Lee carbide vs non carbide Factory Crimp Die

[H2oallyear]

additionally the carbide dies are called such: Carbide Factory Crimp Die. Available in straight walled handgun calibers only. Rifle dies are just called Factory Crimp Die. No carbide ring since it is being used on a bottleneck or tapered wall cartridge. There is NO crossover on the available production listings although a custom die can be ordered. In other words, if a Carbide Factory Crimp Die (handgun listing) is made for a specific caliber, there will not be a Factory Crimp Die (rifle listing) made in that caliber.

Factory Crimp Dies work on rounds which have powder in place and bullets seated as the final step in the reloading process. They crimp the top edge of the cartridge neck on to the seated bullet.

On top of this there are Lee Collet Dies. Lee Collet Dies are used to crimp the entire neck to about 0.002" under nominal bullet size. they do this by squeezing the casing neck on to a mandrel. The mandrel has to be inside the case neck in order to do this. Therefore there can NOT be a bullet or powder in the casing when performing this step. These are for rifle calibers only. A lot of target shooters swear by this method of neck sizing. I use it prior to neck turning once the case is fully fireformed to my bolt rifle's chamber. Neck sizing should only be performed for a single rifle; ammunition shot in that rifle is reloaded for, and stays with that rifle. It is generally not useful for lever guns, autoloaders, etc.

I agree with everything you said. I probably should have titled the thread. Lee FCD ect for the 44 mag straight walled cartridge! Lee does a bad enough job titling the names of the 4 different crimp only dies in many calibers for most shells available. Another forum people were going into the ramifications of neck sizing vs full length sizing ect ect. On a thread about straight walled 44 mag crimp option!

 

[rick357]

and the only reason I brought it ups was because someone mentioned the Lee Collet Die. Not an issue as it isn't available, nor necessary in any manner, for handgun straight wall cartridges like the .38/.357 or .44, etc, even if they are being reloaded for a rifle. I have a .357 Marlin and Ruger 77/44. I use the Carbide Factory Crimp for them. A light crimp is all that is necessary on the .357. The Ruger .44 carries enough recoil that bullets can move around if they are not lightly crimped as well, even though it has that rotary style magazine and not a stacked tube. I had a .44 Marlin at one time, and it required a firm crimp. I use the handgun (Lee CFCD) on both of those calibers.

And yes, Lee kind of muddies the water a little bit with all these different dies. The info is there, one just has to read through it more than a few times to sort out WTH they are discussing and how it relates to what you want to do.

 

[H2oallyear]

and the only reason I brought it ups was because someone mentioned the Lee Collet Die. Not an issue as it isn't available, nor necessary in any manner, for handgun straight wall cartridges like the .38/.357 or .44, etc, even if they are being reloaded for a rifle..

Lee Part number 90930. 44 Mag Collet Style Crimp Die

I'm not using it Going with the FCD. But it's available. To add to Lee's confusion

 

[rick357]

Lee Part number 90930. 44 Mag Collet Style Crimp Die

I'm not using it Going with the FCD. But it's available. To add to Lee's confusion

Huh. Thanks for pointing that out. I stand corrected. It sure is hidden away. You kind of have to know the part number before you can search for it. Definitely not listed under Factory Crimp Die for either handgun or rifle. Listed as you say, "44 Mag Collet Style Crimp Die". There's one for the .357 as well. And they explicitly mention that it is not carbide just to be sure.

 

[vagrantviking]

Lee Part number 90930. 44 Mag Collet Style Crimp Die

I'm not using it Going with the FCD. But it's available. To add to Lee's confusion

Well that's an interesting thing I didn't know about either. I wonder if they would do custom ones for heeled bullet cartridges.

On topic, I'll repeat what someone else mentioned about the Factory Crimp Die for straight walled cartridges. I try not to use them except in the case of a buggered cartridge that might be over crimped or something like that. Most of my loads are cast bullets and want them to be a little oversized, say .431" for a 44 Russian with a bore of .429". If I run them into the carbide ring on the FCD it will swage down the whole cartridge to minimum spec and the oversized bullet will be squeezed down to .429" or maybe even smaller depending on the brass thickness defeating the purpose of starting with the oversized bullet.

This is mostly a matter of concern for the cast bullet shooter but even with smaller diameter jacketed I might do one and then pull it to see what the result is.
I'm not loading rounds for a carry gun or dangerous game so there isn't really a need in my mind for the utmost in reliability. If one or two are hard to chamber I'll take them home and run through the FCD.

 

[H2oallyear]

Huh. Thanks for pointing that out. I stand corrected. It sure is hidden away. You kind of have to know the part number before you can search for it. Definitely not listed under Factory Crimp Die for either handgun or rifle. Listed as you say, "44 Mag Collet Style Crimp Die". There's one for the .357 as well. And they explicitly mention that it is not carbide just to be sure.

The way Lee publishes things isn't always the best. I bought 3 different die sets for 3 different calibers. The 6.5 Creedmoor die set does NOT include the powder through die. Most of their sets do. Lee doesn't tell you this on any info included in the die set. They don't list one anywhere on their site. It took an hr but finally came across a 2 dies powder loader set. It says between the 2 dies, you can load x to y calibers. I had to contact Lee just to be sure which one I need to use! Pretty weak on Lee's behalf

 

[mactroneng]

The way Lee publishes things isn't always the best. I bought 3 different die sets for 3 different calibers. The 6.5 Creedmoor die set does NOT include the powder through die. Most of their sets do. Lee doesn't tell you this on any info included in the die set. They don't list one anywhere on their site. It took an hr but finally came across a 2 dies powder loader set. It says between the 2 dies, you can load x to y calibers. I had to contact Lee just to be sure which one I need to use! Pretty weak on Lee's behalf

Sometimes I find that Titan Reloading, which was/is Lee's official OEM distributor, has better descriptions/organization on their website than the Lee website itself.