Article: Crimping.

The primary purpose of crimping is to retain the bullet in place. The sorts of forces the cartridge will be subjected to determine the best type of crimp for resisting these forces.

In a revolver, the bullet is subjected to the recoil force of another cartridge being fired trying to pull the bullet out of the cartridge case. The roll crimp resists this force. As an added benefit (particularly in the Magnums) the added bullet resistance to moving helps the slow burning powders develop pressure to give the magnum velocities.

Autoloading pistols, in contrast, try to shove the bullet deeper in the casing, so the taper crimp common to automatic cartridges ...

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