Lee factory crimp die in 40

[Tompac]

Any body using this die in place of Dillon taper crimp die? What is your experience? Does it fix brass that had been “glocked ”?

 

whst I want to know is does this die work better than a Dillon factory taper crimp die? Is it worth 20$ to change out the Dillon for the lee FCD?

Edited February 10, 2018 by Tompac

[wgj3]

This will ultimately depend on your barrel/chamber.

I use the FCD in most all the calibers that load. I do not have any issues in MY .40 barrels; one STI with TON or rounds through it, an SV barrel that hasn't been shot all that much, and a Schuemann that has a bunch of rounds through it. Perfectly fine in my S&W M&P .40' S as well.

 

If you happen to have a gun with a tighter chamber you might have a different experience...

[ddc]

The Lee FCD is a bit of hot button. Some love it. Some do not.

 

First of all I would suggest that brass that has been "glocked" should be fixed during sizing or offline prior to the loading sequence rather than relying upon a crimping die that is the last step in the process. For this purpose I would think that the Lee sizing die is worth considering as it is supposed to size the brass farther down the case than does the Dillon. If that is not sufficient then the Lee (or EGW) Udie will size things down even a bit farther.

 

So with respect to the FCD:

 

An argument against it is that if you load lead bullets that are often  0.001" oversize (or more) then the FCD sizing ring will swage them down and screw you up your load.

 

An argument for it is that if you load large quantities of "action pistol" oriented ammo and you're loading jacketed, plated, coated bullets that are SAMMI sized and if your primary concerns are firstly reliability and then functional accuracy (as opposed to bullseye accuracy) then the sizing ring will "fix" the occasional problematic round that might screw up a stage. The opposing argument to that is that if you are creating problematic rounds you should figure out what the problem is and fix it rather than relying on the FCD.

 

My own experience is only with jacketed, plated, and coated, ammo that is all .355. For me it has worked just fine. I depend upon it but others will feel differently.

I also use the Lee sizing die. In conjunction with whatever protection the FCD provides my failure to feed rate is less than 1/1000. In fact I can't remember the last time it was an issue.

Edited February 10, 2018 by ddc
additional info

[muncie21]

When people talk about Lee Factory Crimp Dies (FCD) I wonder if they sometimes forget that Lee makes 2 distinct designs and names them both Factory Crimp Dies?  One will apply a roll crimp and very much suited to 9mm and .40 loads.  They other design produces a more aggressive crimp, used for canalure  or rifle rounds.

Factory Crimp die for straight wall pistol calibers

FCD primarily for rifle rounds..notice the lack of fine adjustment knob at the top

Edited February 11, 2018 by muncie21

[DougM]

For the most part, I'll echo the statements of ddc above.  I use it for both 40S&W as well as 45ACP and am satisfied with the results.  I also use it as a push-thru die for prepping my 40S&W brass before going through the progressive.  I found that my Dillon sizing die was unable to fully remove any glock bulges and this prep solves that problem.  Everything case gauges now and drops freely into my pistols. 

[Tompac]

This is good information. Thsnks for your responses. Gives me plenty to think about 

[StuckinMS]

If you are trying to get rid of the " glock" bulge using the lee undersize die for recapping and sizing is the better option. I personally have used both and occasionally still have some stubborn brass. But I fix it using the Redding gx carbide push through die.  I am privileged to get a heads up from the police chief on qualifing days and about 40 % of my brass comes from their range. I really have great experiences using the lee dies.  

[ddc]

15 hours ago, muncie21 said:

When people talk about Lee Factory Crimp Dies (FCD) I wonder if they sometimes forget that Lee makes 2 distinct designs and names them both Factory Crimp Dies?  One will apply a roll crimp and very much suited to 9mm and .40 loads.  They other design produces a more aggressive crimp, used for canalure  or rifle rounds.

Factory Crimp die for straight wall pistol calibers

FCD primarily for rifle rounds..notice the lack of fine adjustment knob at the top

 

Actually Lee makes three types of FCD:

1. The rifle FCD.

2. The FCD for 9mm/40S&W/auto pistol calibers/... does not roll crimp. It taper crimps.

3. The FCD for 38spcl/357/revolver calibers/ roll crimps.

Edited February 11, 2018 by ddc

[muncie21]

9 hours ago, ddc said:

 

Actually Lee makes three types of FCD:

1. The rifle FCD.

2. The FCD for 9mm/40S&W/auto pistol calibers/... does not roll crimp. It taper crimps.

3. The FCD for 38spcl/357/revolver calibers/ roll crimps.

The boys a Lee are quite busy it seems.  To add to those, there's the Lee Short Bottle Neck collet style (SBNCS) factory crimp die for small bottle neck pistol cartridges  

To answer the original question, I use the Lee FCD for straight wall (9mm, .40, 45ACP) pistol cartridges that comes in their 4-die box set. I adjust it down just enough to remove the flare at the case mouth.  When initially adjusting the die, I pull a bullet after running it through the FCD to ensure I'm not over crimping and breaking into the coating/plating/jacket on the bullet.

 

The Lee FCD wasn't designed to smooth the 'glock bulge' found in many .40s.  This needs to be done with the sizing die before the bullet is placed in the cartridge.  Resizing the case (aside from removing the case mouth flare/bell) after the bullet is in place, could result in swaging the bullet which in turn could negatively impact case tension against the bullet, allowing it to move in the case.

 

 

Edited February 11, 2018 by muncie21

[BlueBulletBeaker]

I use the factory crimp die on my two Dillon presses. I feel it works better than the Dillon die. Only complaint is that occasionally I get a build up of brass flakes on the shell plate; particularly in 9mm. As it crimps, it sometimes shaves a little brass glitter off of the case. No big deal though. The Lee FCD is also great with the Bulge Buster kit. If you have rounds that don't gauge, you can run them through the bulge buster and squeeze them back to spec. Very useful and inexpensive. 

[Furrly]

18 hours ago, StuckinMS said:

If you are trying to get rid of the " glock" bulge using the lee undersize die for recapping and sizing is the better option. I personally have used both and occasionally still have some stubborn brass. But I fix it using the Redding gx carbide push through die.  I am privileged to get a heads up from the police chief on qualifing days and about 40 % of my brass comes from their range. I really have great experiences using the lee dies.  

This ?

[HCH]

I use FCD on everything. 

[zzt]

9 hours ago, HCH said:

I use FCD on everything. 

+1

[dsu96]

+1 more for using the FCD as a push-thru resizer for .40.

[bigedp51]

The Lee FCD with the carbide sizing ring in the base is a cheat for people who do not trim their pistol brass.

The carbide ring will size the cases that are bulged during crimping.

This same die is used as a bulge buster to size the base of the case in the push through mode.

The brass filings are caused by rough expanders and the rough crimping ring.

 

 

 

Edited February 14, 2018 by bigedp51

[Banacek]

8 hours ago, zzt said:

+1

 

5 hours ago, dsu96 said:

+1 more for using the FCD as a push-thru resizer for .40.

+1, I use it for all things except 9mm, the taper crimp on the redding comp dies works just fine BUT I rarely use lead bullets.  The only lead bullets I use are for 44 special and I do not use the FCD.

[dogtired]

I use the Lee 9mm, 40 and 45acp 4-die set for my progressive.  It includes the FCD.  I agree the Lee sizing die does a good job of taking out the Glock bulge but I do run the finished product thru a round checker.  I get 2-5 rounds per 100-200 that get put into the "Glocked" box for range use.