Factory crimp die needed for 380
- Thread starter BondoBob
- Start date
FrankenMauser
New member
No.
It's snake oil in search of more snake oil.
Or, in rare instances, snake oil that stumbles upon a justifiable application. (Though still less than ideal and harmful to downrange performance.)
No.
If you want to drop powder charges through a standard die, you need the Lee PTE die.
Well, after researching this further I'm going ahead with the Lee 4 dies set and take my chances. I can either use or not use the FCD. I found that much of the issue necessitating the undersized .003 die was due to picking up others range brass which I'm not planning on doing much of. I'll be capturing my own brass and keeping track of how many times I reload it. I'm using Federal, Winchester and Starline brass. Also I'm using 356 dia bullets not 355. So, hopefully I won't need to spend the additional $29 on an undersized die. I'll update this post if I do.
603Country
New member
Like I mentioned earlier, my use of the Lee FCD was on cast bullets, which you may not be shooting. I’ll run each cast bullet reload through the FCD, but can feel that nothing is being done to most of them. Just a few. The FCD is worth having, even if it doesn’t get much work.
Pretty clear that you’re confusing the finished measurements of the round with the tools needed to achieve that result.
A taper crimp die set up for a 9mm will not even touch the mouth of a 380 ACP.
Conversely, a taper crimp die set up for a .380ACP will severely over crimp the 9mm round. It’s a tapered crimp die. Thus, so long as the round can enter into the die, the amount of crimp desired is totally under your control.
See attached screenshot of Hornady dies for .380ACP and 9mm.
