Hell just froze over

[JoeInTucson]

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.

[4n2t0]

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 February 11 by 4n2t0

[Haywizzle]

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. 

[shred]

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.

 

[iflyskyhigh]

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. 

[Wanna_Go_Fast]

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.  

[hiker88]

I’ve been using my Lee FCD 9mm for years.

[njl]

On 2/11/2024 at 11:35 AM, 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.

 

 

IMO, that's the "problem" with using the FCD.  It basically sweeps any out of spec width issues under the rug and makes rounds that will gauge/chamber, possibly by sacrificing bullet diameter (the lead bullet is what's going to give if the forward portion of the cartridge needs to be squeezed to make it fit).  That seems like it could cause accuracy issues or even leading (assuming you're loading non-jacketed bullets).

[iflyskyhigh]

It does not.

[shred]

...or if it does, they don't much matter at USPSA distances, but you should probably figure out where the bad rounds are coming from before just squashing them all down with a FCD and hoping for the best.

 

 

[iflyskyhigh]

This.

 

I think it’s weird how people are almost religiously fanatical about reloading…and the Lee FCD is heresy.

 

I think it’s possible that you can use the LFCD and not be a bad reloader just trying to cover up problems. 
 

I think that sometimes the LFCD is the right tool. And sometimes it’s not. 
 

I think it’s possible that it may sometimes swage bullets, but not always. Because when you say never and always, you are usually never right and almost always wrong.

Edited May 31 by iflyskyhigh

[xrayfk05]

It depends a lot on the round you are loading, a 9mm is tapered. Saami spec is 0.381 at the bullet side and 0.391 near the rim so you are not as likely to swage down bullets. 

This is also dependent on the bullet length and the seating depth, again due to the tapered design.

 

Loading .40 you are much more likely (probably even certain) to swage down bullets, if I use a FCD when loading coated .40 (.401) bullets the bullets will be loose in the case after using the FCD.

This can be "solved" by giving a firm crimp with the FCD itself, if you setup the FCD as per Lee instruction you may never even notice the bullets getting swaged down.

Does it affect accuracy, yes however if you hardly ever shoot past 15/20 yards or if you have a hard time printing decent groups at distance you probably will not notice.  In other words, for IPSC/USPSA you'll get away with it but I myself do not trust rounds loaded like this. 

 

Myself I am in the "it's a tool you shouldn't need" camp, I used it on .40 rounds that failed the case gauge but since I started roll sizing no rounds fail the case gauge anymore.

For 9mm and .45 I never needed it, loaded over 300K rounds with range pickup brass, if you need it something went wrong in the steps before. (And I gauge all rounds, always)

 

I do use it for my .44 Magnum loads with self cast bullets, if I use the FCD I do not need to size the bullets so it saves  a step reloading. This definitely affect accuracy though. 

[iflyskyhigh]

22 hours ago, xrayfk05 said:

It depends a lot on the round you are loading...

 

Myself I am in the "it's a tool you shouldn't need" camp...

 

I do use it for my .44 Magnum loads with self cast bullets...

 

Wha...

[mmc45414]

Maybe another way to consider the FCD might depend on if you are using an ammo checker gauge.

In my case I am going to use a gauge, so I do not use a FCD on the progressive.  The rounds that fail the gauge get run into a FCD on a single stage press and then set aside (and not marked with the Sharpie stripe that indicates they passed the gauge) for blasting, typically in my Shield. 

 

Maybe if you are not using an ammo checker it might be best to use the FCD, because it will tweak any rounds that might have been caught in the gauge so that even if accuracy is not optimal, function would be more assured.

[Yeti]

Ahhh the polarizing FCD. 

 

I see the FCD as more of an extra QC final step.  Provided you aren't swaging down your intended bullet size, it works pretty darn well.  It isn't just a work around since it can rectify ovalized or imperfect cases DURING a properly set up process.  The carbide ring at the bottom is larger than any standard resizing die. 

Set up the FCD correctly and verify that the bullets you are using aren't being resized and they work nicely.

 

 

 

[OPENB]

I recently experienced my first issue with the FCD in 9mm. I loaded some 147gr. FP Black Bullet Int. To chamber in all my guns, I was loading to 1.13", and finishing with the FCD. The rounds fit the mag, fed, and extracted fine. I zero'd them at 15 yards on a steel target, acceptable group. What I couldn't see was that they were tumbling. First match with them, all were tumbling. Weird thing is I switched to my back up gun with KKM barrel, and tumbling went away. Got home and tried in my CZ S2's, and they were tumbling again. So I tried seating and crimping in one step with the Hornady die and removing the FCD, tumbling went away. Appears I was swaging down the base of the bullets in the FCD. I'd read of this happening, but had not experienced it.