Lee FCD for 10 mm

Status
Not open for further replies.

Buck13

Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
1,190
Location
Puget Sound Convergence Zone
In .32-20, the FCD is open topped and it's easy to see how it works. The .40/10mm version OTOH has an adjusting screw covering the top and an internal sleeve. It's not clear to me what's going on inside it. As far as I could tell at a glance the sleeve does not have a top/bottom orientation, but maybe I missed it.

Last night I assembled some 10mm, seating without crimping. I was used what seemed to me to be a minimal flare (not really visible except maybe using the caliper jaws as straight edges along the sides of the case). By eye, the rim of the case is flush to the side of the bullet. How do you judge how much crimp to apply with the FCD?
 
If the taper-crimp is flush to the side of the bullet, it is just right.

All the taper-crimp should be doing is straightening out the bell.

An ideal crimp should measure .421" at the case mouth.

rc
 
I just measured the rim of three cartridges, got .4205, .421, .4205 I may have give the seating die a tiny turn past first contact with the case, but my untrained eye can't see any real evidence of a crimp.

I took the barrel out last night and did a plunk test on one round (probably not one of those I just measured). It went in like an otter and rotated freely.

I guess I don't need to run them through the FCD?
 
I don't crimp @ the seating die station. I crimp, using a FCD, at the last station on my 650. Pretty easy to adjust the crimp with the FCD adjusting screw. There's also a sizing ring at the bottom of the FCD, but I never feel it doing anything.
 
How does the handgun Lee FCD work?

I have two FCDs. One for .32-20 and one for .40/10mm. Lee's website is not, IMHO, terribly clear in explaining how they work.

The .32-20, which I guess is the rifle type, is easy to understand: the four fingers of the die clamp down on the case while the whole assembly pistons up, so there is no friction on the case, if I have that right.

The .40/10mm version is completely different. Is the internal sleeve just a taper crimper by another name? How does this differ from the crimper in the bullet seating die (which I've used in my first box of ammo screwed out past where any crimping occurs.)
 
The Pistol FCD is a "post seating sizing die". After the cartridge is reloaded the FCD resizes the case (and often the bullet) to make up for mistakes/misadjusted dies. The FCD die is a crimp die with a carbide ring at the mouth. You can do the same thing by removing the decapping pin and running the cartridge through the size die again.
 
plunk test

Many rounds plunk with the case mouth still belled. The bell should be removed for reliability's sake. I second RC's response.
 
can do the same thing by removing the decapping pin and running the cartridge through the size die again.
No, you can't.

A FL sizing die is much smaller then the sizing porton of the Lee FCD.
Remember the expander and what it does after sizing?

Running a loaded round into a sizing die is gayronteed to squeeze the bullet well under bore size!

Don't do it.

rc
 
No, you can't.

A FL sizing die is much smaller then the sizing porton of the Lee FCD.
Remember the expander and what it does after sizing?

Running a loaded round into a sizing die is gayronteed to squeeze the bullet well under bore size!

Don't do it.

rc
Yes you can! The sizing die's deminsions are indeed smaller, but ruining a cartridge with a FL sizing die is just as bad as ruining one with an FCD. My statement was to illistrate just what an FCD does (you know, an example). The FCD I tried did size the bullet "well under bore size"...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top