Lee factory crimp, with out the crimp?

[JTknives]

I have been using a lee factory crimp die to put a taper crimp on my 10mm reloads. but I'm starting to use lead a lot more and was told that i only need to remove the flared mouth of the case and that i don't need to crimp it. I noticed that the lee factory crimp die is a 2 part die with a carbide sizer at its mouth and then a free floating crimper. but if i take out the free floating crimper and just run the round through it then it removes the flared mouth to where it should be which is around .422. is it OK to just do it this way or do i need a crimp. thanks friends

[HammerMTB]

I have that same die- not just a FCD, but the 10MM one....
The "approved" way, if that's a good term for it, is to knock the carbide out of the bottom of the die, and just set the crimper 'til it removes the casemouth bell. You can crimp a bit more if you get case setback, but you probably won't need to.
The reasoning is this:
The carbide sizes the whole case, and what's inside. If you need a .402 boolit, and the carbide is sizing it to .400, that's not good. But the adjustable crimper will only touch the end of the case, and only to the degree you set it.
My FCD has the carbide knocked out of it.

[Cherokee]

Sounds like that may work, as long as the bullet is not getting sized down as well. Shoot them and see if they work without leadng. If it leads, try just running the the 1/10th (or less) of the case into the die, not the whole cartridge.

Edit: Or you can do what hammer said

[Gohon]

Take a new or just re-sized shell and drop it into the mouth of a FCD and it will fall right in......never touching the carbide ring. Actually one can wiggle it freely around. The only thing the carbide ring re-sizes, if it does it at all, is that portion from the mouth of the case to the bottom of the seated bullet. Generally the only time this becomes a issue is when a over sized bullet is desired and loaded. For example my 45 Colt shoots .454 cast the best. When loaded with such a cast the FCD did resize the bullet back down to a about .4527. With Jacketed and cast at .452-.4525, the carbide ring never touched the side of the case except the flared portion upon first entering the die. So the Carbide ring does not re-size the full length of the case....the sizing die does that.

As to just running the loaded round into the FCD to iron out the flare.....while that will work, just like removing the decapping stem of the sizing die and doing it that way, I personally would rather adjust the die to put on a proper taper crimp. Reason being is the possibility of a misfeed caused by the edge of the shell mouth hanging up. For just plinking and target shooting it is okay but if you need to depend on the gun to always feed properly then it is not worth the risk.