Lee Factory Crimp Die

[Tripplebeards]

I just ordered a 450 BM lee factory crimp collet die on eBay for $16.99 shipped since I’ve have tremendous luck with them.

[trapper9260]

I use the dies , on some of my guns I had a hard time to load compare to the other one with the same rounds. I use the die and did not had any more problems. It dose not swage the cast bullet it shapes the brass, that is what I had the problem with since I use the M die to seat the boolit. Some guns I can get away with not need to use the die and some of the same round needs to. Mainly the tight chamber ones. It works for me. I use it for handgun and rifle .

[Art in Colorado]

I use the Lee Factory Crimp Die for for all my hand loading and never had a problem. Took Brian Pierce's advice and adjust the Lee Crimp Die by using a factory round and screw down the die to its crimp size and then go a quarter of a turn more to allow for spring back.

[robg]

i only use lee fcd s on my 223/3030 and 308 .for my 45-70 and 357 mag seat and crimp with std die .

[1006]

Rifles: The Factory Crimp Die has worked well for me on Rifles and only rifles. I use it to lightly remove any case mouth bell that remains after the bullet is seated—mainly while loading flat based bullets.

Pistols: The Lee Factory Carbide dies tended to leave lopsided crimps when I tried to use them.

The Pistol Crimp Dies did not work for me. I roll crimp and seat in the same step—I can’t see how you can roll crimp in a separate step as bullet has to be pushed as the crimp is formed, or there is no rolling, only squashing - you ROLL the case mouth into the groove.

I taper crimp on a separate operation with any typical taper crimp.

A lot of very good ammo was loaded by reloaders for many decades before the Lee company marketed the “Factory Carbide Crimp.”

As said before: if you like them, use them.

[Hutch556]

My over all experience with Lee FCD‘S have been great. If your running really oversized bullets and are worried about the die Swaging Down your bullets then you may want to look at a different crimp die. But you may find the Lee does the trick with out swaging them down. I would pull a bullet and see first before giving up my Lee FCD for something else.

[Lloyd Smale]

I seat and crimp in separate steps. I use the Lee Factory Crimp Die to put the crimp on the cartridge.
In my experience, unless you are using an unusually large diameter boolit, it will not swage the boolit down and it does not do that for me.
I use the Lee FCD on all my handgun rounds and have no issue with accuracy or leading in any of my handguns. Cartridges I load are 38 Special, 357 Mag, 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP. I have several different handguns in each caliber and the ammunition works in all of them.

same here. Most who have problems with them are overcrimping. Ive shot competitively with 45s and 9s and even 38s crimped with fcd's and have some trophys to prove that most of this is wives tails. Now in relover loads i USUALLY but not always (sometimes i use fcd with them too) take a second seating die and pull the seating plug out of it and use that for a crimp die. Not because its any better its just that i have two sets of dies for most calibers i load so the die is sitting in the box and i cant justify paying for a fcd.

[jetinteriorguy]

Rifles: The Factory Crimp Die has worked well for me on Rifles and only rifles. I use it to lightly remove any case mouth bell that remains after the bullet is seated—mainly while loading flat based bullets.

Pistols: The Lee Factory Carbide dies tended to leave lopsided crimps when I tried to use them.

The Pistol Crimp Dies did not work for me. I roll crimp and seat in the same step—I can’t see how you can roll crimp in a separate step as bullet has to be pushed as the crimp is formed, or there is no rolling, only squashing - you ROLL the case mouth into the groove.

I taper crimp on a separate operation with any typical taper crimp.

A lot of very good ammo was loaded by reloaders for many decades before the Lee company marketed the “Factory Carbide Crimp.”

As said before: if you like them, use them.

If your going to use the seating/crimp die you can seat first without a crimp, then back off the seating stem so it doesn’t contact the bullet, then adjust the die body for desired crimp and crimp in a separate step. Since this is a bit tedious that’s why many people just use two dies, one set up for each step. Seating and crimping in separate steps is a better way to avoid problems, but not everyone likes doing it so to each his own.

[1hole]

Encountering "problems" with Lee's FCD? Goodness, this isn't rocket science, don't make it more complex than it need be!

First, that die's post-seating sizer ring simply insures that no reloads come out fatter than SAAMI standards so the ammo can reliably chamber and fire ALL THE TIME! Lee's handgun FCDs do that very well, in fact it's the ONLY die that does; that's why doing the "plunk test" with other dies is so important, especially for social work ammo!

Fact is, dies are simple solid steel tubes, they are not adjustable for diameter. Thus, no user skill and no careful adjustments on any crimper can keep the (overly) popular too fat bullets in too thick cases from sticking in tight chambers. Total chambering reliability hardly matters except in a gunfight but that's when it's really nice to be using a Lee FCD seater/crimper. If absolute reliability isn't a concern then don't bother with that die (or the plunk test).

When roll crimping ammo (for revolvers), if a seating die's depth is adjusted to properly set the case mouth into the bullet's crimp grooves then no separate "seat" and "crimp" steps are needed. All a taper crimping die (for autoloaders) needs to do is smooth out the flair.

I sometimes wonder if those who have problems with bullets not seating in the correct groove aren't trying to seat to book Over All Length. If so, forget it because that's not necessary, just set the seater so the crimp groove is where it needs to be and crimp it there.