peterthefish Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 OK. Let's backtrack. The bullet is at most a .452. If it is bulging out to .473 something is squeezing the heck out of it, or the bullets are way wrong. What is the diameter of an unused bullet. Remeasure after you seat it. Remeasure after crimp. What load of powder are you using? Could you be compressing the load? Check that you are using the correct powder funnel. I'm guessing he means .473 including the brass at the case mouth. If the bullet is .473 he's shaving a lot of lead and measuring that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngeyes Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 FWIW there shouldn't be any clunking going on. The FCD is a collet type and starts to closes as the brass is already in the collet. It stills sounds like you have a die adjustment problem. My measurements stay fairly consistent at .471 from the base of the bullet to the edge of the case. Are you saying that the bullet is measuring .473 after the edge of the brass. The bullet diameter is wider that the brass? The FCD for pistol rounds does not use a collet. It had a sizing ring in the base and otherwise acts as a standard tape crimp die.The first clunk is probably the flared mouth hitting the sizing ring. The second is the floating crimp ring hitting the aluminum plug used to adjust the crimp in a pistol FCD. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk You're correct. I was thinking of rifle. That die presses in to the squeeze the round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundlzrd Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 OK. Let's backtrack. The bullet is at most a .452. If it is bulging out to .473 something is squeezing the heck out of it, or the bullets are way wrong. What is the diameter of an unused bullet. Remeasure after you seat it. Remeasure after crimp. What load of powder are you using? Could you be compressing the load? Check that you are using the correct powder funnel. .471 is the brass where the bullet is. The bullet itself is .4515. Brass after flare is .4745. After seating is .476, bullet slightly shaved.(need more flare?) After crimp, .472 at brass and .451 bullet right above brass. Using powder funnel E. If I increase the crimp I can get the case to .471 and then it will gauge. Still have 2 clunks in factory crimp die. Powder is 4.2 grn of titegroup. Not compressing, unless I triple charge. Thanks for your help. I am learning how much I didn't know, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterthefish Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 OK. Let's backtrack. The bullet is at most a .452. If it is bulging out to .473 something is squeezing the heck out of it, or the bullets are way wrong. What is the diameter of an unused bullet. Remeasure after you seat it. Remeasure after crimp. What load of powder are you using? Could you be compressing the load? Check that you are using the correct powder funnel. .471 is the brass where the bullet is. The bullet itself is .4515. Brass after flare is .4745. After seating is .476, bullet slightly shaved.(need more flare?) After crimp, .472 at brass and .451 bullet right above brass. Using powder funnel E. [If I increase the crimp I can get the case to .471 and then it will gauge. Still have 2 clunks in factory crimp die. Powder is 4.2 grn of titegroup. Not compressing, unless I triple charge. Thanks for your help. I am learning how much I didn't know, The 2 clunks on the FCD is normal - see my prior post. The first is the sizing ring hitting the flared piece of the case. The second is the crimp die getting the aluminum plug used to set crimp. While SAAMI max for case mouth is .473, if crimping to .471 is what it takes to gauge, do that. It's OK to flare more if that's what it takes to stop shaving lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngeyes Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 That's the best way to set crimp. Just crimp til it case gauges. If you have to open the flare to stop shaving do it. I've always had the crimp set at .471 and everything is fine. Nice job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundlzrd Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 That's the best way to set crimp. Just crimp til it case gauges. If you have to open the flare to stop shaving do it. I've always had the crimp set at .471 and everything is fine. Nice job. Thanks for your help! Made it to the range today and every thing went bang when it should have! Still looking at the mbf funnel to help with shaving. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njl Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 .4745 is not enough flare. You should be flaring to much closer to .480. Also, with lead or coated bullets, you need to be careful to make sure the bullet is not canted when it goes up into the seating die. With jacketed bullets, this doesn't matter as much...the die will straighten it out...but with non-jacketed, you will scrape the bullet in the process. Also, it's been my experience that some of the coated bullet makers size their bullets "a little fat" and this can result in finished ammo that won't gauge, but will chamber. Dillon's .45acp gauges are very tight. My Glock .45 chambers are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Use the barrel to check rounds, few people shoot them out of the gauge ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundlzrd Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 Just thought I would update you fine people on my progress. I ordered the Mr Bullet Feeder funnel from Rick. That has saved my shaving issues while flaring and seating. It also fixed the clunk while going into the seater. I also have custom seatting stems coming from Lee to help my 230 and 147(9mm) coated bullets. However I still getting bullet shavings from the FCD. I think I may try a different crimp die, especially after reading all the hate for the FCD and lead. That would you all recommend I try? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Just get a plain Lee seating die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundlzrd Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 Steve I have a custom seating plug in bound for the lee. The crimping is the issue, does lee have a standard crimp die? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 The standard seating die also taper crimps. Remember, all you want to do is to straighten the side wall - no "crimp" and no flare !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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