Lee Factory Crimp die- brass life

E

eric2381

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
190   0   0
Location
Medicine Hat, Alberta
Hello everybody. I've been playing more and more with the Lee Factory Crimp Die with my loads. I was wondering what people have experienced with brass life when using it. Does it shorten the life span of your brass? Thanks for your time, Eric
 
The Lee FCD doesn't work the mouth that much, I wouldn't think it would decrease brass life by any significant amount.

I don't have any personal experience yet though, only thoughts. It is an interesting question though.
 
I use Lee FCD in all my pistol reloads (9mm, 40, 45 & 38 SC). I have a batch of 300 pcs of Starline 38 Supercomp that I use for practice. I load my rounds to major power factor (169-170 pf). I've run them thru the FCD about 20x now and I have only chucked about 5 brass due to crack in the brass mouth, but hey, 20x of reloading puts a lot of stress on the brass considering the power factor of the load. You make the call... if you can reload a brass for 20x.. is that brass life long enough for you? :)
 
nognog said:
I use Lee FCD in all my pistol reloads (9mm, 40, 45 & 38 SC). I have a batch of 300 pcs of Starline 38 Supercomp that I use for practice. I load my rounds to major power factor (169-170 pf). I've run them thru the FCD about 20x now and I have only chucked about 5 brass due to crack in the brass mouth, but hey, 20x of reloading puts a lot of stress on the brass considering the power factor of the load. You make the call... if you can reload a brass for 20x.. is that brass life long enough for you? :)
Click to expand...

Perhaps not for some rifle loaders who get 50 reloads out of their cases :p
 
Onagoth said:
Perhaps not for some rifle loaders who get 50 reloads out of their cases :p
Click to expand...

The Lee FCD for rifle cases is totally different from the Carbide FCD for pistol cases.

The rifle die crimps just the very mouth of the case; the pistol die post-sizes almost the whole way down.
 
Silverado said:
The Lee FCD for rifle cases is totally different from the Carbide FCD for pistol cases.

The rifle die crimps just the very mouth of the case; the pistol die post-sizes almost the whole way down.
Click to expand...

I know this, I was just responding to his last point about 20x for pistol brass. It was a jest, nothing serious.
 
Eric, that picture looks like some of the first cases that I did with my first FC die. I put a real noticeable crimp on there. ( I had to pull some of those apart and found it a major grunt.) I have since found that if the bullet has a canular in the right place I don't have to crimp much at all. Look at the crimp on factory ammo, hard to even see it sometimes. The crimp I put on now is more visible than factory ammo but not by much, and they are still tough to pull apart if you have to, so I know they work.
 
I haven't noticed any problems using a FCD on my 6.5x55 or 300WSM, as previously stated it doesn't really work the brass too much, at least thats what I've found so far.
I'm discarding my cases when the primers are getting loose, haven't had any neck issues at all (yet).
 
Last edited:
Here is a pic of a 243 loaded and crimped with the LFCD:

IMG_3681.jpg


Like Commonman said, compare it to a factory round, thats what i did, although mine may have a little more of a crimp, haven't had any problems with the necks and I crimp all my loads, this brass is at its 6th load, I noticed that the primers went in a little to easy......last loads for these!!

PS: Sorry about the flash in the pick, hope you can see it good enough!!

Perry
 
Crimping, using either a LFCD or a seating die has no effect on brass life that I can determine. The first thing to fail on my brass is always the primer pocket, which expands or the case head splits. Very seldom do I see any cracks appearing around a case mouth on bottle neck cases, although now and again there are splits that appear in the shoulder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom