Hi everyone, I live Downunder in Oz (Melbourne). I'm really happy with my CZ .458 Lott. I reload and damned if I can find where I can purchase/order a crimp die for it? Any answers in advance would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks!

Gatsby

Am I to presume that your request is indicative of bullet movement under recoil with your present dies?

I had RCBS f/l dies when I had a lott and never had any issues with bullet movement.

Are you using bullets with a cannelure or solid shanks like Barnes X.

The crimp shoulder in my RCBS seating die could put quite a crimp into the cannelure but like with all such devices you have to watch that you do not place that bit too much and cause buckles to appear in the case.

If you really need a designated crimp die you could drop RCBS a line by e-mail, they are very helpful and often know excatly what it is you need and take it from there, you could even as a compromise obtain a Lee collet crimp die in 458 win mag and have a steel collar made by lathe that compensated for the .3" longer case of the Lott and then use that die, it would mean placing the collar over the round in the shell holder and then running the case into the die, the results would be exactly the same but just have a bit of faff with placing the collar on each round, it should be an easy and quick fix whilst you find a more permanent solution. I do however make the assumption that you can at least obtain the lee .458 Win version where you are!

What I do is use my seating die with out the the seat in it screwed in a little deaper and that crimps my bullet when my bullet is pushed up into this tighter area.

Many thanks John and jro45 for your prompt reply. I use Redding dies and someone has suggested using the seating die as a crimp die (just not that sure about how to go about it (). Also one gun shop suggested to buy a Lee .458 mag crimp die and use a form of tubing to compensate the difference for the extra Lott case length (as suggested). I think I'll go with this option. I use Woodleigh 500 PP projectiles. I'm not aware of bullet movement but with the recoil I 'assumed' crimping would be the thing to do?
Many thanks for your comments!

Adrian.

Bitterroot (Wayne at AHR) gave me the following tip:

After seating all bullets to the proper depth so that the top of the case is near the top of the cannelure, unscrew the seating plug on the seating die and loosen the locking collar.
Run the cartridge up the seating die then screw the seating die down as tightly as can be done by hand. Run the cartridge down and unscrew the die a few turns and repeat with the next cartridge.
Should give you nice, tight crimps.

Get in touch with Lee They should be able to make a custom 458 Lott factory crimp die for not a lot of money. I asked them about doing a 330-06 fcd but then realised that a 338 Win mag one will do the trick. They already do them for 416 Rem & 375 H&H so the length & body diameter is not a problem. You may need to send them an assembled DUMMY cartridge but that didn't seem like too big a hassle either.
Steve

What you can do if you don't want Lee to make you a custom (and expensive) die is to use your existing seating die. It's generally a better idea to seat and crimp in separate operations. You can adjust your die so it doesn't crimp and seat your bullets to length then back off the seating stem and adjust your die to crimp and do it in two steps.

Instead of doing all this adjusting you can do what I did with my Lyman dies for my 416 Rigby. I just purchased another die body (no seating stem) from Lyman and set it for crimping. This gives you a three die set. Resize and decap with one die, seat with the second and crimp with the third.

I've got a Lee .458 Lott crimping die. That is the cats meow. I had them make me one for my .470 NE as well.

Go with the Lee. No monkeying around with your seater die that way. Just screw the Lee in, adjust it, and keep moving. Makes a really pretty crimp. I use them on all my reloads, regardless of caliber. Lee's got my order for a 416 Rigby as we speak.

David Walker

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
I've got a Lee .458 Lott crimping die. That is the cats meow. I had them make me one for my .470 NE as well.

Is the 458 Lott Lee Crimp dis a Large Base die like the 470?

Many thanks for all your replies. Much appreciated. I think I'll go with surestrike and x2mosg's suggestion. I do the same with my 45/70 with a crimp die and for me it just makes the whole process a lot less complicated (for me anyway!). I'll email Lee and put a request in for a .458 crimp die. Again many thanks for all the tips and this is a terrific site!
Cheers,
Adrian

quote:

Originally posted by x2mosg:
Go with the Lee. No monkeying around with your seater die that way. Just screw the Lee in, adjust it, and keep moving. Makes a really pretty crimp. I use them on all my reloads, regardless of caliber. Lee's got my order for a 416 Rigby as we speak.

David Walker

David, can they do the 416 Rigby on a 7/8 x 14 die body or do they have to go up to their large series, 1 1/4" from memory?
Steve

The Lee factory crimp dies are not too expensive. They made me a 9.3x64 crimp die for for $25 plus shipping.

Just seat a bullet to the exact C.O.L. that you plan to use, obviously with no powder or primer and send it off to Lee.

You'll have your die shipped to you without much delay. I think my .458 Lott die was about 1 month, which was no biggy to me.

Many thanks to all the above!
Adrian.

When I called Lee to see about a 416 Rigby crimp die they quoted me a price of over $80.00 which I thought was quite expensive for one die.

The 416 Rigby FCD has to be built on an 1 1/4"x12 die body as it is too big in diameter to fit into the internal sleeve in the standard 7/8"x14 die body. The quoted price for a special on the 7/8"x14 die body is only about $25 plus shipping. The 458 Lott should fit the smaller die body, seeing as Lee list 458 Win mag & 416 Rem mag in this series.
Steve

Hi Steve,

What was the exact phone no, email, postal address you used to contact Lee to order your crimp die/s?

Cheers mate,

Adrian!

Contact info is near the bottom of the page.

http://leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?12138897...custom.html#CUSTOMFC

quote:

Originally posted by Gatsby26:
Hi everyone, I live Downunder in Oz (Melbourne). I'm really happy with my CZ .458 Lott. I reload and damned if I can find where I can purchase/order a crimp die for it? Any answers in advance would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks!

I bought a $7.99, Lee.458WM factory crimp die, built a spacer and soldered the spacer to the crimp sleve in the Lee die.

Many thanks to all the above replies! I rang a local gunshop here in Melbourne and for $40 Oz they're going to mail to me next week a .458 Lott crimp die (ala tube spacer installed included). By the time I get a permit to export a bullet seated projectile to Lee and wait for it's arrival I'd be much happier to do it this way. Thanks for all of your helpful tips guys!

Regards,

Adrian

quote:

Originally posted by tradewinds:

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
I've got a Lee .458 Lott crimping die. That is the cats meow. I had them make me one for my .470 NE as well.

Is the 458 Lott Lee Crimp dis a Large Base die like the 470?

Yes it is it will not fit in a standard press body. It fits in my RCBS 50BMG press no problem.

I do two things..I use the bullet seating die and slowing adjust the crimp. You only need a very light crimp..

I also turn the resizing button down three or four thousands.

I use a powder that almost fills the case, does not compact but leaves no air space...

The combination of the above is a fool proof method for DGR rounds..Bolt or double guns.

For the larger cases and heavier loads I want to crimp, it's real simple to use the seating die without the extra step, time and expense of a separate crimping die.

I pay particular attention to triming all cases to the same length and then make sure that the internal and external chamfers are about the same. I seat a bullet to the midpoint, or slightly deeper on it's cannelure, then back off the seating stem before adjusting the die lower to get the crimp I want.

Once the crimp is looks right, I lower the seating stem firmly against the crimped bullet and tighten all the stops. I'm then set for a given case and bullet, and it's straight forward to seat and crimp in one operation.

Obviously you want to continously check to see nothing has worked loose and that all loads have the same OAL and crimp. I've never had to make subsequent adjustments, but it always helps to check. Again, keys are triming to the same case length, chamfering uniformally and making sure all settings are tight before getting into production. And keep checking to verify uniformity...

Emory