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Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Hell just froze over


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Well I have never been a Lee fan. Burned way too many times. However....I tried one of their carbide factory crimp dies in 9mm and this thing is legit. I have never had such an easy time crimping 9mm and they look and measure great. They plunk test fine in my G34.5. Mixed cases, Sierra 115 Sportsmasters. 1.045" The instructions say that a half turn on the stem is a light crimp and 3/4 is a heavy one. My experience put me square between those two points. So here I am saying something positive about a Lee product. But I am a fair minded man and I give credit wherever it is due. They got it done.

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Good to hear that you enjoyed using the die. The magic for most people is that the FCD basically swages the entire round, making it a sure pass as long as the OAL is good for your barrel(s).

Edited by 4n2t0
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Love my lee undersize and FCD dies! I won't touch their presses after breaking their cheap C single stage trying to swag on it with the RCBS kit. I was sad when I had to ditch my 9mm FCD after adding a bullet feeder and deciding to keep my powder lockout die. I now use a seat/crimp combo in my last station. One day I'll justify upgrading my press because of this. 🤣

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Mark the knob of the FCD on top so you can see it moving should it do so.  One of mine does, the other doesn't.

 

They can swage lightly-mangled rounds into fitting which is great for practice ammo, maybe not so much for major match ammo.

 

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5 hours ago, shred said:

Mark the knob of the FCD on top so you can see it moving should it do so.  One of mine does, the other doesn't.

 

They can swage lightly-mangled rounds into fitting which is great for practice ammo, maybe not so much for major match ammo.

 

I had this happen on a seater die of theirs. Same stem design. Sent it back it back to them. Told me it was “walking out”. They either fixed it or sent me a new one. It didn’t do it when  I got it back. 

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  • 1 month later...

I don’t love the decapping system on the Lee dies as much as the dillons but as long as I don’t try to force the pin into a case with something in it, or get a Norma brass with the small flash hole, the die works great.  

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