Lee fcd

[original]

I have tried the Lee FCD on my cast 40sw, 9mm and 357. I am using a Hornady LNL progressive press and when it get to the crimp stage the rounds seem to enter the FCD rough and the die seems to grab the round pretty good, nothing smooth about it at all. Are the Lee FCD not cast friendly for a bullets about .001 oversized from their jacketed brothers?

[Soundguy]

I'm using fcd on several cast loads, never had an issue. Made up nearly 60 35 REM for shuuting last weekend.

Is the boolit hanging, or the case dragging?

Have you sized the cases?

[Josh Smith]

I've found that some cases are thick enough that, when combined with the thou over with cast, allow the FCD to contact the case wall and safe swage the boolits too small.

Josh

[GRUMPA]

I'm wondering if the flare is to much, making the case mouth drag on the die on the way up.

[DougGuy]

OP if you want to pull one of your boolits after you use the FCD and mic it, you will see if the FCD is sizing it down or not. About the only time the FCD doesn't downsize a cast boolit is when it is pretty much the size of a factory j-word to start with.

The other thing to watch for with the FCD and this is CRITICAL with the 9mm and the 40, is that once applied, the boolit and the brass both have some "springback" in them so when they come out of the FCD, the case tension on the boolit can be drastically less, because the brass springs back farther than the cast boolit. You should do a push test and push the loaded round against the loading bench or other solid object and see if you can push the boolit deeper with your fingers. You should NOT be able to push it deeper into the case. If you can, there is the very real possibility that the momentum of the slide can set the boolit deeper by pushing it into the feed ramp and if this happens, it can cause a CATASTROPHIC over-pressure event. You can blow the gun up in your hands from even a tiny bit of setback.

For example, max SAAMI pressure for the 9mm is 35,000psi. Changing the COA as little as .010" can send pressures in excess of 60,000psi under the right conditions.

For this reason I won't use the FCD on auto pistol loads. When you have your loads assembled correctly, a taper crimp should be all that's needed to produce safe, accurate, and consistent loads.

[Soundguy]

Fcd on pistol rounds should be roll or taper? I thought lee collet fcd dies were only on bottleneck cases not the straight wall or taper cases. Has this changed?

[waco]

The Lee FCD is pistol calibers have a carbide ring in them. They are meant for jacketed bullets. If you size your cast .357 Mag boolits to .358"-.359" to fit your cylinder throats, once you run them through that die you are squeezing them down to .357"
The diameter of a jacketed bullet. Don't believe me? Run one through the die then pull the boolit and measure it using a mic, not calipers. That drag, or resistance your feeling is your boolit being sized down.

I took all my dies to work, chucked them up in a lathe and cut the carbide ring out. Problem solved.

[waco]

Fcd on pistol rounds should be roll or taper? I thought lee collet fcd dies were only on bottleneck cases not the straight wall or taper cases. Has this changed?

FCD for pistol and rifle cartridges are two completely different dies....The pistol dies have a carbide ring. No collet like the rifle dies.

[Soundguy]

FCD for pistol and rifle cartridges are two completely different dies....The pistol dies have a carbide ring. No collet like the rifle dies.

That's my point, they are different die types.

The carbide sizer ring will/can iron out bulging brass, but its not a collet system. ( that's what I was trying to get across ). Which is why I like fcd on bottleneck cases, but for straight/taper cases that get roll or taper 'crimps', I like the standard manufacturer provided dies.

Only guys I know that use the fcd on 'pistol' brass are 'glocked' cases, and those guys aren't loading cast anyway.

[dragon813gt]

The pistol caliber, non collet, are hit and miss. Sometimes the carbide rings are cast friendly. Other times they are not. I don't use the pistol style because they aren't needed. But this is another argument all together.

[Soundguy]

The pistol caliber, non collet, are hit and miss. Sometimes the carbide rings are cast friendly. Other times they are not. I don't use the pistol style because they aren't needed. But this is another argument all together.

Agree!

[DougGuy]

Actually there are a grand total of FOUR separate, different, Lee Factory Crimp Dies. There are the collet style FCD dies for rifle, there is the carbide ring style FCD for straight walled pistol cases both rimmed and rimless, there is a different carbide ring style FCD for straight wall pistol cases that has an adjuster in the top of the die, and there are also collet style FCD dies for straight wall pistol cases. These collet style FCD are usually uncataloged items and you really have to hunt for them. Lee made in them in runs for specific customers like Ranch Dog, and they were made in the popular magnum calibers, 357, 41, 44, and also 45 Colt. They are also offered for a lot of other straight walled cartridges such as the 450 Bushmaster. I suppose Lee will make them for the 480 Ruger and 500 S&W at some point if they don't already offer them.

In this thread, the OP is obviously referring to the carbide ring style of FCD. This is the only FCD that is notorious for sizing down boolits, and they are hit or miss, diameters of the carbide ring are inconsistent. You may get one that crimps a .452" cast boolit in a 45 ACP case perfectly without downsizing, the next one you buy may swage the boolit to .451" or even less depending on case wall thickness. The collet style FCD does not have any kind of sizer ring in the bottom, the collet closes in from the sides to form the crimp.

[Boolseye]

For my S&W m66 (.357), the fcd is a must. some of them take some pretty serious force, too, but you know what? I've pulled the boolits and they're still .358". With my autoloaders I tend to take the crimping plug out of the fcd and put it in the expander body, which I don't normally use because I have a lyman multi-expander. Then I get the crimp without the carbide ring sizing things down. If I get ftfs, I'll bring back the carbide.

[Soundguy]

Actually there are a grand total of THREE separate, different, Lee Factory Crimp Dies. There are the collet style FCD dies for rifle, there is the carbide ring style FCD for straight walled pistol cases both rimmed and rimless, and there are also collet style FCD dies for straight wall pistol cases. These collet style FCD are usually uncataloged items and you really have to hunt for them. Lee made in them in runs for specific customers like Ranch Dog, and they were made in the popular magnum calibers, 357, 41, 44, and also 45 Colt. They are also offered for a lot of other straight walled cartridges such as the 450 Bushmaster. I suppose Lee will make them for the 480 Ruger and 500 S&W at some point if they don't already offer them.

In this thread, the OP is obviously referring to the carbide ring style of FCD. This is the only FCD that is notorious for sizing down boolits, and they are hit or miss, diameters of the carbide ring are inconsistent. You may get one that crimps a .452" cast boolit in a 45 ACP case perfectly without downsizing, the next one you buy may swage the boolit to .451" or even less depending on case wall thickness. The collet style FCD does not have any kind of sizer ring in the bottom, the collet closes in from the sides to form the crimp.

Could you post some links to these uncataloged pisyol/straight wall collet fcd?

I've never seen them, but if available, there might be some I would try.

[dragon813gt]

They are cataloged. They used to be small runs but Lee started listing them all the time. They are available on their site.

[Beef15]

The Lee FCD is pistol calibers have a carbide ring in them. They are meant for jacketed bullets. If you size your cast .357 Mag boolits to .358"-.359" to fit your cylinder throats, once you run them through that die you are squeezing them down to .357"
The diameter of a jacketed bullet. Don't believe me? Run one through the die then pull the boolit and measure it using a mic, not calipers. That drag, or resistance your feeling is your boolit being sized down.

I took all my dies to work, chucked them up in a lathe and cut the carbide ring out. Problem solved.

You can just take a wooden dowel and drive the carbide ring out. Its just a snug press fit. And you can tap it back in later if you want, not sure how many times, but no need to cut it out.

[DougGuy]

Could you post some links to these uncataloged pisyol/straight wall collet fcd?

I've never seen them, but if available, there might be some I would try.

They work good for what they do. They are best used with heavy for caliber boolits and slow burning powder like H110/W296. They can also stand a bit of tweaking from how the factory die is shipped, here is a thread detailing how I like to do that and what it does: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post2239315

[rond]

Try adjusting your seating die to start the crimp. As stated earlier, I think your case mouth has too much of a bell to fit easily in the crimp die.

[Soundguy]

They work good for what they do. They are best used with heavy for caliber boolits and slow burning powder like H110/W296. They can also stand a bit of tweaking from how the factory die is shipped, here is a thread detailing how I like to do that and what it does: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post2239315

That was my thought as well, heavy/hot loads in taper crimp cases..

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Could you post some links to these uncataloged pisyol/straight wall collet fcd?

I've never seen them, but if available, there might be some I would try.

they have been listed on Lee's website, since about the time Ranch Dog quit offering his Lee custom stuff on his website.
http://leeprecision.com/lee-collet-style-crimp-die/