MEC Sizemaster and Fed GM hull issue

[longfellow]

My finished reloads are coming out with a small flair at the very top of the crimp where the roll starts. In a day or so if I don't shoot them, the plastic seems to relax and this condition is worsened to the point where they require more than a little push to get them in my double. STS hulls do not do this but I want to continue to use the Fed GM hulls. Is this familiar to anyone else? My old MEC Sizemaster does not have the extra "finish" station that some new presses have. I intend to call Ballistic Products to see if there might be a stand alone finishing press available. Thanks.

 

[rg1]

I found this too with Fed GM hulls. It helps to lower your crimp starter and also the cam adjustment of the final crimp die needs to be lowered just a bit. With some hulls such as the Fed Gold Medal you have to adjust your crimp starter and final crimp die and change back loading others such as Remington.

 

[Gadawg88]

Copied this from a post I made to a different forum from 2014 on the exact issue.

Found another use for my Lee Classic Cast
I started loading 12ga shotshells again back in the spring for the first time since I was a teenager. Some target loads and #1 buck. Getting the crimp right is the most time consuming and frustrating part. After much fiddling and adjusting I was able to get it to an acceptable point for all my loads, but there was still a little flare on the end of the shell. This would occasionally cause a feeding problem in my autoloader, maybe one shell out of every box of 25. Searching for a solution I ran across mention of the RCBS 12ga taper crimp die for their Mini Grand shotshell press. Sounded like exactly what I needed, problem is I don't use an RCBS Mini Grand press. The die was only $12 so I decided to take a chance and bought it to see if I could make it work on my MEC Steelmaster. Eagerly awaiting its arrival, I opened the box up and was immediately disappointment. I could tell the bolt size was much larger than the hole on the pre-crimp station on my MEC press. Not to be deterred, I set about trying to find a way to make it work. After a little head scratching, it turned out to be real easy. With a couple of washers, I was able to attach it to the single stage. I just place the loaded she'll directly on the top of the ram and smoothly raise the shell into the die. With medium pressure it applies a nice rounded taper to the top of the shell and smooths out any small ripples. The finished rounds look a lot more like factory rounds and should feed real smooth (yet to test them though). The shell is positioned so that the primer sits over the open cavity in the ram and the primer is slightly recessed in the base of the shell anyway, so I don't think there is any concern of accidental detonation.

 

[BigJimP]

Anytime you change hull mfg's. ...you will need to adjust your crimp start, crimp depth and final crimp.../ it's just part of the reality ( just like if you change your wad )..../ so it's a reason to stay with one hull.

Sometimes recipes published just don't seem to work out that well....but consider changing the wad as well.......claybuster, duster, federal, win, rem....may all show published recipes ....but you may find 1 or 2 wads just give you way better results for a given hull...and i'm sure you know that not all shotshell primers are interchangeable ( so make sure you are using the right recipe).