Quote:
Originally Posted by stilly
This is in direct contrast to The Book of Lee in that it states that all of Lee stuff is the best and most reasonable and priced better than all else who oppose.
With that said, why are these other crimp dies better to have then the Lee FCD? Will you please expand upon this answer? I still do not have a clear idea about factory crimp dies except that the Lee will not crush your case like the bullet seater/crimp does and what is the difference between the crimp for the 44mag FCD and the 44mag carbide bullet seater /crimping die ?
I know I was horrified to see that brass case smashed on one side and I NEVER want to do it again.
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Lee makes a lot of claims about the FCD. I have read people claim the FCD will do a consistent roll crimp on revolver rounds regardless of the length of the brass, what a crock.
The thing I don't like about the FCD is the carbide ring at the mouth of the die. This ring will contact the case mouth when loading with headstamps that have slightly thicker brass or when loading lead bullets (.430+ in .44RM), screwing up that area of the round before the crimp portion of the dies gets to the case mouth.
Many like the FCD to size the Glock bulge in brass or to correct sizing errors when loading oversizd bullets in thicker brass headstamps, etc. It is a "bigger hammer" approach to loading. It will assure your round will chamber, but can also make it less accurate.
The claim that it won't crush cases is about the bottle neck rifle version of the FCD. This a completely different design than the handgun version and gets mixed up by many uninformed on the net (guys just parroting what they read from someone else). The LFCD is a terrific crimp die for rifle round use.
The normal Lee sizing die has a tight mouth and will size the glock bulge fine, so using the LFCD to take a Glock bulge out is primarily for use with other brand sizing dies that are designed for progressive presses with radiused mouths.
For me personally, the only nice design feature of the LFCD is the knob on top of the die to adjust crimp. With the dies I prefer, you must loosen the lock ring and screw the die in and out to adjust crimp. That is the only thing I like about the Lee FCD (for handgun rounds).
I think there is more misunderstanding about the FCD than just about anything out there. Most of the misinformation is caused by Lee themselves.
YMMV.