This was the first caliber I started off with in 1972 when I got into loading. I've worn-out Carbines from use. I decided to do something different in my reloading for this caliber - I ordered a Lee FCD for it last night.
What got me into this was that I recently bought a decent amount of fired brass, and included were 44 .30 Carbine cases. I processed them and went to add them to my plinker stash, and found one portion of the old stash brass getting pretty dusty. Got to measuring them when I went to clean them up, and I found that some of them - while the bullets are tight in the cases - "grew" in OAL! The OAL should be 1.680" - but maybe 5% of them grew to as much as between 1.800 and 1.900. The cases were a mix of military and commercial.
Like I said - the bullets were tight in the cases. When I ran them through the seating die I could feel them "pop" when I re-seated them to the correct depth - so it wasn't a matter of them being incorrectly/not crimped in the first place.
I've decided to try the FCD crimp against the RCBS roll crimp that I've always used. I want to see if the FCD eliminates this "AOL growing". If a roll crimp is excessive the case moth can be belled out to the point where the round won't chamber. I doubt if you could 'over-do' a factory crimp.
What got me into this was that I recently bought a decent amount of fired brass, and included were 44 .30 Carbine cases. I processed them and went to add them to my plinker stash, and found one portion of the old stash brass getting pretty dusty. Got to measuring them when I went to clean them up, and I found that some of them - while the bullets are tight in the cases - "grew" in OAL! The OAL should be 1.680" - but maybe 5% of them grew to as much as between 1.800 and 1.900. The cases were a mix of military and commercial.
Like I said - the bullets were tight in the cases. When I ran them through the seating die I could feel them "pop" when I re-seated them to the correct depth - so it wasn't a matter of them being incorrectly/not crimped in the first place.
I've decided to try the FCD crimp against the RCBS roll crimp that I've always used. I want to see if the FCD eliminates this "AOL growing". If a roll crimp is excessive the case moth can be belled out to the point where the round won't chamber. I doubt if you could 'over-do' a factory crimp.