I was wondering if any one uses the Lee factory crimp dies? I have heard that in some cases in the 44 mag that if you use a 430 diameter cast bullet that it will resize it to a 429.

The Lee factory revolver crimp dies have a carbide sizer built in and will size a loaded case so it will fit in any 44 mag chamber. I don't know if it sizes a bullet down from .430 to .429 though. I would kind of doubt it though.

All the handgun cartridge FCD's have tha sizing ring. There is some measurable difference in case wall thickness at the mouths of different brands of cartridge cases, and how much the bullet resizes will depend partly on that. Additionally, harder bullets will have more spring to them and will tend to come back out to size more than softer ones. So it's not a question with a single, fixed answer. You'd have to test it with your components, pulling the bullet with an inertial bullet puller after running a round through the die to measure any diameter difference?

If you get Marshal's book, he points out, and I have verified this in my own guns over time, that you often get peak cast bullet accuracy a little bigger than the standard commercial 0.001" over groove diameter. 0.002" will do better in most of my guns. If you buy Marshal's bullets, he gives you the sizing option. You can also cast and size your own. Indeed, many casters don't size at all, finding the bigger as-cast diameter is best. A bigger diameter is also a strategy for resisting sizing down too far in the FCD die.

I was wondering if any one uses the Lee factory crimp dies? I have heard that in some cases in the 44 mag that if you use a 430 diameter cast bullet that it will resize it to a 429.

Mine did. I sent it back and they opened it up for me at no charge. The nice gentleman on the phone tried to talk me out of it but I was insistent. After all that, I decided it was not really worth fooling with and just crimp with my bullet seating die.

Where folks run into problems with crimping cast bullets is having the bullet crimp and seat at the same time. If the die isn't set up correctly often this will crumple the top of the case enough on crimping while a bullet is still being seated that the loaded round will not fit in the cylinder.

I like the Lee four die sets that make seating and crimping separate operations, but have done the same thing for years with a three die set by setting up the seater/crimper to just seat in one step then backing off the seating plug and crimping in a second step.

Where folks run into problems with crimping cast bullets is having the bullet crimp and seat at the same time. If the die isn't set up correctly often this will crumple the top of the case enough on crimping while a bullet is still being seated that the loaded round will not fit in the cylinder.

The issue I was having was that there was a ring of lead that got shaved off the bullet, the revolvers don't care but the auto loader won't chamber the rounds, I've since gone to four station loading on all my pistol rounds.

Something that really helps when loading lead bullets is either a Lyman or Lee die that bells the case with a nice taper bell instead of what normal belling dies do. This makes loading lead so much easier. I've got the Lee one, but Lyman's works well also.

Check it out.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1116728482.5129=/html/catalog/lubesize.html#CaseExpandingDie

I use two Lee FCDs' one for .45ACP with cast bullets and the other for .400 CorBon with Nosler JHPs. Neither of them effect bullet size except that the 10mm die can be set up to actually create a depression in a non-cannelured jacketed bullet. What I like about it is that I seat the bullets (with the standard seating die) to the desired depth, then can play with the degree of crimp without changing the OAL.

Bud W

I followed Marshall's Tech guide to solve my problems of seating oversized bullets in my 44. I was shaving the bullet and this is unacceptable when you are buying a custom cast bullet. The crimp was adequate but not perfect.

I now use the Lyman M-Die for perfect bullet seating and the Redding Profile crimp die for a perfect crimp. I do get a little variation in OAL which I think is due to the seater plug in my Lee seating die when seating the LFN style bullets. I have my die run out so far to keep the crimp out of the seating process that I may not have enough alighnment of the bullet. I will try to adjust it in further on the next batch but not for enough to start to contact the bullet enough to scare it.

Something that really helps when loading lead bullets is either a Lyman or Lee die that bells the case with a nice taper bell instead of what normal belling dies do. This makes loading lead so much easier. I've got the Lee one, but Lyman's works well also.

On the Dillon press the powder funnel is the beller/expander.
What was happening was that when getting enough crimp I had to start the crimping to soon and it was shaving the bearing surface before it was curling the shell into the canelure groove to get a full crimp and a full seat in the same operation.
Seating and crimping in two separate operations is really the way to go!

Well....I am not sure exactly what is happening but when I switched to Lee factory crimp dies in my rimless pistol ammo, handloading got boring, everything worked every time and was accurate too. I love them.

Only on autoloader ammo. I use a roll crimp on revolver ammo.

The Lee FC dies are equipped with a roll crimp for revolver rounds and a taper crimp for auto pistol rounds. The crimp is formed by a hardened steel ring that comes out easily, so if you have one style and want the the other, I'm sure Lee can sell you the one you want.

For roll crimped 45 colt, I get better results crimping while seating using my Hornady seating die than I did crimping separately using the Lee FCD. Taper crimp may be a different story.