I want to remove the crimping groove on my RCBS 30-180FN mould. It would be perfectly OK if the leading band becomes opened up in the process by .001" or so... in fact I would prefer it.

Any suggestions?

MC

I want to remove the crimping groove on my RCBS 30-180FN mould. It would be perfectly OK if the leading band becomes opened up in the process by .001" or so... in fact I would prefer it.

Any suggestions?

MC

Guesing someone out there might have tried this..if they got it right, would like to hear about it myself. Getting to the FRONT of a mold cavity to do work without screwing up the rest of the cavity is pretty ticklish work.

Have some ideas on how it might be done but I'd not want to experiment to find out if it would work or not.

Just for a crimp groove you can pretty well ignore?

ribbonstone,

I'll probably need to find a machinist to make a little hand powdered cutter specific to the mould. The reason for the modification is to seat RCBS 30-180FN to a COL of 2.57" and apply a Lee Factory Crimp. Using a typical once fired Winchester 30-30 case, the 2.57" COL places the case mouth short of the crimp groove with nothing substantial to apply a "LFC" on. The reason I want a 2.57" COL is due to the fact a "finger-tight" bullet, seated out somewhat and chambered in my "G" 336, reveals a COL of approximately 2.567". In addition, eliminating the crimp groove and using the LFC die on the wide leading band should provide more seating depth flexibility for chamber/throat variation with respect to other (newer/older/just plain different) 30-30s.

MC

Even if you can find a machinist willing to attempt what you want the set-up charges will exceed the cost of a new mold. Why not just have Mountain Molds (or LBT, etc) make you what you want?

It sounds like you want to go to a lot of effort for a problem that may not really be a problem.
I am using that same bullet, and I have had no problems loading them in the cases, crimped in the top groove (using an old set of Bonanza dies). The cases are all trimmed to a uniform length when I start with a batch of cases (whether that is 20, or 40, or 50), so that the crimp die works properly. When set up to seat and crimp in the top groove, the rounds feed without any problem in my Winchester Model 94. Accuracy is the same as with jacketed bullets, and probably better than I can hold with the iron sights.
I am not sure that you want a longer overall length if you are using them in a repeater, as it may mess up the feeding.
If you have already had problems and you think you have a solution, great, and have fun. However, if you haven't tried it, I suggest you do and see how they work. As I said, they work well for my and I am pushing them at 1900 fps without any feeding or ejection, or accuracy, problems.

My solution so far has been to cut the 30-30 cases back to 2.015" and LFC on the second (rather narrow) band. In doing so I had to take some metal off the bottom of one of my 30-30 LFC dies so I could apply a crimp to the shortened cases. The results produce a round 2.57+" long with very good accuracy at over 2100fps with a 195 grain bullet (24" bbl) but I would like to have a more simple solution; i.e., use a mould that drops a properly designed bullet so I don't need to cut my brass way back to 2.015". This particular 336A will feed a 2.590" round from the magazine... a 2.595" round will hang up though.

Alk probably mentioned the best solution... a custom mould. BTW, MM's prices as we speak are TBD!

MC

P.S. Another plus to the 2.57" COL is that a portion of the gascheck is still in the neck... not so when 30-180FN is seated to crimp in the designated crimp groove.