I just bought s set of 350Rem Mag dies. Included with the 2 die set was a Lee factory crimp die and a Redding neck sizing die.

What if any advantage is there to using the factory crimp die or the neck sizing die?

Neck sizing will make your brass last a lot longer but a neck sizing die isn't needed to do it. You can adjust your sizing die to do the same thing.

I always use the LEE factory crimp die. Is compresses just the very opening of the mouth of the case. This crimp allows the same pulling force for each round fired. The powder will ignite in a uniform manner. The primer will not blow the bullet loose before the powder has fully ignited.
This greatly improves accuracy.
I run a long range shooting club. Every member uses the LEE crimp die. The results on target prove just how well it works.

quote:

Originally posted by drewhenrytnt:
I just bought s set of 350Rem Mag dies. Included with the 2 die set was a Lee factory crimp die and a Redding neck sizing die.

What if any advantage is there to using the factory crimp die or the neck sizing die?

In regards to the Lee Factory Crimp Die, if you need to crimp, it's a very good die to use. I beleve that at times, its use also improves accuracy but most of the time it makes no difference. I've tried crimped and uncrimped many times.

The neck sizing die should improve case life somewhat and may improve accuracy though at times accuracy may be worse. A disadvangate to using it is that after a few resizings the shoulder may need to be bumped back to prevent hard chambering. Also, cases so resized may not chamber in another gun using the same cartridge.

Unless you are shooting your .350 Rem in a tricked-out AR-10, or your expander button is oversized, you can toss the crimp die in the back of a drawer and forget it. Only automatics and very large, heavy recoiling rounds require a crimp (I don't crimp my .416 Remington, so "very large, heavy recoiling" starts somewhere north of there.)

Sometimes the dimensions of an FL die will be incompatible with your chamber and it will not be possible to "neck size only" by backing it off of the shellholder. In such an instance a neck die comes in handy. But in most instances, simply backing the FL die off achieves the same (good) thing. Constantly FL sizing will create a thin spot at the pressure ring just in front of the head and can cause a very inconvenient (and potentially damaging) case head separation in just a few firings (depending on how much larger your chamber is than your FL die.) FL sizing on each reloading also causes the case length to grow more rapidly than otherwise, requiring frequent trimming.

I use to not crimp anything. Now I crimp everything. Done a few tests on a half dozen rifles and more often than not the rounds are more accurate crimped. Not always but usually for me that is the case. Plus you get all the benefits of having the rounds crimped.