Lee factory crimp die shaving brass?

[Willyboy]

Lee FCD

I started using the Lee FCD a few years ago because lots of people on this
and other forums recommended them. I use them on strait wall handgun
cartridges in several calibers. Yes, I feel the pressure point or "pop" and
just thought it was normal. Doesn't seem to affect anything. Willyboy

 

[rwsmith]

I really agree....

I'm not a big fan of the FCD for pistol reloading like I am for hard-kicking rifle calibers. In spite of that, I've never heard any of my FCD dies make a popping sound. Are you trimming your cases to the same length? I know a lot of people think that is not important with revolver cartridges. They can do as they like, but I strongly disagree. It is simply not logical to think you can properly crimp cases of substantially varying lengths unless you sort the brass into batches and individually adjust the die for each batch. I just trim the brass. If your brass is all the same length within 0.005" or so (not +/- 0.005") and you're not over-crimping by setting your FCD too deep, then I'd say you have a defective die.

I think it's worthwhile to trim mixed pistol brass once so that they are consistent for operations like crimping.

 

[Funflyer]

Lee dies and their other equipment cost less than others because their quality is hit and miss, about 50/50 in my experience. I use seven LFCDs and one die set, and seven bullet sizers. I won't get into all the issues I've found but I will say I've sent two dies back for replacement and have re-engineered or corrected problems with several others, mostly roughness and incorrect size of bullet sizing dies.

As for the OPs issue of shaving brass, I suspect there's a machining burr in the sizing ring, either in the tapered portion, or where it transitions to the sizer portion that was not polished out by Lee's process, or lack thereof. This is assuming he's using a very light flair as stated. The taper can be polished to correct the issue, as can the actual sizing portion if it needs to be fine tuned for a specific bullet diameter. I've polished several that had some rough machining. A lathe makes the job very simple but it can also be done by hand. The pic below is my latest FCD which just happens to be 44 cal. You can see the taper (yellow arrows) is very nicely polished, but the sizer area (red arrows) is not. This one sizes perfectly for a .430 bullet (no swage) so I left well enough alone.

 

[stansdds]

Lee dies and their other equipment cost less than others because their quality is hit and miss, about 50/50 in my experience.

I started reloading with a Lee Challenger press and Lee dies. I agree, quality is about 50/50. My set of 38 Special/357 Magnum dies were fine, but my set of 45 ACP dies had a very out of round expander. These are the only two sets of Lee dies that I own or will own. I own dies by Redding, Lyman, and RCBS and their quality is very consistent.

 

[Nevada Ed]

You might try reaming the inside and outside of those cases to see if that may help smooth things up a little.

Most of my revolver cases have never been too long, so I have yet to trim.

Good luck.

 

[dla]

The crimp it is applying on the round is solid, and almost indiscernible from those loaded on my Dillon.
.

Left is Dillon, right is FCD - 44mag.

 

[typetwelve]

Got it...and it took me some time to figure it out...and it may be a cause of some other leading issues I've been having.

Most of my 44 magnum brass is Fiocchi stamped "G.F.L or GFL". After some back/forth and measuring...brass like Hornady and Winchester is .010" thick, Fiocchi is .011" thick. I found this across the board when measuring a ton of them. Figuring that almost all of my brass is Fiocchi, this was my issue with not only the Lee FC die, but with some leading.

The Missouri 44 Keith Hi-Tek almost uniformly coming in at .430", seat them in Fiocchi brass, the Lee die give some serious feedback and sometimes shaves lead. Pulling the projectile, it is also squeezing the bullet to .429" and on rare occasion, .428". This is why I've been fighting leading issues with those.

I bought some new Hornady and Win brass, seated them, the ran perfectly through the Lee die and when I pulled the bullets, they maintained their .430". Running 12 of them yesterday, no leading.

I can't believe it...it wasn't the die, it wasn't the projectile...it was the brass.

 

[boatbum101]

Undersize , too hard an alloy & lube failure are the main causes of leading .

 

[typetwelve]

Undersize , too hard an alloy & lube failure are the main causes of leading .

You know...this is what gets me about Oregon Trail. I didn't research lead bullet hardness and my first order was their "lasercast" 24 hardness 38 DEWC's.

Those stupid things leaded my 627 like crazy.

I'm now running 12 hardness...and they run fine. That not so cheap box of those OT projectiles is an expensive reminder to read first before ordering.

...my point is though...who could possibly use those properly? Why would they even make a projectile with that design/use in such an insane hardness? I don't get it.

*EDIT*
I just went to OTs site (was laser-cast.com, not anymore). Those 148g DEWCs I bought were $55.75/500 with a 24 hardness. Now? They don't even offer those anymore, the same projectile is now in the $30 range and is a 12 hardness...perhaps they learned their lesson.