about tweaking the turret indexing; FCD bumps....
I'm fairly convinced that we quit having detent / indexing problems (at any station) because, as we develop our optimum rhythm for advancing-and-indexing, we subconsciously adjust our lever speed to land in the detent. What this means, I think, is that you may well need to tweak the index rod nut setting from time to time, as your stroke is "developed". IOW, you are building a reportoire of "muscle memory" for this particular activity.
twice barrel: that "catching" of the FCD die on both the up and down strokes sounds more like the die is performing its marketed function: if you have a cartridge that is out-of-spec for finished diameter, the die post-sizes the cartridges--that is, the post-size (if needed) is done (at the very end)--i.e, the carbide sleeve slims down the assembly to ensure its fit into almost any chamber. That post-sizing is felt as "bumps" in the stroke. And that feature--the post-sizing, which allows assemblers of out-of-spec-components to build functional cartridges--is the most controversial part of the FCD die's features. Google "FCD" here, in this forum, and you can find those discussions.
Note that the FCD die body should be set fairly high to reliably do the crimp as the very last part of the stroke. (and now we could segue into the 'LOA-trimmed-cases' discussion, but let's not.)
In my experience, the die is best used when 1) one has finally got the components that will result in a finished in-spec for dia. cartridge, and the die is used as a crimp-only die. When used for its post-sizing feature, it allows the new user to clean up his cartridges, so to speak, for reliable function (i.e., in semiautos).
Note that we are NOT discussing the rifle / bottleneck cartridge FCD--that's a different animal.
Jim H.
