3 Carbide Dies VS 4 Carbide dies?

[GLOOB]

For those calibers, I know of 2 reasons an FCD might be useful:

1. In 40/45 for using as a bulge buster. Requires a push through adaptor. Will not work for 9mm.

2. For hollowpoints on a turret or progressive. If your seater plug is squishing the hollowpoints, it definitely helps to crimp in a separate step, so the pressure is not as great during seating. On a SS press, you can use your seater die to crimp in a separate step.

The only other time I've needed an FCD is for post sizing .38 special wadcutters. The thicker brass sometimes bulges so much at the base of the bullet, they won't chamber. The FCD fixes this. I'm not sure how accuracy is affected, but at least they'll chamber.

 

[PO2Hammer]

Even tho these are carbide dies....A little lube shouldn't hurt seeing as only one or two dies are carbide...

A little lube won't hurt a thing, but is completely unnecessary. The reason for carbide is in resizing a large cylindrical area like the outside of handgun cartridge. With plain steel there would be too much friction and you would rip the rim off the case trying to get it out.
Bullet seating and crimping don't involve any large cylindrical area contact. No real friction.

Lube if you want, but it just adds two extra steps, applying it and removing it.

 

[cfullgraf]

Thanks everyone. All very useful information.

Well, I ended up finding the Lee 3 Piece Carbide Die for $25 bucks W/ S&H so I went ahead and bought them.

If you find you want to crimp in a separate step, there are crimp dies, both taper crimp and roll crimp (not advisable for auto pistol rounds) available from other manufacturers. Don't feel that you are locked in to the Lee FCD die. I have taper crimp dies from RCBS, Redding, and one or two plain taper crimp dies from Lee, but I am not sure if Lee still offers these.

One advantage to a separate crimp die is you do not have to upset your seater plug setting if you want to crimp in a separate step. For many handgun cartridges, I rarely change bullets so I prefer not to change my seater setting anymore than necessary. It just wastes time the next time I load that cartridge.

Lots of folks put a little lube on their cases before resizing in a carbide die. Resizing becomes smoooooth with less effort than when dry. A little spritz-on lubricant may not have to be cleaned off but I prefer my rounds to be dry when finished. I do not bother lubing handgun cases resized in carbide dies.

Try it, you might like it.

 

[Josh45]

Bayhawk, That is one happened to me. I seen the 3 die set and went for it at that price. Then of course the 4 die set showed up. Same person with the same info....

Mainly, I wanted to reload for plinking / practice. I have a compact .45 and I know I need practice with it and the best way to get practice in is to shoot. .45 are expensive as everyone knows and reloading is a good way to get that cost down for this caliber as others.

I would like to load some HP some time near the future, But Im buying factory HP for now.

 

[TonyT]

Personally I believe the Lee FCD is an excuse for sloppy reloading practise. I have reloaded for ca 50 years and by paying attention to what one is doing one can produce excellent ammunition.