to crimp or not to crimp

[Cztap]

I had similar issues with residue. My issue was resolved with an adjustment to the bullet seating/"crimping" die. I took a few empty cases that had already been through the resizing die and ran them through the seating die without a bullet. It helped me to see how much crimping retention I was putting towards the bullet. A small adjustment seemed to fix my issue 100%. I agree that every powder, gun, bullet and formula will like slightly different details.

[gianmarko]

as i dont sort the cases, the PF will vary a little from round to round, i test a number of rounds and i make sure i never fall below 160. usually i stay between 160 and 170

never failed a chrono test so far, not even a single round.

1) Put in more powder to make the contents burn at a higher pressure
i am already happy with the obtained PF, which is between 165 and 170, so more powder is not really an option.

gianmarko,  I don't shoot major PF (165PF "minimum average") but have shooter friends that do.  Just another consideration:  Shooting Major PF at major matches means running your ammo across a chronograph to average at or above 165 PF.  Most here will load to 170 or higher to be sure it averages at or above 165PF and use the powder that'll make enough gas to run the comp..  If your chrono checks show ?168PF? that's a pretty small margin for error.

Increasing the seating depth may increase the average speed ..a little...maybe.

[gianmarko]

inside of the cases with short OAL, 8.6 grs SP2 behind a 124 grs rnfmj

a bit off focus..

cases have been shot already several times so they were sorta blackened inside already

burning looks definitely good.

[Wobbly]

Burning looks definitely good.

I agree.