Lee Loader

I have the custom Lee Collet FCD in .357 Magnum and like how it works. I also have the collet FCD for .35 Remington. My one concern is that it appears to work the brass more than a roll crimp, even though I set it for a fairly light crimp. Has anyone used one enough that they can tell us the approximate number of reloadings I can expect before I start to see cracked case mouths? Does neck annealing help

Not as important, but does it work as well with nickel plated brass or does the plating cause any problems with case life using the collet die?

Thanks for any information.

I've used the collet dies extensively and never had them fatigue the brass. I'm actually the guy that convinced Lee to make them for the 357 Mag, 41 Mag, 44 Mag, and 45 Colt. I had to order a hundred of each!

I've never worked with nickel plated brass but I'm sure someone will provide some insight.

I may be a bit off on it as yours is a 'custom', but the standard FCD resizes the entire case and puts a crimp.

Take a look at the pic on their website.
http://leeprecision.com/reloading-dies/ ... crimp-die/

The golden ring at the bottom of the die is the case resizer.

I've had a few cases that were fired with much higher pressure take quite an effort to resize. I've read that some competitive shooters do not want to resize their cases as they are "expanded" to custom fit their chamber and provide ever so slightly better fit in the chamber whereas 'factory setting' will be a bit more loose in chamber.
So, this being Magnum, it would make sense that you are exercising the brass.
Measure the brass diameter at various locations before and after resizing. That'll give you an idea what it does.

By short sizing and or neck sizing I have seen big changes in groups in every cartridge I load . The big deal is in having multiple chambers for a single cartridge .
There were three 30-06's in the stable at 1 time , all met SAAMI specs . The slide action was all but a match chamber, the 1965 bolt gun had a fat shoulder body point while the 1943 bolt gun was long to the body shoulder point. Like wise the Colts wouldn't share rifle to pistol and it was visible as to why .

Among other reasons for neck sizing are that both die sets for the 45 Colts make "Coke bottle" shaped ammo when used full length . As a result I used a 45ACP FCD as a sizer when the rifles got sticky . I promised myself I would make a decapping pin for an FCD but never have .

jloader wrote:I may be a bit off on it as yours is a 'custom', but the standard FCD resizes the entire case and puts a crimp.

Take a look at the pic on their website.
http://leeprecision.com/reloading-dies/ ... crimp-die/

The golden ring at the bottom of the die is the case resizer.

I've had a few cases that were fired with much higher pressure take quite an effort to resize. I've read that some competitive shooters do not want to resize their cases as they are "expanded" to custom fit their chamber and provide ever so slightly better fit in the chamber whereas 'factory setting' will be a bit more loose in chamber.
So, this being Magnum, it would make sense that you are exercising the brass.
Measure the brass diameter at various locations before and after resizing. That'll give you an idea what it does.

You are referencing the Carbide Factory Crimp Die but the OP is referring to the The Collet FCD and this die does not post size the cartridge. This is a rifle, collet style FCD for revolver/carbine cartridges.

So one FCD is necessarily same as another FCD... got it. I figured that something was a bit fishy, that's why I started of by saying "I may be a bit off on it..."
Thanks for straightening things out...

jloader wrote:So one FCD is necessarily same as another FCD... got it. I figured that something was a bit fishy, that's why I started of by saying "I may be a bit off on it..."
Thanks for straightening things out...

Yeah, it can be a bit confusing.

jloader wrote:So one FCD is necessarily same as another FCD... got it. I figured that something was a bit fishy, that's why I started of by saying "I may be a bit off on it..."
Thanks for straightening things out...

Jloader, if you lookup collet die on the Lee sight you will see it is not described as a crimp die by Lee. The collet die is simply a better way of neck sizing only.

About once every two or three months this subject comes up and I get coRnfused every time.

Steve wrote:

jloader wrote:So one FCD is necessarily same as another FCD... got it. I figured that something was a bit fishy, that's why I started of by saying "I may be a bit off on it..."
Thanks for straightening things out...

Jloader, if you lookup collet die on the Lee sight you will see it is not described as a crimp die by Lee. The collet die is simply a better way of neck sizing only.

Yes, that particular die is a "better" way of nect sizing it uses a collet and a mandrill to very uniformly neck size and maintain cartridge concentrically. On the other hand the collect crimp die applies a factory style crimp by using a collet to "squeeze" the case neck around the bullet. In theory this give a more uniform neck tension and hence more uniform bullet plue on firing.

Make smoke,