How much crimp is too much?

Depends on if you're roll crimping or taper crimping.

If roll crimping, only enough to turn the mouth of the case into the groove. So you can't feel it when you slide your thumbnail down the side of the bullet and not feel the mouth of the case. If that doesn't hold your bullet in under recoil, the your expanding die may be over expanding your case.
Of course this only works on a bullet With a crimping groove or cannelure.

If taper crimping, you should adjust the crimp die to just "kiss" the mouth of the case. You should see a bit of shine on the case mouth. A quarter to half turn should be enough to hold a bullet in the case after it touches the case mouth.
Anything more is too much.

I give mine maximum crimp pretty much like the cases on the right of Walkalongs pics have.
You may have to trim your cases to get consistent crimps though.
When you are putting maximum crimp on a round, the case lengths need to be consistent or with a longer case, you will over crimp and bulge the case out so it won't fit the chamber. That's what Walkalong is alluding to. You may already know that.

If I'm shooting Keith bullets out of my .327 FM I am shooting heavy bullets for caliber and heavy loads for distance and spin rate of the bullet. That means slow burning powder and heavy roll crimp.

if you are getting a brass sliver when crimping, you are going too far. if you are getting lead shavings when crimping, you are going too far.

luck,

murf

murf said:

if you are getting a brass sliver when crimping, you are going too far. if you are getting lead shavings when crimping, you are going too far.

Click to expand...

That is the essence of the patented Charlie98 Death Grip Crimp... that and crushed shoulders. Hey, the book said W296 needed a 'firm roll crimp for proper ignition.'

you may want to trim all your cases to length. that should prevent shaving, slivers and crushed shoulders.

luck,

murf