? on Lee factory crimp die

[duke76]

I know alot of you guys use these and like them alot. I myself have used them before on jacketed bullets and liked them, but I am a little concerned with using them on cast bullets as not to size the bullet down. It doesnt make sense to get a bullet to fit .002 over bore and then squeeze it down with the factory crimp die or doesnt this happen, just a question, would like to hear from someone who knows more about them than me, Thanks, Todd

[VTDW]

Just practice on the amount of squeeze you put on the crimp. Crimp one and remove the boolit to see how much crimp you put into the boolit then go up or down in crimp according to what you find. Different Bnh boolits will need different crimp pressures but with a bit of practice it is easy.:drinks:

[versifier]

You don't say if you are talking about handgun or rifle FC dies. It can be a real issue with handgun boolits, as those dies were designed for use with jacketed bullets and DO size the loaded round with a carbide ring. With the rifle dies, it's no issue at all as they do not size, just crimp.

[duke76]

That makes total sense as once I had a bulged case that would not chamber in a 45 acp and ran it through th FC and then it worked fine, that is what made me nervous about the rifle, but I want to use it for a rifle.

[montana_charlie]

I had a bulged case that would not chamber in a 45 acp and ran it through th FC and then it worked fine, that is what made me nervous about the rifle, but I want to use it for a rifle.
You have me totally confused, duke.
Are you saying that you want to run rifle ammunition through a Factory Crimp die which works well on .45 ACP?
CM

[duke76]

what I am saying is I had a problem with handgun ammo and the fc crimp die resized it back down to fit and now I am reloading rifle ammo and was debating on the FC die, what I didnt want to do is size the bullet down like I did with my handgun ammo. These are 2 different incidences , no I am not going to shoot handgun ammo in a rifle I was just using that as my example hopefully that clarifies that. Thanks, Todd

[versifier]

In that case, get one in each chambering for your rifle cases. There are advantages to a separate crimping operation. You back the seater die off enough so that it won't roll crimp the cases and only seat the bullets/boolits. (For a roll crimp die to work consistantly, all the cases have to be exactly the same length, and it may need to be adjusted as the cases lengthen to maximum before trimming. Roll crimps work best with jacketed cannelured bullets.) With a factory crimp, you have much more leeway as to case length and you can get a good crimp anywhere along the length of a jacketed bullet, and anywhere along the length of a boolit, too. How much crimp they get is easily adjustable.

[38-55]

Hey Duke,
The Lee factory crimp die dos not 'post size' the case. It's a collet type affair that only effects about a 1/16th of the neck. It's well worth trying in my most humble opinion. While not a 'got to have' thing it's a good tool to have in your tool box.
As for myself I won't load cast bullets for anything tubular fed with out it. As for hand gun stuff.... I've loaded the best ammo I've ever loaded with Lee's new 4 die sets..
Your mileage may vary.....
Calvin

[Adam10mm]

I use the FCD with both 45 Auto and 10mm lead and don't have any issues or leading.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I use the FCD on all my pistol rounds. It works well and keeps the deviation per my chrony low. On my .223 and 8MM I also use the FCD. It also keeps the fps even when compared to rounds done the same but without the FCD. I am a believer in the Lee FCD.

[BD]

The Lee FCD dies for straight wall handgun cartridges and bottle neck rifle cartridges are two entirely different things. The straight wall pistol FCDs use a carbide ring at the throat of the die which insures a consistant diameter end to end. This will size down a large cast bullet, and that is part of it's purpose. Use with care. It is designed to insure reliable chambering in an autoloader while preventing setback from the bullet nose hitting the feed ramp.
The bottle neck FCD is a collet and mandrell which puts an actual "crimp" at the end of the case neck into the bullet, whether cast or condum. Use with care. It is designed to avoid setback of cartridges in the magazine from recoil or repetitive chambering, or the feed ramp in auto loaders. In chambers with a long throat it will also generally give lower standard deviation if that matters to you.
BD

[armoredman]

I use the FCD in both pistol and rifle, and they are a wonderful thing.

[Bad Flynch]

You can quite worrying. Years ago, I adopted a modified loading technique that improved my groups considerably. There are others that have done this and had it work for them, too.

1-Deprime cases, but do not size.
2-Flare mouth and recap.
3-Load powder charge.
4-Seat Bullet, by hand if needed.
5-Size and crimp with Lee FCD.

This will not make a bad load into a good one, but will make a good load better and I have measured it with a Ransom Rest to prove it.

One of the most detrimental things to accuracy is a modern sizing die for a pistol caliber that sizes a case so that it squeezes a lead bullet too tightly. That might be O.K. for a copper jacketed bullet and a heavily recoiling caliber, but the tight case resizes a relatively soft lead bullet down and you loose the size of your carefully sized lead bullet. In addition, an oversized expander is not always a good deal, either, because frequently the inside expander produces an off-center expansion of the case.

The Lee FCD is sent out to size to maximum case diameter and that will generally not hurt a seated lead bullet, so don't worry.

[Lloyd Smale]

I used to use them all the time. They work fine on hadguns and if set right dont size the bullet. I use square deals for most of my handgun ammo now so i dont use them much anymore. There still routine for me on straight rifle cases like the 444 and 4570 and i use them on 223s and 308s that are going in black guns.

[pumpguy]

I use them in all my lever calibers. I also use it for my 357 magnum and would recommend them strongly. I have seen deviations in velocity eliminated with them.

[tom barthel]

I use mine to bump the flare out of the case mouth. This makes it easier to chamber. I don't need a heavy crimp as I shoot mostly single shot. I don't load hot so, neck tension holds my bullet just fine for bolt or single shot rifles.
I hope this helps.

[toecutter]

The FCD's in rifle do work. I use them quite a bit for my autoloader calibers where bullet setback is an issue. Usually, I am not looking for shot on shot crazy accuracy with these calibers. But in loading .308 in my match rifle the FCD really opened the groups up, consequently I don't use it any more. I will crimp .308 FMJ bullets which have the crimping cannelure as these are normally put through an M1 or an FNFAL.

As for cast bullets, I would only do an FCD if it needs it. If you are already .002" over bore, you probably shouldn't require it. One thing I have found, is that certain types of brass, namely federal, are pretty hard, and come crimped from the factory. What ends up happening is the brass springs back after full length sizing, and will not hold the bullet very well. Usually trimming, and then deburring solves this problem.

Hope that helps!

[50 Caliber]

I load a BUNCH of 45acp with my Dillon and use the Lee factory crimp die in the last station, I put only the needed amount of crimp on with out any problems. The carbide sizeing ring does not seem to affect the over all accuracy of my rounds.