With a smooth 208 grain FMJ Hornady bullet with no cannelure should one use a light factory crimp or a taper crimp? Lee does not appear to have a taper crimp for 300 Blackout. Their die set comes with a factory crimp. Redding does at something close to $40. But will the Redding taper crimp die fit the Lee quick change bushings?

I use the Lee factory crimp for 30 cal. .308 bullets with, without a cannelure, or the fact that some cannelures won't be at the crimp when using the bullets for 300 Blackout.

Note: I've only used Hornady 110's, 130's, & 150 g.

I also use the Lee factory Crimp die on all my 300 AAC Blackout loads. I crimp lightly, and am not convinced the crimp is better. I just mainly use this die to assure uniformity of the finished round.

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Dave

Same reasons here. Just a light crimp.

Learned something new yesterday. The rifle crimp in the Lee kits is different from the factory crimp in the 4 die sets for pistols. The rifle crimp uses a collet. I did not know that!!

I have a RCBS taper crimp seating die for one of my 300BLK setups but I keep the crimp backed off and only seat with that die. All my semiauto rifle die setups use the Lee FCD.

Edit: If you're using the new Hornady ELD 208g bullets, they're different from the Amax. I use the Lee 300BLK seating die with a Lee .223 seating plug so it doesn't bugger up the point.