Lee FCD???

toad67

Starting to get into pistol caliber reloading, and after some research, found that seating and crimping in separate steps generally seems the better way to go. Recently purchased two Lee Factory Crimp Dies from Midway, one in 45 Colt, and the other one in .44-40. Since they both crimp the case mouth into the bullet, why does the 45 Colt have an adjustable seater style stem on it, and the .44-40 adjusts by turning the die farther into the press? The directions for the 45 says to run it down to the shell holder, back out the stem, run a cartridge up, screw it down until it touches, plus 1/2 turn on the stem. The .44-40 says to run it down to the shell holder, plus 1/2 turn. Seems like the same thing to me... What am I missing?

charliemeyer007

I'm sure the Lee people would be glad to answer your question.  There are at least 2 types of crimp.  Taper crimp and roll crimp.  When I bought my first set of Lee 44 mag dies back in the 70's, I used a tapered reamer to knock down most of the crimp ridge.  The die was then way more friendly to case length and much easier and pleasant to use. 

toad67

I was looking for some other info and stumbled across this, and thought I'd pass along what I found out..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWnw0sTBO8w