Cast Boolits, Winchester Nickel Cases and Lee FCD

[MtGun44]

Lee pistol FCD is not your friend for cast boolits. Listen to gear, save me typing pretty
much exactly the same advice.

In revolver boolits with a prominent crimp groove, seating and crimping in the same
die can work very well indeed, and I do it most of the time with these mold designs.

For semi-autos, most of which have little or no crimp groove - do not do this - get a
separate - NON-FCD taper crimp die and make the crimp actually TAPER, not just
remove the flare as is often recommended. I try for about .002 to .004 of actual
crimp beyond what the case measures a 1/16" or so closer to the rim.

And you are right, 15 yds doesn't tell you much, 25yds is pretty much a minimum if you
are actually trying for accurate ammo. Many would argue that 50 yds is a minimum, but
I only test my "accurate at 25 yds" loads at this range, and only for guns that might actually
be used at that range.

Bill

[geargnasher]

If you REALLY want to know how good your loads are, shoot at 100 yards. I've been amazed at not only how lousy, but at times how well my pistols can shoot at 100 yards. My wife's Model 36 Smith will keep a milk jug rolling at 100 yards, and my Model 29 will shoot smaller than the 4MOA red dot easily, but I have to have crimp, case tension, alloy, primer, and powder in sync first. That case tension has to be the number one thing to get right.

I learned a LOT from 44Man right after joining this forum, he took a lot of time to answer my revolver accuracy questions and led me straight on my first magnum handgun optic (Ultra Dot), and also got me into using Felix bullet lube. Shooting at longer ranges to test your work is also one of his excellent pointers. I'll never forget his first post to me, short and simple: "Liquid Alox works best under your fenders". YUP.

Gear

[Landshark9025]

Thanks all. It looks like no FCD on the cast boolits is the way to go. Eliminates the worry about the drag and I can get the crimp the same. And if I want to check accuracy out past 15-20 yards, well, then a scope is going to be in order for sure.

Bill: any recommendations on the crimp die for 9mm? I'll be adding that to the mix at some point. Likely starting with either plated or store bought boolits first.

thanks,

[44man]

There is a group of us here old as dust on the moon! We all have vision problems and sights have a furry Grinch on them and he dances!
A scope is best to wring out a revolver but is a sad choice for the field if you have dim light or no rest.
The Ultra Dot found a home with me since all my revolvers are for deer. Some of the very expensive dots will hold up to recoil but I can't afford to pay more for one then the gun cost.
using the right target, you can group just as good with a dot. I still need my glasses for the dots because you can't focus them but nothing works better for deer.
Always buy the straight 4 min dot and not one with adjustable pictures since they change POI with a different picture. I don't see the 4 min actually covering 4" at 100, seems smaller. No problem holding on a pop can at 100, I love 3D targets over paper anyway. Little water bottles and cans of water are sure more fun and easier to aim at.
For the nine, the seat die should taper crimp, I would not buy extra.

[MtGun44]

I use a taper crimp as a separate die on all my semiauto pistol loads.
The overwhelming majority are done in Dillon 550Bs, so there is no
separate handling, but the crimp is a separate operation. Even the
ones done on a single stage press use a separate TC die. Lack of or
inadequate TC has been the cause behind the overwhelming majority
of failure to close problems for new shooters learning to load for their
semiautos - I advised a great number over the years when I was
running an IPSC club in the 80s, 90s and later, and got to where this
was THE first thing I asked about, and many looked blank and said
"So, what is a taper crimp die? I don't have that in my die set."

RCBS and Hornady make a 9mm taper crimp die, Lyman makes a 4 die set
which includes a separate taper crimp die. Without a good crimp groove
you do not want the boolit moving as you crimp the neck into the boolit,
as is necessary with most semiauto boolit designs which have no crimp
groove. This is almost certainly because different semiautos will require
different seating depths to feed properly.

If the boolit is moving as the crimp is formed a small ridge of lead is
pushed up ahead of the case mouth and this can be an issue in consistent
headspace, and in many cases lead slivers can build up and cause
problems in functioning. Many will say that you only want to remove
the flare, but in my experience this will leave you open for a low
frequency (relatively rare) occasional failure to close, where making
a actual taper of a few thousandths (I shoot for .004) will completely
eliminate this problem. IPSC has no alibis so we really were pushing
to try to get 100% reliability, 99.9% wasn't good enough, although
for most shooters, not in competition, it is fine. For us, we were
running at least a thousand rounds a month, so with 99.9% we were
likely to trash a stage per month, NOT fun, and maybe it was more
like 99.8% - hard to nail down those kind of numbers.

Bill

[44man]

I will go along with Bill on this. He knows more about pistols then I do since I do not own any. Wish my SS would allow a good 1911 but not to be unless I sell something and I have nothing I want to part with.
I have built up 1911's so accurate as to be scary for friends. I love the gun but never had a real use for one. I am lucky that I get to shoot many. Then to find brass in the weeds drives me nuts!

[Landshark9025]

Thanks, Bill. I'll make sure to get a separate taper crimp die for 9mm when the time comes. While not doing any matches any time soon, anything I can do to promote reliability is important.