Loading North Fork .375 300 gr Percussion Point

[Wahoo]

I’ll start with the question and explain why I have the question below. How deep are you supposed to seat the above bullet and are people crimping onto the smooth portion of jacket beyond the last groove/cannelure of the bullet? Disclaimer- I am a crimper.

I’m loading the above bullet for my Heym .375 HH double in Hornady new brass with Fed 215 primer and 67.3 gr of Reloder 15 and crimping with Lee factory crimp into the very last groove on the bullet. This gives a COAL of 3.683”. This yields 2467 fps and excellent regulation - muzzle width apart at 100 yds. This is longer COAL than accepted spec.

I am lazy and would love for the above load to also work in my .375 HH magazine rifle. However the COAL is too long to feed and outside of spec of 3.59” stated most places including the load data I received from North Fork. I can achieve 3.59” COAL by simply seating the bullet deeper past the last groove and this does not result in a compressed load. If I then desired to crimp I would be crimping onto the smooth jacket of the bullet versus into the last groove/cannelure.

 

[dchamp]

It seems I remember talking with North Fork, more than ten years ago, when they were in Oregan, and one of my questions was about their grooves and crimping. They told me that the grooves were only there for friction reduction and had nothing to do with crimping.

I generally do not crimp mainly because I don’t think about it and also am lazy. Also I just haven’t found the need. I do use the Hornady OAL guage to check and see where the bullet touches the lands and as long as it is past the OAL listed length by 30-50 thousands, depending on the type of bullet I am using, then I will seat to the listed length. If I have a concern of a possible feeding issue the I will address the issue and seat accordingly.