Lee fcd

[FA9]

Lee fcd on plated bullets. I'm up to 1 full turn on my 44mag loads and the bullets are still walking. Does anybody have experience on how much of a crimp I can put on plated bullets? My load data is 200gr plated over 10gr. TG.

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[techiej]

On the 44 the Lee FCD is most likely a roll crimp - you would need a cannelure to crimp into properly.

On my 44's (I use SJSP) I crimp into the cannelure until the brass rolls slightly in - it is visible and you can feel it easily as well.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Lee fcd on plated bullets. I'm up to 1 full turn on my 44mag loads and the bullets are still walking. Does anybody have experience on how much of a crimp I can put on plated bullets? My load data is 200gr plated over 10gr. TG.

Does that bullet have any sort of cannelure or is it smooth? Ideally, for hard kicking revolver loads, you want a real crimp groove and use a roll crimp..
dang, that pic looks big for being only 150x178.. weird
Use the Lee seater die to crimp

 

[FA9]

No crimp groove

 

[Certaindeaf]

No crimp groove

I'd use a roll crimp and or shoot them one at a time to get rid of them.

 

[Member 5605]

(post up your bullet profile along with what your cases look like after you have crimped) Ideally you crimp just enough to remove the belling but with straight walled bullets sometimes that isn't the case.

Crimp too much and your case will buckle. When you do that you've gone too far.

.44Mag. 23gr of IMR4227 CCI Large Pistol Magnum
<--Left: 240gr Hornady XTP handload
Right: 240gr XTP Hornady factory load -->


Look close enough and you can see the Hornady factory ammo has almost no crimp except enough to remove case flare. To me the reloads I do have a heavy crimp. They just feel perfect when crimping.

While these are jacketed bullets... I do shoot quite a few plated through my 9mm and regular cast with my .40, .357, .38 special. I can show you the crimp on those if you would like. It's a little less than that of the .44Mag.

 

[AMProducts]

For plated bullets, you want a taper crimp die, or be very gentle with the roll crimp (essentially taper crimp) and minimize the amount of bell you put on the case mouth before seating the bullet.

In my experience, if you cut the "jacket" material of any plated bullet, accuracy becomes a real crap-shoot.