Reloading for a 7400/742 30/06

Bearcat 74

Bearcat 74

New member
Guys a friend of mine is wanting some loading done for his Remington semiauto 7400 30/06. The guy he is having to reload for him says that is not possible without crimping because they will not feed from the magazine without a crimp, he also says that if they do feed from the mag uncrimped that it would not eject the empty brass after firing? Has anyone loaded for a 7400 and is there anything special you have to do?



Thanks
 
I handload for a couple of Browning BAR's, a Remington M7600, two AR15's, two Browning BLR's, and several Marlin lever actions. The removable magazine fed rifles do not absolutely need a crimp, nor do they absolutely have to have small base dies for resizing. The lever action tube magazine rifles I do use a Lee Factory Crimp Die in their loading. Otherwise in fact, I don't own a set of small base dies, just regular Redding and RCBS for the most part. Now, in some few cases it is reported a particular rifle may need some special attention in the loading procedure. They're all individuals and anything can happen. But I wouldn't approach the process expecting the worst.
 
Huh?....What?

There is the possibilty that the bullets could be driven back into the casing while feeding out of a magazine and that by crimping the bullet this will ensure that this will not happen.

There is no reason that the casings will not eject without crimping, after firing...Doesn't make any sense.

I might find someone else to do the reloading for me. In fact I don't trust anyone to reload for me...to many chances for errors.

I've seen many and made a few errors over my loading career of 30 plus years.... No Ka-Booms though.
 
I am new to reloading but I have tried to read everything I could about it and I was confused as well. The guy who says you have to crimp any semiauto and I got into a nice arguement about it today as I have an AR and I have never had to crimp it, he says not possible and the fight was on. The guy has been reloading for around 10 years and when he looked at some of my reloads that were for my 30/06 he was completely perplexed as to why the cannalure was not crimped and how did I know that my bullet was .010 off the lands? Thats when I started to wonder about him, the arguement today kind of cemented what I thought.


Thanks
 
For most Mag fed bottleneck catridges you want a slight taper crimp.So slight it cannot be easily seen. That is done with the seating die. If anyone trys to tell you you need a roll crimp or any special crimp die on a bottleneck case they are full of BS. A good taper crimp really cannot be seen it is just enough to keep the bullet from slideing back into the case or being pulled out with finger pressure. The Remington Semi Auto is no differant from any other rifle that shoots a bottleneck catridge they all headspace on the shoulder feeding and fit in the mag is a function of the COAL they have to fit in the mag freely. 3.340" is optimum COAL for the 30-06 in a mag fed semi auto. But some bullets seat to a shorter COAL than that. The 3.340 is about as long as you want to get and still function through a magazine. The guy that says you have to crimp into the cannular is over crimping and most likely getting inconsistant pressures as a result with some flyers and poor groups. I bet he blames them on the rifle though or the shooter. You would be better off to load for your friend yourself, or better yet show him how to roll his own. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Well, I loaded up 6 with a 180 NBT and some H414 powder, they fed perfectly, ejected perfectly and in between feeding and ejection, they went pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. I called the guy who said it could not be done and now his RCBS FL die and my RCBS FL die are different, the brand new ones like his are shaped differently.....can you smell the BS from where you are sitting?

The guy with gun just got everything to reload except dies and they are on order, so hopefully he can roll his own smokes here pretty soon.


Anyway, thanks for the help.
 
Some folks do somthing wrong for ten years then make excuses. I have only been handloading for forty I do not look for or make excuses if i do somthing wrong and later find out I make it right. BTW the 30-06 and 44 Mag were the first chamberings I started loading way back when I was in High School back in the 1960's
 
The only difference in loading for a semi-auto versus non semi-auto is the sizing is a little more critical. This can usually be accomplished with an extra bit of turn on the die. Sometimes, not allways, a small based die will be required to get them to chamber without letting the bolt slam forward. Crimping in my opinion should be reserved for pistol and tubular fed mags.


Edited to add;Powder burn rate is also a consideration for Semi-Autos. Some powders will not properly function an semi.

I havent loaded for a non AR semi auto in many years but that was my findings back in the 80's
 
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One thing that hurts the guy who reloads for him is he likes to load at or below the book minimum, says anything over that is dangerous. I have rifle that I load for that shoots great at .5grs over book max 30/06 cartridge. There are no pressure signs at all, everything looks great, and he has already declared that I will blow my gun up and probably kill myself loading that hot. I do not load everything like that, my .358 Win is 2.7 grs under max because it shoots real nice right there.
 


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