Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Lee factory crimp dies

I use lee dies to reload for my 44mag, 38 and 357 mag. I've been using the 3 die set but thinking about getting a factory crimp die to use. Whats you opinion of using this die to crimp with ? thanks alot

I use them for anything that needs a crimp. I like to crimp in a seperate step and the LEE FCD is easy to set up and gives a very precise and secure crimp. Plus you never worry about buckling a case from over crimping. IMHO the FCD is the best product LEE has in their line-up.

Gotta agree with that. The only thing I own by Lee is the factory crimp dies.

O

+1 on the FCD! Also the only Lee product that I use.

I like the way you don't have to size your bullets as a separate step. Just let the FCD take care of it. (of course if you're not casting your own then it doesn't matter)

Absolutely awesome product. I also use them on my rifle cases that are used for hunting. Look just like factory and I find accuracy to be better too.

I have never seen the need to crimp a rifle cartridge unless it's for a lever gun or an automatic. I never crimp bolt gun cartridges.

I do crimp .223 and .308 as I run them thru ARs and an M1A. Some feel even that's not necessary.

O

The straight wall handgun FCD looks to be a different critter from the bottleneck crimp die. It sizes the outside diameter of the round to some minimum dimension as it crimps.

I've never used it so this is just a theoretical question, but wouldn't that play havoc with a cast bullet if you had sized it to some particular diameter and didn't want it any smaller?

It sure would give a tight bullet pull, though.

The Redding profile crimp die does sort of a same thing but IIRC it puts a taper crimp and a roll crimp on the case simultaneously.

Thanks for the replies, I ordered one for 44mag and 45acp.

I don't think the FCD resizes the bullet, just the case. guess the theory is crimping the case mouth might cause the case to bulge somewhere.

O