Lee Rifle Factory Crimp Die questions

[milprileb]

Since the FCD for rifles squeezed the neck , do I have to buy separate ones for my 30 caliber rifles ? I load 7.5 French, 7.5 Swiss, 3006 so would not a 30 caliber FCD do the trick for these ? Same for 303 and 762x54R which are .311 bullets.. can't one FCD serve both calibers.

Am I missing something? The only thing I can think of is the die body may be too
long for a 3006 FCD and it could not be used for the 7.5 Fr and 7.5 Swiss. ON the other hand, a 308 FCD ought to have a shorter die body and allow 3006 and these other 30 cal (308 size bullets) necks to be squeezed

Thank you for your help, this had me stumped. [smilie=6:

[Reload3006]

because of length you have to buy one for each round. the shell holder presses against the collet making it close and crimp the round.

[milprileb]

Oh boy... how did I miss that ? I deserve a AARP bumper sticker
for that mind lapse !

[Pepe Ray]

milprilib;
If you've got a VERY tight budget and if you are inventive and if you like to fuss and fritz around with makeshift parts you CAN
buy the shortest die for caliber and use home made bushings between the shell holder and the die to operate it for each different ctg.
If the extra work is worth the effort.
Pepe Ray

[milprileb]

Pepe Ray, that is a easy solution and I may try it.

[Janoosh]

Certain calibers are compatable. I use the Lee FCD in 762x54 for 7.5x55 swiss. If you measure case length you can come close. The body diameter matters also. The russian round is larger than the swiss.

[o6Patient]

!Wouldn't it be cool if they made 'em just by cal size.
NAAAAAHHHH they wouldn't sell as many...what am I saying?
:veryconfu

[I'll Make Mine]

!Wouldn't it be cool if they made 'em just by cal size.
NAAAAAHHHH they wouldn't sell as many...what am I saying?
:veryconfu

They can't readily do that, though -- they're actuated by the shell holder pushing up the bottom of the die. They have to have a specific length.

[o6Patient]

They can't readily do that, though -- they're actuated by the shell holder pushing up the bottom of the die. They have to have a specific length.

It would have to be a different design.

[Gar]

milprilib;
If you've got a VERY tight budget and if you are inventive and if you like to fuss and fritz around with makeshift parts you CAN
buy the shortest die for caliber and use home made bushings between the shell holder and the die to operate it for each different ctg.
If the extra work is worth the effort.
Pepe Ray

That's a great idea, I've got several 30 cal's that I don't reload very many of, 7.5 Swiss, 7.62x45mm, etc. Your idea is an easy solution to a problem I didn't know I had! :drinks:

[Reg]

I might be missing something here but it seems to me that you cannot get away with just buying the shortest length of FCD then making a spacer to get the crimping action. Some you might get away with it, some not.

These dies work by the bottom of the die contacting the top of the shell holder but you must still rely on the ram ( on the press ) "caming over top dead center " to provide some kind of repeatable stop otherwise how can you control the amount of crimp you put on, make it repeatable.
With this in mind, if you make a spacer then you have to back off the die to allow for this difference in length. If it were just a minor amount of length difference, you might get away with it but say as example you wanted to crimp both a 25-20 Win and a 257 Roberts with the same die the length of spacer required would put the die in the last couple of threads of the press. Same with using, say, a 7.62 x 39 die with 30-06 or even worse yet like with a 300 H&H.

Also I think one has to consider the diameter of the spacer. Under the above premise the spacer O.D. would have to be smaller than the minor diameter of the 7/8"x14 threads. This might be doable but the length factor still has to be considered.


:Fire:

[MT Chambers]

I don't know why you need those dies in the first place, I've been reloading for 50 years and never needed them, I've needed special neck sizing dies, turning tools, reamers, bushing dies, in-line seaters, etc...can't figure out why you would need these?

[Reg]

I don't know why you need those dies in the first place, I've been reloading for 50 years and never needed them, I've needed special neck sizing dies, turning tools, reamers, bushing dies, in-line seaters, etc...can't figure out why you would need these?

In my case, I have a pistol chambered in the 25-20 Winchester caliber. After a lot of chronograph work it was showing that I was getting erratic velocities often almost to 100 fps. This was with about any powder tried. Velocity variation to this degree I feel is directly related to accuracy and I did feel that the little 25-20 was capable of better than what it was doing. With a bit of research it was shown that to get more uniform burning of the powder I.E. more even velocity, a crimp was required.

The 25-20 cases are generally a bit pricy and at times not easy to find and it is a accepted fact that the normal roll crimp that is produced with normal seating dies is hard on brass causing cracks at the end of the neck. I needed a crimp but had to consider case life in the deal. One selling point on the FCD is the collet closing effect is about as easy on the brass as anything that can be found. All you have to be careful of is how much "closing" you use. If too much you can actually reduce the diameter of the bullet.

Not too long ago I found a Lee 25-20 FCD through a member here, bought it and have since in the very limited amount of testing done have seen there is indeed a big difference, at least with the couple of powders I have tried.
Velocity variations have dropped into the acceptable range and accuracy has improved, not a lot but it is noticeable.
There still is a lot to learn and improvements to be made but there IS a difference, now it is up to me to take that difference and do something with it.

Just like all the more than normal loading tools you mentioned, straight line seaters, reamers etc, this is another tool that in it's place, has a place.
If all you want to do is bounce a can around at 20 feet, you need none of the above but if you want nickle sized groups with a handgun at 50 yards and beyond ( no, I am not there yet !!) you need every trick in the bag.
I think this FCD is going to help.

:Fire:

[fouronesix]

I have a few Lee FCDs- for specific types of rounds and purposes. The rifle variety (collet type) is a very fine design. The pistol variety is not much different than the crimping shoulder on a standard seater die.

I use the FCD primarily for crimping when necessary for preventing bullet movement during recoil or chambering. It is THE best crimper I know of for that purpose. It, as the name implies, uses the same collet system most factory loading equipment uses. It does what no sliding or roll crimp shoulder can do and it won't wrinkle a case.

[Pooch]

Oh boy... how did I miss that ? I deserve a AARP bumper sticker
for that mind lapse !

Hmmmmmmm. I have an AARP card in my pocket & I didn't
miss it. Heh-heh.

[MtGun44]

Lee CD (rifle type) is a great crimper, less sensitive to case length and
WILL NOT collapse a case shoulder. Guess how I know that that sort
of thing can happen?

Bill