Cannot figure out Lee Carbide Facotry Crimp Die

COREY

COREY

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Hello All,

I just set up my Hornady LnL AP with the Lee dies that I already had. I took a bit a fiddling around (no problems but the operator), but I have the first 4 stations set up (sizing, case mouth and powder, powder cop, bullet seating). I followed the instructions for the factory crimp die:

1) Turn die in until it touches the shell plate
2) Place loaded cartridge in and adjust crimp knob down until it touches; back the ram down and adjust down 1/2 turn to 1 turn.

I did this with a factory round that has worked well for me, and then commenced to run a piece of 9mm Luger brass through it (minus primer and powder). The bullet seats nicely at station 4, but once I run it through the crimp die it actually loosens the bullet. It seems to crimp it as the bullet will not come out, but it sort of wobbles around in the case. I have adjusted the crimp knob down until it has bottomed out and it is still doing it.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
I have the same press, and using a 45 acp Lee FCD, it adjusts as easy as the directions state. Did you try to set it up multiple times? When I have problems, I usually start by taking it all the way down, then putting it back together and trying to figure out what happened. I'll assume you cleaned everything out as well as possible. With some of these dies and such, dirty builds up in the strangest of places, cause the strangest of problems. Hope you find the answer.
 
COREY said:
Hello All,

I just set up my Hornady LnL AP with the Lee dies that I already had. I took a bit a fiddling around (no problems but the operator), but I have the first 4 stations set up (sizing, case mouth and powder, powder cop, bullet seating). I followed the instructions for the factory crimp die:

1) Turn die in until it touches the shell plate
2) Place loaded cartridge in and adjust crimp knob down until it touches; back the ram down and adjust down 1/2 turn to 1 turn.

I did this with a factory round that has worked well for me, and then commenced to run a piece of 9mm Luger brass through it (minus primer and powder). The bullet seats nicely at station 4, but once I run it through the crimp die it actually loosens the bullet. It seems to crimp it as the bullet will not come out, but it sort of wobbles around in the case. I have adjusted the crimp knob down until it has bottomed out and it is still doing it.

Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...


Why crimp 9mm? If anything do a really light roll crimp when you seat it.
 
Ya I found the factory crimp die really good at trashing case mouths and that's all. After you reload a couple times you'll throw your brass out cuz the mouth is cracking at all the factory crimps.
 
Do you have a set of dial calipers?

Adjust the die so that it touches the shellplate.
Unscrew the crimp adjustment.
Screw it in until you feel it first make contact.

You want the return the case mouth to flush fit with the bullet.

A 9mm bullet is .355-.356. Measure the case walls, but odds are they are about .012 (x2) at the mouth. You want the diameter of the case at the mouth to be the total of these measurements, and may be just a little bit less. From .379-.380 is probably in the ballpark. More is not generally required.
 
Why crimp 9mm? If anything do a really light roll crimp when you seat it.
Click to expand...

9mm should have at least a light crimp or the bullets may move in the casing under recoil in the magazine. Also, you have problems if you are roll crimping a 9mm as it should ave a taper crimp to headspace off of.

Curtmg, the die is brand new and I ran a rage through it to get any oil out of it. I tried setting it up a couple times, but to no avail.

Canuck223, I will give it a try and see what happens. I should probably not always follow the Lee directions to the letter.
 
ciphery said:
Ya I found the factory crimp die really good at trashing case mouths and that's all. After you reload a couple times you'll throw your brass out cuz the mouth is cracking at all the factory crimps.
Click to expand...

You're doing it wrong.

Canuck223 has the answer. I've loaded 10's of 1000's of both 9mm and 45ACP using the Lee FCD as the last step set up in the manner he describes and have not had a single cracked case mouth.

CS45
 
Thanks yardie, but that is for the standard seating and crimping die. This die is a tapered crimp die that does not seat the bullet, but resizes the cartridge to factory specs.

I tried using the dies last night again to no avail. I set a secondary seating/crimping die I had in and seated and crimped on separate stations and it works fine. If I then popped that die out and place the Lee die in its place and just run it a a case resizing die, it is fine.

It just seems this die will not place a crimp.
 
I am using Lee FCD in all of the pistol calibers I reload. The trick (for me) was to have it crimp VERY lightly.

I was a total noob a year ago, so FCD helped correcting all the silly things I did. Last month, however, I was helping a friend to set up his new LnL, and we just used the Hornady die to both seat and crimp. Worked like a charm.
 
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