Jay Christopherson said:amlevin said:I love the Lee Collet die. No lube required, incredibly straight necks, and consistent neck tension.
Just hate the "ribs" that are left behind by the gaps in the collet. Yes, one can knock them down by sizing most of the way in one stroke, lowering ram and rotating case about 45 degrees, then finishing the sizing process. Still annoying.
Now I just use the collet die when loading at the range on a small number of cases.
If you are getting marks on the neck of your brass, you are doing-it-wrong.You need to back the die out a bit. It should barely engage the die to cause the collet fingers to close on the neck/mandrel. It takes far less contact than you might think for the sizing to happen.
First off I follow the instructions from Lee which calls for NO cam-over on presses that do so. Second, I don't apply all that much pressure to the cases as I realize I don't want to squish the neck metal.
The "ribs" are forming as the neck is reduced in diameter in the areas the collet is not contacting the metal.
This even occurs when I neck size using my Lee Hand Press and I'm sure I'm not applying too much pressure when only using hand pressure.
This may not be an issue for those who have tight chambers where the case neck doesn't grow more than a few thousandths when fired but for "standard" chambers there's a lot of metal movement and it flows into the gaps in the collet.