Lee Factory Crimp Dies

[Krh1326]

I see it’s not an issue, with bottle neck cartridges…. But will Lee Factory Crimp Dies wreck the sizing of a cast boolit, in a straight walled case, such as pistol or 350 legend or 45-70 etc?

I’m talking about the lower carbide ring, at mouth of the die, that runs down the case, until the crimp is applied.

Thanks all!

[45_Colt]

It can.

45_Colt

[fn1889m]

You can knock the carbide ring out and just use the crimp part.
(You can also remove the crimp cylinder and just use the carbide ring as a deeper resizer for range pickup brass as needed.)

[Bigbore5]

I use them all the time on nearly every cartridge I load. Never had a problem. Ad long as the alloy is not too hard,it will obterate back up just fine if it sized down.

[firefly1957]

I have not had an issue but it is possible if you load a bullet much past the normal size like say a cast .454" in a .45 acp case or a .360 in a 30 /.357 mag case.

If you get really thick brass it may also cause a issue I can feel the difference in .357 Magnum cases some being thicker then others . That said my .359" cast bullets shoot just fine from my gun . I also use the .38sp/.357 mag FCD to crimp bullets in a .351 Winchester and it works great for bullets that do not have cannelure in correct place .

[armoredman]

I generally don't use the FCD on cast boolits, only jacketed. That's just me.

[DougGuy]

Not all those carbide rings are ground the same size. For the most part, the 45 ACP FCD won't swage a .451" any smaller, but they likely will swage a .452" cast boolit which is what 99% of those who shoot cast in a 45 ACP want to size to. If you get one that doesn't swage a .452" you may have lucked out and gotten one slightly larger than the next one.

[Larry Gibson]

I see it’s not an issue, with bottle neck cartridges…. But will Lee Factory Crimp Dies wreck the sizing of a cast boolit, in a straight walled case, such as pistol or 350 legend or 45-70 etc?

I’m talking about the lower carbide ring, at mouth of the die, that runs down the case, until the crimp is applied.

Thanks all!


I see it’s not an issue, with bottle neck cartridges…. But will Lee Factory Crimp Dies wreck the sizing of a cast boolit, in a straight walled case, such as pistol or 350 legend or 45-70 etc?

I’m talking about the lower carbide ring, at mouth of the die, that runs down the case, until the crimp is applied.

Thanks all!

No, the Lee Factory Crimp Die (FCD) will not size the bullet down because it does not have a carbide sizing ring in the die. The FCD has a collet that will just crimp the case mouth. It is made for bottleneck and tapered cases.

The Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die (CFCD) is made for straight walled pistol cases including the tapered 9mmP case. It has a carbide ring that will size oversized (diameter) loaded rounds down to within factory cartridge dimensions. If you have an oversized bullet loaded in the cartridge it will size that bullet down along with the case.

The 45-70 is a tapered case, not a straight walled case. The Lee crimp die for the 45-70 is an FCD. I use that FCD when crimping 45-70 cartridges. I also have several FCDs for other cartridges. I have CFCDs for the 45 ACP and 9mmP. I use them w/o problems for tight chambered barrels with cartridges loaded with .451 & .452 sized bullets in the 45 ACP and .356 and .357 sized bullets in the 9mmP. I've experienced neither leading nor bullets tumbling with the use of the CFCD die. What I have experienced is complete, 100% reliable chambering with such loaded rounds.

The current Lee catalogue does not show dies for the 350 Legend. I've no idea whether or not dies are available from Lee. If not the question is moot for that cartridge.

[Krh1326]

Thanks all.

[charlie b]

I also used the CFCD for .357mag, .45acp and 9mm. I've not had one of the bases get sized by the die yet. Just cause I was curious, I used a sharpie on some cases to see what would happen. Nothing.

Lee does make the FCD for .357mag, .44mag, .45Colt, .444 Marlin and some others I was kinda surprised at. Maybe because they are common rifle cartridges?

[oley55]

No, the Lee Factory Crimp Die (FCD) will not size the bullet down because it does not have a carbide sizing ring in the die. The FCD has a collet that will just crimp the case mouth. It is made for bottleneck and tapered cases.

The Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die (CFCD) is made for straight walled pistol cases including the tapered 9mmP case. It has a carbide ring that will size oversized (diameter) loaded rounds down to within factory cartridge dimensions. If you have an oversized bullet loaded in the cartridge it will size that bullet down along with the case.

Larry nailed it. The similarly named Factory Crimp dies will generate great confusion on forums as folks fail to recognize or realize there are different types of Lee Factory Crimp dies. I use the collet type Factory Crimp dies on all of my 357/44mag, 45-70 cast bullet reloads. Easy to adjust and you can immediately see how much crimp you are or are not applying. I love them.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Also you can adjust the amount of crimp so you don't squash the boolits by just backing the die off a little.

Randy

[20:1]

I too use a few FCD dies, primarily for bottleneck cartridges. It is especially handy for 357 SIG. The only use I have for the carbide FCDs is to gut them and use them for bulge busting in rimless straightwall handgun cartridges. The carbide FCD dies were developed to allow Lee to use the carbide rings that were miscut oversize for handgun case resizing. DougGuy explained it best, not all sizing rings are a usable size but sometimes people get lucky.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I see it’s not an issue, with bottle neck cartridges…. But will Lee Factory Crimp Dies wreck the sizing of a cast boolit, in a straight walled case, such as pistol or 350 legend or 45-70 etc?

I’m talking about the lower carbide ring, at mouth of the die, that runs down the case, until the crimp is applied.

Thanks all!

I am a big fan of Lee's collect style FCD for Rifle calibers and Revolver calibers.
.
I don't use the Lee Carbide FCD (for pistol) dies. I imagine they work fine if you are loading jacketed bullets.

Larry explained it well.

[higgins]

I got a 9mm pistol FCD to apply more of a crimp on jacketed bullets that were not feeding 100% in a particular pistol. The FCD solved the feeding/lockup problem, and cases sized in a Lyman carbide die are not touched by the ring in the bottom of the FCD. I don't need the FCD for cast bullets because they are oversize (.359) for a couple of pistols and will feed reliably with only normal taper crimping.

[charlie b]

FWIW, the Carbide FCD's for the .45 and 9mm apply a taper crimp. The .357 version applies a roll crimp. All these are adjustable. Don't know about others.

[magnumuser]

and to make it EVEN more fun,, lee has a thrid "factory crimp" die that does both roll crimp and taper crimp in the same die, just have to tighten id down more for the second option.

[Tall]

In some calibers, for example 45 Colt, Lee offers either taper or roll crimp Carbide Factory Crimp Dies so you can have the one you want. I have been using them since they came on the market several years ago.

With thousands and thousands of rounds I have yet to damage a case with a Lee FCD or a Lee CFCD. It is a great product for making accurate reloads.