44 mag with plated.

[drakeslayer]

Been loading 45acp and .38spl for a few months and decided to take on my .44mag. pistol. I have some Berrys plated bullets and was working out a load when I started reading about crimps. The die I have is a RCBS Carbide 3 die set with a roll crimp.
Berrys says roll or taper but Im reading online that some suggest a taper crimp or an FDC with plated in the .44mag. Common response in my reading was a roll might creep. Id be loading on the light to medium side so Id guess a roll would be fine but wanted more info before a proceed.
Im leaning towards just buying a Lee FDC.

Thoughts from the gurus?

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[Local Loader]

Been loading 45acp and .38spl for a few months and decided to take on my .44mag. pistol. I have some Berrys plated bullets and was working out a load when I started reading about crimps. The die I have is a RCBS Carbide 3 die set with a roll crimp.
Berrys says roll or taper but Im reading online that some suggest a taper crimp or an FDC with plated in the .44mag. Common response in my reading was a roll might creep. Id be loading on the light to medium side so Id guess a roll would be fine but wanted more info before a proceed.
Im leaning towards just buying a Lee FDC.

Thoughts from the gurus?

If you're loading for a revolver, I wouldn't even worry about having a crimp as long as the bullet is held in place.
As for 45acp, a taper crimp is my preferred as it angles the case into the bullet as roll crimps have come lose on me, but I also didn't use it much as I've worked with taper crimp more, so I've stuck with that.

 

[aasbra]

I prefer to crimp separate from the seater die. When working with plated bullets in the 44 magnum, I personally would keep the velocity down to a plinking load (not a magnum type load) and be careful if roll crimping not to break through the plating. It typically is fairly thin on most plated bullets I have worked with.

You probably can use the RCBS seater/crimp die, just takes a bit more care to get it adjusted properly. Or use this die to seat (die body backed off a bit so the crimp part of the die does not engage the case), and get another crimp die to handle that step separately.

 

[P7M13]

In my experience, plated has zero effect on the external hardness of a bullet. It's when you get into copper jacketed bullets that you have to pay attention to the crimp you do. It's easier to set up the crimp when you have a roll crimp groove on the bullet.
I only have roll crimp for my 44 Mag and 44 SPL, and have done it on hard cast, powder coated, plated and copper jacketed (Hornady XTP). IIRC, the roll crimp is harder to do on copper jacketed bullets because it requires precise setup and all the cases must be tirmmed to the exact same length.
I prefer a roll crimp over taper in heavy recoiling guns like a 44 Mag. I've had bullet setback before, and it's not fun.