RCBS Crimp Die too long for 550B?

[eldon519]

I've used a Dillon 550B for a long time with a set of RCBS carbide dies and the Lee Factory Crimp die set up for separate seating and crimping.

I recently decided to go to a second RCBS seating/crimp die for crimping duty to replace the Lee FCD. I went to set it up tonight, and it seems that the die cannot come far enough down to actually apply a roll crimp to my brass without hitting the shell plate. I tried removing the die and just sitting it on top of a piece of brass in the shell holder with the ram completely lowered, and it is apparent there is not room for it to actually travel down to apply a roll crimp.

Has anyone had this problem before? The caliber is .45 Colt and the dies are dedicated .45 Colt dies rather than .454/.45 Colt dies. Is there such a thing as a dedicated seating-only die from RCBS that I might have accidentally bought instead? I noticed my original RCBS die said something like ".45 Colt Seat * 4" and the new one says ".45 Colt Seat * 11". Does that number mean anything?

I could knock down the beveled/unthreaded end of the die a bit, but it seems annoying that they would be configured this way.

 

[cfullgraf]

The numbers used to mean the year the die was produced. I think that is still the case but I believe there was a period of time that RCBS did not put the year on the dies.

Make sure your first seat die is not crimping at all and let the second die do the crimping. (You may alraeady have the dies set up this way).

Can you seat with the new die and crimp with the old one?

Otherwise, sounds like the die may have been made incorrectly. Give RCBS customer service a call.

 

[eldon519]

cfullgraf,

I checked my other RCBS die which had previously been used for seating-only, and it will not apply a crimp when fully screwed in.

I tried calling RCBS but they are on vacation until Jan 2nd, so I sent an e-mail.

This still seems like a pretty odd/annoying situation to encounter. A 550B is a pretty common machine. I feel like they should either work with it or have a note pointing out presses that they are not compatible with. Makes me wonder if my Redding dies in other calibers will crimp either. I've been using the Lee FCDs for a long time and many of the seat/crimp dies have never been set to crimp, just seat.

 

[rehorne]

I would also call Dillon tech support. Those guys are pretty sharp about the different dies that are out there

 

[SASS#23149]

It sure sounds like you have a seat-only die.If u take a good light and look inside the die,the crimp ring is quite obvious,a seat only die is thru-bored,a crimping die will have a 'ridge' up inside the bore.
I"ve never had any kind of crimp die not work on my 550b