Lee Loader

I was digging through the Lee web site and noticed on the Custom~Factory Crimp Die page that have a complete stock now of the FCDs that I offered through my store: 357 Mag, 41 Mag, 44 Mag, and 45 Colt. These are a must have for the levergun reloader!

Thats good news

Ranch Dog wrote:I was digging through the Lee web site and noticed on the Custom~Factory Crimp Die page that have a complete stock now of the FCDs that I offered through my store: 357 Mag, 41 Mag, 44 Mag, and 45 Colt. These are a must have for the levergun reloader!

I just heard about these on another forum and am waiting for the .357 Mag version I immediately ordered, even though I wasn't exactly sure why I needed it.

I do load for my levergun. Could you tell me why this die is a special advantage for that? I load plated bullets exclusively, and mostly use Xtreme Bullets with cannelure but I still have a bunch of Berry's that I thought this would be good for crimping, both for levergun and revolver. Any other situations where it is better than roll or taper crimp?

Thanks.

Skinnedknuckles wrote:I do load for my levergun. Could you tell me why this die is a special advantage for that? …Any other situations where it is better than roll or taper crimp?

I use the FCD in place of the roll crimp. Small variations in case length do not matter and from the shooting I did many moons ago, the die tightens up the velocity variations. The only FCD I do not have right now is for my Rossi R92 chambered in 480 Ruger. The last time I ordered it Lee told me they couldn't make it. I ordered it again because the diameter and case length is inside the maximum specification and that has been several weeks ago so I should be good to go.

I personally see no reasons to use a roll over the FCD. Of course, any case headspacing on the case mouth needs a taper crimp.

For straight walled cases the factory crimp doesn't have any use, I think. It is like a post loading resize die, that can cause bullets become loose, especially soft lead bullets. I have a lever gun in 38spl but don't use the FC die and never missed it.

I use Lee FCD on 40 s&w, and 380 auto. The bullets are hard cast, it does swag the bullet further but they do not come loose.

I did get some cast bullets for the 380 from a diferent source once, they were soft and were too loose in the case after passing through the FCD. I had to adjust the die so the carbide ring just started on the case enough to remove the flare. Worked ok for that batch of bullets.

Fyodor wrote:For straight walled cases the factory crimp doesn't have any use, I think. It is like a post loading resize die, that can cause bullets become loose, especially soft lead bullets. I have a lever gun in 38spl but don't use the FC die and never missed it.

Steve wrote:I use Lee FCD on 40 s&w, and 380 auto. The bullets are hard cast, it does swag the bullet further but they do not come loose.

I did get some cast bullets for the 380 from a diferent source once, they were soft and were too loose in the case after passing through the FCD. I had to adjust the die so the carbide ring just started on the case enough to remove the flare. Worked ok for that batch of bullets.

Skinnedknuckles was asking about the Collet FCDs rather than the handgun Carbide FCD which is a different animal. The Collet FCDs are for use with rifle cartridges and uses a collet that moves in horizontally to crimp the case mouth. These dies do not post-size the cartridge as it leaves the die. A few years back, I talked Lee into making them for the handgun cartridges that are common to leverguns and Lee has continued to make them, offering them on their Special Order pages. Lee's initial objection to the dies was that the they felt the shorter collet for these rimmed cartridges would only last 150,000 cycles. My reply was "So, I will take 100 of each!"

Golly thats only 3x what I plan on shoothing in the next 40yr or so...... If I can adjust it to just hit the RBH w/brass from the 92' Ross-chester in 45 Colts .

Ranch Dog wrote: Skinnedknuckles was asking about the Collet FCDs rather than the handgun Carbide FCD which is a different animal.

Yes, I know the difference between the handgun and the rifle type factory crimp. I never liked that they use the same name for these completely different dies.

I didn't know they made collet type dies in these calibers. Sorry for the confusion.