Question about Lee FCD

[Vly]

I am loading my group buy .311-165-RD boolit in 30-30 cases, and when I try to lightly crimp the case mouth ( really just remove the bell or flare ) the crimp shoulder of my seating die "resizes" the ogive of my boolit. I am thinking a Lee Factory crimp die would avoid that problem? I realize I could lap out the seating die, but would prefer not to go that route.

I want to load the same boolit in 308 Win cases as well. Will a FCD die for 30-30 work as well for the 308 Win? I would rather buy one die and have multiple uses for it.

thanks for any info.

[Hurricane]

The 30-30 case is longer than the 308 case. The FCD is not adjustable. I do not think that the 30-30 FCD could be used for both. Possibly the 308 FCD could be used for both but the crimp on the 30-30 case would be lower than the crimp grove.

[jonk]

That's a good question. With a bolt action, I just adjust enough to remove the bell, not crimp as that does lead easily to resizing the bullet.

Now so far as it goes, I'd still rather stay with the seating die to crimp as it will provide a roll crimp to the end of the brass, pressing it into one of the grooves if you seat to a suitable depth- less likely to resize the bullet. Whereas the FCD is a collet that squeezes the whole neck and is more likely to size the bullet. Just my experience.

[Firebricker]

Sounds like you could just adjust the seating die body out a little to get the amount of crimp you want. I agree with jonk I would roll crimp in the crimping groove unless that seating depth does'nt work for you. I do like the FCD in rifle calibers if your crimping jacketed boolits in a canalure. FB

[wallenba]

If I get their meaning Lee infers that before the Lee FCD reaches the step for making the roll it passes through a portion that puts a taper on it. That might be resizing the boolit. Read what they say about it here. http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1251501287.727=/html/catalog/dies-crimp.html "as the crimp angle is already a modified taper crimp"?

[35remington]

jonk, the collet type Lee FCD does not squeeze the whole case neck, just the very end in producing a stab type crimp with a narrow area being squeezed.

This crimp ring may not iron completely out as the bullet passes through it. Whether this harms accuracy or not with a cast bullet is cause for conjecture; it may not hurt in most instances, but a roll crimp does iron out fully as the bullet leaves the case. Jacketed bullet accuracy shouldn't be affected with the Lee FCD as long as the bullet is crimped appropriately into a cannelure. .

[jlchucker]

What 35 Remington said. I use LFC dies for everything, and never had a problem. You don't have to squeeze that crimp ring very hard if you choose not to. For bolt action applications I just give it a slight bump, more to create uniform neck tension than anything else.

[HeavyMetal]

Have you trimmed all your case's to the same length?

More importantly are you using mixed case's?

Case length variation can raise havoc with most crimping styles, Lee FCD is not supposed to be affected by this, and roll crimping gets hit hardest.

If the die itself is not faulty trim case's to a specific length and then reset the crimping die and crimp in a seperate operation not while seating boolits.

Case mouth, wall thickness, also varies from brand to brand, and lot to lot for that matter, so sorting by head stamp prior to poeder charging and seating a boolit may help as well.

[Vly]

Thank you for all the comments and helpful pointers. I loaded some more this morning and fooled around with the seating die. For some reason I'm not quite sure of right now, I cannot reproduce the problem I had earlier. Strange.

Thanks again for your helpfulness.

[Recluse]

What 35 Remington said. I use LFC dies for everything, and never had a problem. You don't have to squeeze that crimp ring very hard if you choose not to. For bolt action applications I just give it a slight bump, more to create uniform neck tension than anything else.

+1

Some people forget you can adjust the amount of crimp with the FCD. I know, because I once forgot that myself. I've found just a light, uniform crimp works best for all applications--jacketed or lead.

:coffee:

[hiram]

The 30-30 FCD will also work on 32 Win Special