doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Roll Crimper (Italy Gaep)

Dwight,

Thanks for posting this. Those are very nice looking roll crimps, IMO.

What is the thread size in the top of the roll crimper? Do you use them on a drill press?

SRH

Stan,
I am not sure of the thread size. I think it is probably metric. I don't have a drill press so I used a hand drill and held the shell on top of a vise. I did get an old style hand roll tool thru Charles that worked with the 20 ga but slips with the 32 ga. You can interchange the heads with it. I did not have a lot of time when I did the few shells with the pics so I will be working with it again soon. I think the drill press will work great because you need pretty good pressure to do the crimp with the plastic shells. I have not tried any paper shells yet. One advantage to the drill or hand press is that in a 2 3/4 or 3" hull you can do a nice crimp. I have found that my 20 ga hand crimper tool has too short a space for the longer hulls. Also by having the hull verticle the top overshot seal will not fall out like it does sometimes in the horizonal position. I have a bunch of new 20 ga active hulls and this is going to work great on them. In hulls that I cut off I like federals the best for roll crimping. The hulls seem be a good material for roll crimping and I have done some a number of times in 12 and 20 ga. I have had good results with fiocchi 16 ga and 28 gauge. Chedite also ok.

The roll crimper from Ballistics Products does a nice job. The trick seems to be in the little notch on the inside lip. I think it is to let some of the heat out as these can get hot. I also found that in using a drill press to go bring the handle down slowly to the stop and lifting it and doing it again to get a nice crimp. I use them for 12 ga. 16, ga and 20 ga.
These are 16 ga, 2 9/16" Cheddites with my home made vise.

Here is the od fashioned hand roll crimper, in my opinion, does it faster and just as nice. These are Remington Gun Clubs cut to 2 1/2".