Questions on the lee carbide factory crimp die and 9mm

[Tripplebeards]

I finally got around to reloading 9mm a few days ago. I loaded some j words and crimped with the lee carbide factory crimp die. I turned it down a 1/2 turn for a light crimp. There was quite a it of resistance I
With case resizing. I want to load some cast in the next couple days. My barrel slugs at .355 so I will be trying .356" PC'd lee TC 120 boolits. I was going to run a few through the carbide crimp die without any crimp first to test. I wanted to see if they will hold without a crimp after the case is sized down and if the boolits get sized down below .356. Any suggestions?

My j words shot and fed great BTW for the first time reloads.

[pastera]

The FCD will resize your cast bullets - make up a dummy round, run it through the FCD and then pull it with an inertial puller.
Measure with micrometers not calipers and you will most likely see that the bullet is now undersized.

However - your expander die may not expand enough for the cast bullet and that can also cause the bullet to become undersized. this requires another dummy round to check.

Once you have it worked out the 120TC will make you very happy - I was having leading problems with it until I worked out that I needed a slower powder (now use Silhoutte) and now the bullet is a great performer.

=

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Order a Taper crimp die for your cast boolit loads ;)

[rintinglen]

I have used the LEE FCD with complete Satisfaction. Properly adjusted, it works just fine. Remember that all you want to do is simply remove the flare that your Expander Die put on the case and you'll be fine. These days, all my 9mm loading is done on a Dillon Square Deal, so my FCD lies in retirement with my RCBS dies.

[tazman]

I use the Lee FCD on all my handgun cartridges. Unless you are loading a significantly oversize boolit, you won't have any issues with boolits being resized in the process.
I love the adjustable crimp. This die makes it easy to get the crimp you want.
I took my Springfield Armory Range Officer in 9mm to the range yesterday. My cast reloads were giving better groups than Berry's bullets and equal to jacketed.

[Larry Gibson]

If the loaded rounds feed and pass the "plop test" when seated with the Bullet Seat and Feed Die adjusted to just straighten the case mouth flair when seating the bullet then there is no need to use the Carbide Factory Crimp Die. I use .357 sized Lee 120 gr TC bullets seated with the BSF die and they feed fine in numerous handguns. Occasionally, with some cases (mostly thicker milsurp) I size the bullets .356 or mostly just use the CFC die which cures the problem.

BTW; I shot a tone of bullets sized .356 through a lot of 9mm handgun and sub guns w/o any leading problems.

[BigAlofPa.]

I have a couple of tight chambered 9mm pistols. That the slide would jam with 9mm cast loads. I bought the Lee FCD. Now they chamber fine. Im completely satisfied with it.

[DougGuy]

DO NOT "experiment" with the crimp or case neck tension of 9mm with loaded ammo in an autoloader!

The 9mm is a high pressure cartridge, 35kpsi at max loadings, BOOLIT SETBACK can occur if you don't have enough crimp, and you can KB the gun in your hands. Pressure can spike over 60kpsi with VERY LITTLE setback if you are loaded to max already.

You would be well advised to do this with dummies, mic the COA first, then mic after feeding and ejecting from the chamber.

You can assemble rounds then press them against a solid surface to see if you can push the boolit deeper in the case. If it moves, it is NOT safe to shoot.

Also, case neck tension is very important, in fact it is much more responsible for holding the boolit in place than the crimp. Using the carbide ring FCD will pretty much destroy case neck tension by swaging down the brass and the boolit inside the brass, and then you got springback in the brass case which there goes your case neck tension out the window. This can make boolit setback very likely to happen.

A taper crimp is ALL you need for any autoloader, 9mm, 40, 10mm, 45 ACP etc....

[Tripplebeards]

I just loaded a dummy round 1.075" looks about perfect. I ran it through the lee carbon crimp die with the crimp insert removed. The boolit will not move with pressure applied and did not size down. Can I run it without a crimp?

[Tripplebeards]

I also tried it with turning the carbide crimp 1/6th of the way down to try and knock down the knock flare. No downsizing of the boolit happened once again as it's still at .356". I'll load some up with HS-6 and try them out in a few days.

[Old School Big Bore]

As long as you iron the flare back down. If the flare remains, it can cause stoppages when it hits any opposing ledge on the ramp or at the entrance to the chamber.
Pastera - I've had great luck with Silhouette in 9mm and .380.
Ed <><

[dverna]

The "push" test Doug Guy suggests is a good check to insure you have adequate tension/crimp.

I am a KISS guy. Use the Dillon dies and produce 9mm on a 1050. Thousands of rounds and no ka-booms yet. I just iron out the case and it works. I have only shot hardcast commercial 9mm bullets (92-6-2) sized to .356 and have been lucky that they have worked in every 9mm.

I would not get too anal about it unless you get leading. Shoot them, it they work, end of "problem".

I often wonder if many of the 9mm horror stories are due to guys using too soft or a "mystery" alloy. I have had at least eight 9mm's and cast worked without any tweaking or special dies. Must have got one of the good die sets...LOL.

[Tripplebeards]

https://i.imgur.com/m02zUZL.jpg


I loaded them a 1.070" and turned down the crimp die a 6th of a turn to just flatten the flair of the bell. I can push with all my might and not move the boolit. The boolits were already casted by a member here out of coww. They were already red PC'd and under sized for my pistol so I put another coat of some mixed PC i had laying around on them this morning and re sized to
356". I cycled my action and it fed 4 rounds through with zero issues. Brass and boolits had no dings or dents after doing so with zero issues. I loaded up a few with 5.6 gr and a few in 5.8 gr of HS-6 to try.

[DougGuy]

Yes you can run them without crimp *IF* they won't setback but make sure they all plunk in your barrel. Crimp is just to hold the boolit from moving. Like I said earlier, case neck tension does most of the work there anyway.

[CoolHandMoss]

I have actually been going through the same thing. I tried applying a little crimp with the seating die on my .358 135gr 9mm rounds and skipping the fcd after accuracy had been terrible with them after running through the fcd. Without the fcd the improvement was enormous. I had measured that the fcd was squeezing the boolit down about .002. So I think I am going to try punching the sizing ring out of the fcd.

[Tripplebeards]

I tried both loads today at 15 yards. The target was swaying a good 4” back and forth at the pistol range from the 15 to 20 MPs wind gusts when I was trying to hit the bullseye. I first tried the 5.6 grain loads. The group was pretty big and low. I would say a 5” plus group if I had to guess. I wasn’t impressed at all. I then tried the 5.8 grain load. The first shot hit just above the bullseye. The bullseye was swaying left to right a three 3” or more from the wind blowing so I was trying to time my shots....it was like a shooting gallery! My next two shots touched so I must have timed the swaying target pretty well. I shot a couple more times and the other two were close to touching about a half inch or so below these three. I’ll have to re test without a “swinging” target but would say my first crack at loading 9mm was a success. My target was a shoot and see bullet sticker to cover up bullets holes stuck to notebook paper. I’ll have to try 5.8 grains again along with 5.9, 6.0, 6.1, and 6.2 grains of HS-6 to see if I can tighten my groups a little.

https://i.imgur.com/cUNiln9.jpg

I had zero leading as well.

[onelight]

I am another that uses the carbide factory crimp die on every 9mm I load with .356 and .357 bullets as do the guys I shoot with I have other 9mm die sets but prefer the Lee .

[Tripplebeards]

I am another that uses the carbide factory crimp die on every 9mm I load with .356 and .357 bullets as do the guys I shoot with I have other 9mm die sets but prefer the Lee .

How much do you turn down the crimp adjustment out of curiosity?

[onelight]

How much do you turn down the crimp adjustment out of curiosity?

The way I set mine is raise the ram adjust the die body down to touch the shell holder back off the crimp adjuster until it won't crimp raise a case with bullet into the die , screw down the crimp adjustment until it touches and then another 1/4 turn i then pull the round out to look at it and plunk test if I need to I will move the crimp adjuster down for more crimp. The taper crimp in the auto pistol die sets you can crimp pretty hard without causing a headspace problem.
If you follow the directions that come with the die you will be close but I find I usually want slightly more crimp than the directions show to compensate for mixed cases of slightly different lengths.
This works for me.

[jrayborn]

I love the Lee Factory Crimp die, especially for lead bullets. I don't use it the way it is intended though. For any cartridge I load lead bullets in, I pop the carbide resizer ring out and use it to crimp only. Works slick.

[Hossfly]

If you want a good number to put on this pushing down thing to test for cast boolits setting back in 9mm or any caliber, use 50# pressure. Set boolit down on electronic scale or bathroom scale and push to 50# very easy. Most time will need some thing to set on top of primer end to get good purchase as 50# is quite a lot of pressure.

Be sure to measure before and after this operation.

After just ironing out case flare on some I was testing, could put 75# and couldn’t find any that would push back into case. Lee FCD.

[gifbohane]

I have to ask why did you add the step of the Lee Crimp? Seems to me that the regular process of load, seat, and light taper crimp to remove the bell you created would be enough with 9mm.

Were you having problems?

[Hossfly]

Works with different case lengths. Lee FCD just works just don’t go crazy with it.

[tazman]

I have to ask why did you add the step of the Lee Crimp? Seems to me that the regular process of load, seat, and light taper crimp to remove the bell you created would be enough with 9mm.

Were you having problems?

I use it in the fourth hole of my turret press. I like to seat and crimp in separate steps. I get more consistent seating depth and cleaner crimp this way.
I do the same for all my handgun cartridges whether taper crimp or roll crimp.

[DougGuy]

I am another that uses the carbide factory crimp die on every 9mm I load with .356 and .357 bullets as do the guys I shoot with I have other 9mm die sets but prefer the Lee .

It won't ever size those down in the case but a .358" oh yeah, gonna work on that one some, it won't be .358" afterwards.

[.429&H110]

Last month I started taper crimping 45acp with a Lee press.
So far nobody mentioned:
You have to trim the brass!
A thousandth is a thousandth is a thousandth!
It's a game of inches...little bitty tiny inches...
This . is huge!

[CoolHandMoss]

I started using the fcd again after adding more flare. A little more mouth expansion and I find that the sizing ring does little to nothing when seating a .358 boolit in the 9mm.

[Larry Gibson]

Never found a need to use a .358 bullet in any 9mm P firearm which included milsurp handguns and sub guns along with many commercial guns. I've used .356 sized cast since I started loading 358402s in a Browning HP and a S&W M39 back in '70. Never had any leading or tumbling bullets either. Used javelina or other NRA 50/50 lube on the mostly cast of COWW bullets of numerous different bullet designs since. I almost exclusively us the Lee TC 120 bullet now.