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Old August 26, 2012, 04:02 PM   #34
SL1
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Join Date: November 8, 2007
Posts: 2,001
Well, I certainly would not throw away a Lee FCD.

I do have some. But I don't use them for crimping. I use the carbide rings in the bodies for sizing my straight-walled pistol cases. Then I size just the part of the case that will grip the bullets with the regular carbide sized die, expand as usual, etc. That avoids the "wasp-waisted" look that you get when you try to size down toward the case head with the usual carbide sizer die. It also avoids working the brass so much in the lower part of the case, where it can split longitudinally from over-working. And, it leaves more room in the case for those slow-burning powders in those "business" loads that need to be hot.

Apparently, Redding thinks that is a good idea, because they recently came out with a 2-ring carbide die to do just that. And, they think it is such a good idea that we should be willing to pay $100 for their die!

And, if you really like the crimping part of the Lee FCD, but don't like that the carbide ring may post-size the case and bullet when using lead bullets, then just put the internals for the die for your catridge into the body of a die built for a cartridge with a larger body diameter, for instance, .44 internals in a .45 body. (The internals will fit/interchange with any Carbide FCD die body.) That way, you can get crimping wthout any possibility of post sizing. And, you have the actual caliber die body left over to do the initial sizing like I do. And, you get that for about $15 from Lee instead of $100 from Redding.

SL1
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