I’ll get a few like that now and then. Every time I see one I kinda wonder what causes it but after a while you’ll chuck a hull in the press and know it’s gonna do it.
Which part of the crimp are you referring to? The fact the crimp depth may be too deep? Or the fact the petal folds are sphinctered? The former might give me pause because crimp depth has an impact on chamber pressure. If the latter? Shoot 'em.
As long as the crimp is sufficient to hold the components in place shoot them and toss the empties. Once the hull gets crimped poorly it usually just gets worse. I set poor crimps aside and box them up separately from the rest. I shoot them in practice and chuck the hulls. Anyone who loads a lot of shells gets some of these while making ammo. It’s many times caused by a hull in poor condition getting into the loader without noticing it ahead of time.
As others have stated, shoot them. It is not worth the energy and time breaking them apart for components.
After you shoot them, toss the hulls and focus on adjusting your press for better looking crimps. On my 366, if I pull/push too quickly, my pre-crimp does not rotate freely and creates folds like yours. For me, a more smooth and consistent rhythm was my solution .
As a gun club guy I've learned to appreciate the 4 fold crimps! I do box them different but.they go bang just fine! I still suck at trap so I can't blame the misses on the crappy crimps!
Those crimps are the result of the crimp starter not lining up with the original folds. I had always had a few of these (more of a problem on 410's and 28's) and don't like ugly crimps. I load on MEC 650's and found out if I line up the original fold at the same location on each shell at the crimp starter you will eliminate those ugly folds almost entirely. I am not a speed reloader so the extra attention to line them up doesn't bother me as much as a crimp that is all wopper-jawed. Shoot those and toss them; once they have been mis-folded you can never truly straighten them out.
I normally load AA HS hulls seven times. It's just as easy to get seven reloads with a shell that looks like yours as it is to get there with factory looking crimps. Shoot them and reload them again. It's only a cosmetic problem.
I appreciate the information. The mangled petals and poor picture disguise the depth of the crimp. I checked my crimps against factory crimps and they are the same. Also the recipe is for a lower velocity and pressure load than shown in your example. Again thanks for the information.
Pay more attention to the hull after the pre-crimp if you load on a MEC. They most likely got a 4 point pre-crimp. I load on a MEC 9000, so catching those I open up the crimp and I manually form the 8 point pre-crimp. I have noticed that those cases have a stiffer plastic, maybe thicker than normal. As mentioned above it also could be the misalignment of the pre-crimp.
Which is often because the original folds have become indistinct and can't be "found" by the crimp starter. Like others here, I shoot them and try to get them culled out.
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