to crimp or not

[california shooter]

I have been working up some loads for both a 7mm-08 and a 30-06. I am using hornady sst bullets in 139 gr and 180 gr. Should these be crimped or not. So far they seem to be good, not crimped but this is off of a shooting bench not the hunting woods.

[Eric in NC]

Shouldn't need to in a bolt action rifle for either of those cartridges but you could certainly try a Lee crimp and see what the results are (might get even better accuracy). Just be sure to back off your load a bit and work back up if you crimp.

[bootsmcguire]

This is a topic I have personally dealt with in my 12FV 308 Win.
I shoot 155gr Amax's over Varget, with no crimp, that's my target load.
I shoot 150gr SST's over Varget, with a decent crimp,using a Lee factory Crimp Die, that's my deer load.
Both hit to the same point of aim out to 330 yards. I wasn't crimping the SST's at first and they were hitting a little lower. Then a fellow hunter told me to try a crimp on my hunting loads (just to make them more reliable in the field, as he put it). Now I don't know about more reliable, but it did make them hit the same POA as my target loads, and the SST groups tightened up nearly as tight as the AMax's.
It just goes to show that each load is different, "To Crimp, or Not to Crimp" you just got to try it. And that's Half the fun ;D

[possum1]

+1 on trying. Not saying it will help but you never know. I've used the Lee F/C and some rifle's it helped and some it didn't. Fun experimenting though ;D