The same thing may be caused by using too 

 large wadding, or ramming so hard that the body 

 of the shell is enlarged or distorted. Remember 

 that the shot shells are only paper, and that they 

 are made correct in size at the factory. If they 

 are enlarged so that thiy can not enter the crimp- 

 ing head properly, results may be expected as per 

 illustration "E." A crimping tool that will oper- 

 ate perfectly on an empty shell, should do the 

 same* kind of work on one that is loaded, if it has 

 not been distorted in wadding or ramming, r or 

 forced too hard in crimping. Forcing will rough- 

 en and spoil a good criuip. 



To insure a perfect crimp, at least one-quarter 

 (%) of an inch of the shell must be left without 

 wadding, the cartridges should be forced up slow- 

 ly, and the crank or crimping head revolved rap- 

 idly. Do not force shell faster than it is crimped, 

 and when the end of the shell is turned over firm- 

 ly upon the wadding, stoi>, and results will be sim- 

 ilar to illustrations "C" and "D," showing perfect 

 square and round crimp. Continued pressing af- 

 ter shells are sufficiently crimped, results in 

 injury. 



Until the coming of the repeating shot guns the 

 square crimp was universally preferred. The us- 

 ers of the repeating shot guns find that the square 

 crimp will at times catch on entering the chamber 

 when being inserted by the mechanism; therefore, 

 the round crimp is required to obviate that trou- 

 Dle. All heads for Ideal crimpers are furnished 

 with one set of pins each for turning the round and 

 square crimp, as per illustrations "C" and "D." 



To properly crimp shells thot have been re- 

 loaded \ especially those that have not been cut 

 off, but have the soft muzzle, we would advise a 

 straightline crimper, such as Star Crimper No. I 

 (See illustration "V." With such an implement 

 the shells cannot be bent by being cramped. 



31 



