My rounds are not the most precise, i.e. in group sizes. It was suggested to me by more than one source that I should try a Lee Factory Crimp Die. I did a bit of research which led me to believe that a factory crimp might well improve the consistency of my rounds. A club colleague has one of the dies which he kindly lent to me. I set up the press this afternoon to load 70 rounds for this weekend's match, following the Lee instruction sheet. I used empty cases with the Vindicator pills to get the right seating and what I thought would be an appropriate crimp. The resulting crimp appeared to me to be a standard roll crimp but the cases were also resized by the carbide collar. All well and good.
So, I started reloading in earnest. The first round to pass through the crimping die at station 4 was a surprise (see photo). The round, after seating the pill in station 3, is on the left and the round, after resizing and crimping, is on the right. I could not figure out what on earth was going on. It then dawned on me that the resizing, which occurs as the round enters the FCD was creating air pressure which was “jacking” the pill upwards. I tested this hypothesis by putting through some rounds without primers (or powder) so pressure could not build up. The pills stayed flush with the case mouth.
The crimp on the pills looked no different than my Dillon roll crimp die gives me. So, needless to say, the FCD was promptly removed and the Dillon crimp die reinstalled.
The Lee blurb on the FCD suggests that the “special” crimp overcomes inconsistent case length. As it appears to me to be a standard roll crimp, I cannot see how this can be so. The Lee rifle FCD looks (from the drawing on the Lee website) to give a pressed crimp, i.e. like a tight collar rather than a taper or roll crimp. That might be the crimp that is independent of case length but that does not appear to be the same with the pistol variant.
Aside from the pill jacking, I'm wondering if I’m missing something with this die.
Bob