S&W 135gr JHPs, and those bullets looked even worse than yours. So they REALLY crimped them, and that's factory CorBon. Basically what I'm saying is you were crimping more than necessary, but it's not like problems will definitely result. If you go too far head spacing issues could result. The bullets are fine to shoot again, but you will almost certainly have to apply that same amount of crimp. Anything less will not fill in that cannelure you just made.

Just for range use you can use again but do not expect sterling accuracy.

Too much crimp. I use a Lee 3 die set and use the chamber to set my diameter after crimping, just enough to go into the chamber and fall out when turned upside down, no more.