lee full length or u die for 929

[FENWICK7]

using  Win 9mm range and only fired 1 time brass would u recommend a Lee carbide u die or

Lee carbide full length sizing die. will be loading .357/8 122 tc bullets . I have both the lee 38 and 9mm

fcd dies.these are for my S&W 929.

[MikeyScuba]

Lee U die

[NoSteel]

U- die.  Stick with 1 manufacturers brass only..  Mine loves Winchester with the moons I use....

[jcc7x7]

I've got a U die but honestly have never used it except once to see what the case looked like after I sized it.

I run a regular lee carbide set with the often maligned FCD with 358 Bayou bullets.

No leading no tumbling no problems.  I do crimp enough to leave a shadow imprint in the bullet so it holds the bullets for all 8 rounds.

Otherwise your revolver becomes a great bullet puller by the 8 round and God forbid you shoot 6 then re fill that moon clip LOL YEs I've done that.

But

The u die is probably a great idea if you're buying new.

MikeyScuba shoots a bunch more than I do, so take his well deserved advice ,that has been mostly gained by personal experience .

[mchapman]

5 hours ago, MikeyScuba said:

Lee U die

+++1 on ^ also look at the Lyman M for the next position to flare. Both of these together help minimize or stop bullet creep along with a moderate crimp.

[MikeyScuba]

8 minutes ago, mchapman said:

+++1 on ^ also look at the Lyman M for the next position to flare. Both of these together help minimize or stop bullet creep along with a moderate crimp.

I’ve gone down that road with a 357/38spc M die for 9mm brass.  Thing is to get a good flare I’m bulging the case around the middle.  The FCD “fixes” this.  It works so I’ve left it.  I have a new press coming so I might try the 9mm M die but I am running.358“ rounds.  I can see the bulge in fired brass.

 

I have gone down the M die road due to shaving rounds, I preprocess all my brass so I don’t need to size again so the M goes in station 1 on my 650

[MWP]

Lee 38 super die...

[Alaskan454]

20 hours ago, MWP said:

Lee 38 super die...

Are you running FC brass?

[MWP]

2 hours ago, Alaskan454 said:

Are you running FC brass?

Yes sir, with TK stainless .040.

 

 I conveniently have a local PD that has a contract with Federal, and one of their finest let’s me know when they have decent sized handgun practice days...

[IVC]

One more vote for U-die. 

 

I use "hundo" case gauge on all calibers (convenient to gauge and then just flip rounds into a plastic box) and if I don't use a U-die it will have much higher rejection rate. I've had issues with Dillon sizing die in .40 even after roll-sizing the brass so I went back to the U-die. While hundo is known to be pretty tight and most rounds that fail will actually chamber (semi-autos), I still put all failed rounds into the range bucket. After experimenting a bit, I figured it's just easiest to stick to the U-dies and not care if it stresses brass a tad more (haven't observed myself any issue, but in theory anything that changes the shape more will add stress). 

 

Another consideration for revolver is that reloads will be smoother and less sticky (insertion) if the brass is undersized - I use TKC moonclip checker and can notice the difference when testing the loaded moonclips. 

[FENWICK7]

i Settled on using 2 different tool heads in my dillon RL550. using all win. brass tumbled/polished. tool head 1 has 

lee U die 9mm in station 1. .38 M die in station 2. then i change to another toolhead with auto pwdr. set up in

station 2 , bullet seat die in station 3 and lee FCD 9mm . i had to use the crimper from a spare .38 fcd die. I eventually

will purchase a Dillon 750 with the 5 staion toolhead. Dillon says the powder station can be moved to slot 3 with

a different type of pwdr delivery that they can provide or recomend. i am getting good accuracy using 122g lead TC

head with 4.2 gr. Unique using this process.(Fed primers)