Originally Posted by Bricktop
Originally Posted by dla
The Lee FCD is easier to use as it isn't sensitive to the length of the brass. I wouldn't call it a "roll crimp", rather it is more of a collet crimp.
Uh, no. The factory crimp dies for rifle cartridges is a collet style crimp, whereas the ones for handgun calibers are either roll or taper crimp, depending on the calibers. They're two different animals.


Hmmm, I use the FCD on my 44mag fodder. It certainly looks to operate exactly the same as my FCD for my 45-70 fodder - and it is not a roll crimp. Perhaps the FCD is different for cartridges that headspace on the casemouth, such as 45acp.

The beauty of the FCD over roll crimping is that you can get away without performing an initial trim of the cartridge brass. If you try to use a generic roll crimp with unequal length brass, you will get some over crimped and some under crimped.