Lee Collet dies

[Big Tom]

I am setting up a new Lyman T mag turret press. I reloaded about a century ago so I am relearning.
I ordered a 7mm Rem mag die (Lyman)with the kit and got that set up and working fine.
A friend of mine gave me a new set of Lee dies for .300 Weatherby since that is my other Elk rifle possibility that I want to work up a load for.

Heres the question. With the resizing/decapping die set to Lee's instructions I can move the bullet ( a 160 gr Bearclaw or Hornady ) in /out of the neck with only finger pressure. Per inrtructions I snugged the collet 1/4 tighter for a tighter neck fit, resized the brass, and that seemed to solve the loose neck fit problem.

What bothers me is; with the die as far down as possible, any farther and the shell holder comes up too far and the press wont complete its arc. There is very little resisitance when resizing my once fired brass compared to my Lyman die resizing once fired 7 mms. I ran an unlubed brass through the resizing die with no effort. Does this sound kosher?

Any experience with Lee dies out there?  :?

[BruceP]

If the 7 Mag dies are full length dies then that sounds about right. You are working a lot less of the case. With the collet die you only size the neck and not the body of the case therefore you need less force.
BruceP

[Nobade]

Yep, you're on the right track. One thing to remember though, is if you still don't have enough neck tension, you can polish/sand the mandrel down a bit or make a new one the size you want. Those collet dies are very adaptable, and can even be modified to leave a flare on the mouth to get cast bullets started.

[Loader 3009]

Big Tom,

Here are a couple more pointers on the Collet Dies.

1.  Always re-size new brass with your full length dies, load and fire.  Now they are ready to neck-size.

2.  I have found ammo loaded on these dies more accurate than ammo loaded on other dies, but restrict their use to bolt gun and single shot ammo.

3.  Use only brass fired in your gun as another's chamber dimensions may not allow it's brass to chamber.

4.  For even better accuracy, top it off with a crimp from Lee's Factory Crimp Die.

[Possum]

I had the same problem.  On some of the brass, you could move the seated bullet up and down with your fingers after it was reloaded.
I emailed the Lee techs and they said that the neck sizing die sized at the last part of the stroke and took considerable force to work properly.  I started sizing the brass and then rotating it 180 degrees and doing it again.  That solved the bullet seating problem, but the groups never got below 3".  Then I started full-length sizing my brass and the groups dropped immediately to 1" @ 100 yds.  I figured I was not educated enough to handle the neck sizing dies and they are sitting on the shelf. LOL  When I start getting better results from the Fsized brass I figured what the heck - go with the flow.  By the way, this neck sizing problem occurred with both .35 rem dies and the .250 Sav dies.  

You said you got the neck tension a little tighter.  What I am curious about is what happens to the grouping.  Please let me know when you take a trip to the range.  The only thing I did not do was to turn the necks of the cases.

Never mind about the results.  Just saw your email from the 30th.  Sounds like you fixed the problem.  Congratulations!

[Big Tom]

Thanks Possum! I've got the .300 squared away and 7MM 140gr also, both under an inch MOA.

I'm still working on the 160gr load for the 7MM and am looking for a recipe for a 140gr BarnesX load to work up for my .308. I think that would be a nasty Whitetail set up. :sniper:

[ReedG]

Looks like this post has been around awhile, but for what it's worth, I use Lee Collet dies for all my pea-shooters: .223, .22-250, .243. I think they're the perfect die. No lube, the collet squeezes the neck against a mandrel that automatically centers, and there is almost no working of the brass to cause it to stretch or harden, no friction at all. There does seem to be a lot of misunderstanding of how to adjust them. If you follow the Lee instructions exactly, they will work fine. I've loaded over 3,000 rounds in the three calibers above and never have seen a bullet that I could move with my fingers. A friend who uses a Rockchucker was having lots of trouble getting a good resize. I helped him by adjusting just the way Lee suggests, so that the Rockchucker linkage does not cam over. With this set-up you can literally resize cases with just the weight of your arm on the press. I don't understand the need for all the leverage of presses like the Rockchucker. Heck, you could seat a bullet sideways and not even know it until it came out! I highly recommend using a Lee press or an older RCBS Jr., etc. Not much status to them, but they sure load good ammo. The necks of most of the common calibers of brass are very soft. You can dent one with your thumbnail. It takes very little effort to resize one in a collet die. Be patient with your adjustments, and the beauty of these dies will shine for you.

[Sixgun]

I use a Lee Collet die for my 22 Hornet in a Thompson Contender.  I started out with 200 new Remington brass and since I didn't have a FL size die I just ran them through the Lee die.  

After about 2 or three fireings I started getting some loose bullets.  I read somewhere that you could chuck the mandrel in a drill and polish it with some fine wet dry sandpaper.  This reduces the diameter of the mandrel by just a very little and causes the hole in your brass to be a bit smaller.

I gave it a try and since then I have not had any loose bullets.  I crimp with a Lee Factory Crimp Die after seating the bullet.  Group size at 100 yards is still about .5 ".  I am shooting this in NRA Hunter Bore Silhouette and my load is 8.3gr of H4227 with a 50 gr Win sp bullet and a CCI standard small rifle primer.  This is a really mild load that goes out of the barrel at about 1550fps.  I am on my 8th loading for this brass and it is still going strong.  It hasn't even streached enough to need trimming yet.  This load has almost no recoil and the match supervisors like the fact that I don't dent targets.

To sum it up, I have had really good luck with the Lee Colet dies and will probably be looking at them next time I am buying dies for a bottle neck cartridge.

Sixgun