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As for crushing bullets, I have actualy tried by grossly misadjusting the crimp die, and cant get anything more than a faint line i can barely feel with my fingernail when I pull the bullet, a far cry from that pic of those crushed 6mm bullets that always gets posted....
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I believe your FCD is defective or not adjusted correctly, then. Richard Lee says his tool should put a cannelure in your bullet.
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Just like changing anything else, you cant take an established load and make a change and expect the same results. Crimping requires a load workup, as the pressures are going to be different crimped vs uncrimped.
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I didn't expect the same result, and I didn't get the same result. That test was to see what a mild FCD crimp did to
that established load.
But, even if I did expect the same results...
Why can't I do it?
On page 59 of Modern Reloading (2nd Ed.), you'll find one of Lee's examples he uses to try to sell the FCD. His method was exactly the same as mine, except he had Hodgdon do pressure testing (trying to prove start pressures were better). He sent two lots of ammo for testing, with exactly the same load. (.308 Win, max charge of Varget, 150 gr bullet.) The only difference was that one lot was crimped with the Lee FCD.
I see no reason to work up an entirely new load, if the tool's designer didn't find it necessary, and claims that just crimping improved performance. Read it for yourself, but be mindful of the fact that he never mentions which load was more accurate.
In your own discussion of this subject, you have admitted that even
you have never done a side-by-side load comparison of FCD vs no FCD (citing cost as a factor). All you say is that the FCD improves your loads. How do you
know it is helping your loads, if you've never actually tested them against uncrimped loads?
All of that said...
I
have worked loads up from scratch with the FCD, before. In 2009 I ran a side-by-side test with 150 gr Hornady Interlocks and W780 in .270 Win. When results with the FCD proved to be abysmal (even in a proper cannelure), I tried the load without any crimp. There was a definite improvement
without the FCD, even though I declared the load an overall failure.
And, like with my 140 gr Partition testing, the 150 gr FCD groups showed up to 3 distinct POIs with each powder charge. So, one of the most important bits of information about using the FCD was apparent in both of those tests (as well as previous tests with 130 gr Core-Lokts and 140 gr Partitions).
As I said in my previous post, I'm not done testing the FCD. I want to find out why it destroys accuracy with certain loads, why it doesn't really affect others, why it (according to Lee and the internet) improves other loads, and where these different POIs are coming from. I'm not saying the FCD is trash. It just isn't all it's cracked up to be - a one-size-fits-all bandaid to magically improve accuracy, start pressures, and neck tension; and allow the creation of cannelures without harming accuracy.
One thing to keep in mind about my testing, is that I don't use off-the-shelf bulk brass, like most FCD users. My brass gets fully prepped and sorted. So, any problem with the load is much more apparent, and more easily attributed to variables that I may be testing (like using the FCD).