well, i looked over my three "test" rounds (.308) that i loaded last weekend and noticed that the crimp is uneven. it looks to be riding up a bit toward the mouth of the case on one side and lower on the other, like it is crooked.

to test this, i ran a few old loadsthat i haven't yet shot through the crimp die (about half so i could compare performance with uncrimped) and saw the same thing. I thought it might be the press, so i ran a few .30/30 rounds through the crimp die with the lee factory crimp die for .30/30. these rounds crimped perfectly and evenly all around. i don't have any 7x57 or .280 rounds yet to test those crimp dies, but it seems that for now, the problem is definitely the .308 crimp die, not my method or the press.

for those of you who use the lee factory crimp die, have you encountered this problem? is there a "fix" for it such as lubrication or adjustment, or does it need to be returned to lee precision?

Try measuring your unprimed cases OAL, my guess is they are not square on the neck end. just kiss the end with a case trimmer so they clean up, then when you put them in the calipers you will see the case is now square or flat on both ends.

larry - i considered this because that's exactly how it looks, but they were all trimmed and square. i even tried a couple more just to see with exactly the same results.

thanks for the suggestion, though.

Lee dies lack of quality controls; they often need some sort of polishing/altering to work properly. It's a pity, since their ingenuity is remarkable. I can well believe that your crimp die is croocked and I would return it to them.

I own a number of the Lee FC dies. None of mine do any thing like that. You might have a bad one....

Lee may work with you if you send it back to them.....but for the minimal cost I'd probably just replace it.

Cheers,

Dan

I have Lee FC [rifle] dies that can squeeze the neck until the bullet has a hour glass figure.


I am not sure that I have any applications that really require a Lee FC [rifle], so they are on the bone pile with 90% of the reloading gear I own.

The Lee FC [pistol] dies are useful.
The Lee collet neck [rifle] dies are useful.

from lee precision:

quote:

If you would forward your snail mail address, I will send a replacement crimp collet. We see this occasionally, the problem was the drill did was not centered when it cut the inside of the crimp collet. To remove the old one, place a wood dowel just smaller than the hole in the top of the die body and drive the crimp collet out with a hammer.

received new factory crimp collet from lee - easy R&R and everything is good to go.

Well, Golllieee! From what we often see on the web, a feller might think that ONLY the much more expensive green and blue equipment companies would stand behind things like that!

Thanks for telliny us the last chapter in that.

I had a lee collet die for my 300 wby that was binding during the neck sizing. (I think some of the problem came from earlier days tightening it down to far trying to get a bit more neck tension). Anyhow I emailed them and they said send it in. I did and got what I think is a completely new die..at least if the outer piece is mine I can't tell it. Cost me about $3 to mail it but I live in Wis.

Ron,

My technique for crimping 30-30 loads is unconventional, but it produces perfect crimps on every round.
Even though I trim all cases to the same length, I was getting less than uniform crimps. I concluded that there were differences in crimping not associated with case length, 'cause my kid who shoots them even complained about the different crimps.
So, what I do now is time consuming, but worth it. I seat bullets first. Then I adjust the crimp die for each case. I run the loaded round up to the top of its travel, then screw the crimp die down till it hits the top of the case mouth. I lower the ram, and adjust the die down 1/8 turn, and crimp the round. It works, and with some dexterity, I can get all of the crimping done before dinner...
Of course I do this in batches of 50 or 100 loads, seating all the bullets first, then doing the crimping operation.
I use Lee crimp dies.

Don

sounds like a good way to put a little extra time into getting a little more accuracy, don - and a little more accuracy is never a bad thing.....

thanks! i'll give it a try.