lee carbide pistol dies

Odawgp

lee says the seater die has a "modified" taper/roll crimp incorporated into it's design

they also have a die set that has a factory crimp which lee says will taper and factory crimp in the same motion


question being do i need to spend another $10 on the die set to get the factory crimp die or will the seater with built in crimp work

* I am looking to buy them in 45 ACP to reload match grade comp ammo

thanks

B17-P51

You obviously know not to use a roll crimp on a 45 ACP case, and that is good. That said, PERRY SHOOTER always says to taper crimp the neck of said cases to .469. I use a LEE die set also and use the taper crimp and final size die they offer. I shoot a lot of cast bullets an occaisionally get a fat one. This die assures that a fat case will not, as LEE says, "ruin your day at the range". I do not see the need for a factory crimp on a 45 ACP case. KARL - What say you?

perry shooter

Thanks P51 B17 . I have been shooting 45Acp in matches for 35+ years at a rate of 5000-7500 rounds a year up until the last few years. 99% of these have been my reloads on a Star reloader. If I may I would like to suggest that you load lead bullets "easier on the gun barrel and your pocket book" . I have never used either of the LEE DIES but to get 100% reliable feeding you need to have the case mouth .001-.002 smaller the the case 1/8 of an inch down from the mouth. The slower the taper angle of your die the better. .With most cases and most bullets this will be around.469 of an inch. This will give good feeding without deforming the bullet. if you squeeze the bullet it will cause larger groups in your pistol and under-size bullets will cause heavy leading .A bullet that fits the bore and proper lube will seal the bore even with dead soft SWAGED bullets a good seal will results in almost no leading if the bore has a good smooth finish.Another thing that will help is to remove the barrel/barrels from your pistol /pistols set the OAL by dropping in a loaded round the base of the cartridge should be .005-.010 below flush in relationship to the end of the hood of the barrel .If you have more then one pistol in 45ACP you either need to load for each pistol or set OAL for the one with shortest chamber. Most times this will results in about 1/64 of an inch or more of the shoulder of the bullet extending past the case mouth. This is good as the small amount of lead will slide up the feed ramp of the barrel very easy.I like to put a straight edge on the side of the loaded round and hold up to the light you will be able to see this taper crimp very easy.You will not have to trim your cases as 45ACP will get shorter if anything when you shoot them. with light target loads you can load over and over again . I have many that have been loaded over 25 times. Find yourself a GUN CLUB that shoots Bulls-Eye and find a old coot to be a mentor. Feel free to email me as I might be able to give you some local shooters to you to contact I have name and address of every pistol shooter that ever shot at Camp Perry from 1972-2005 . Cheers Karl.