Lee Collet Die for 6mmBR

[Max]

While speaking with a Lee Customer Support person last week they said that the 6mmPC collet die " appears to work" with the 6mm BR cartridge. Has anyone actually tried it?

 

[wvlongshot]

I just purchased one from a fellow on this forum for that very use. He said it works fine.

 

[Jay Christopherson]

I used a 6PPC collet die as the base for my 6 Dasher collet die. A friend helped extend it a bit, but that's all we did, other than polish the collet fingers. Works great.

 

[jschroed]

6mm PPC Lee Collet die works on the 6mm BR cases. One thing you need to remember is that the decapping pin on the Lee Die is too large for the flash hole in the Lapua 6mm BR Brass. I just broke mine off. I use the Redding Universal Decapping die with the small decapping pin installed to remove spent primers.

 

[NWnewguy]

I haven't used the 6ppc die for the 6BR, and find it dang hard to believe with all the people reloading 6BR that Lee wouldn't sell quite a few sets of dies in this caliber. Very surprised when I talked to them that they had no plans of starting to offer them either. I will say that with my dremel it took about 8 minutes to turn down the decapping pin on either my universal decapping die, or the 6BR case trimmer, and it came out real nice. I used the fine stone that came in the kit, I couldn't find the part number on the web site just now.

 

[Heavies]

6ppc die works fine. I've used it. I filed down the decap pin as well. I felt that the neck tension was a little too much with the collect die. Might want to order some center mandrels with .001" and .002" larger to experiment with lighter neck tension.

 

[Tozguy]

A collet die that does a good job on 6PPC can not do the same job on a 6BR. The necks of the two calibers are not the same distance from the base. By calculation, a 6 PPC collet would size around .018'' of the shoulder on a 6BR. This is not to say that it does not 'work' because the sized 6BR case would hold a bullet and be usable. A shim of at least .018'' should be used over the shell holder to get the best results on 6BR with a 6PPC collet. Considering the reasonable cost of buying a custom 6BR collet die from Lee I would not buy a 6PPC collet die with the intention of sizing 6BR.

 

[Heavies]

A collet die that does a good job on 6PPC can not do the same job on a 6BR. The necks of the two calibers are not the same distance from the base. By calculation, a 6 PPC collet would size around .018'' of the shoulder on a 6BR. This is not to say that it does not 'work' because the sized 6BR case would hold a bullet and be usable. A shim of at least .018'' should be used over the shell holder to get the best results on 6BR with a 6PPC collet. Considering the reasonable cost of buying a custom 6BR collet die from Lee I would not buy a 6PPC collet die with the intention of sizing 6BR.

If you put a shim between the shell holder and the die, would not that now make the shoulder to neck unsized area .036". If the unsized area is .018" that would not be a problem IMO. S bushing dies leave a larger area unsized.

When I used the Lee 6PPC collet die, on my 6BR, I had no noticeable unsized portion of the neck. Using my bushing S die, set up correctly with the bushing having free play, there was a noticeable area, on the base of the neck, unsized.

 

[Flouncer]

I got my custom collet die in 6mmbr in three weeks flat, not the advertised 10-12 weeks. Too busy to use it so far. But it was $65 I think, and they were fast .. .. .. .. ..

 

[Tozguy]

The 6BR case to the shoulder/neck junction is .018'' longer (or thereabout) than the 6PPC. Therefor a 6BR case might contact the pads on the 6PPC collet before the collet starts closing on the neck. When that occurs two things can happen, the shoulder gets pushed back or a bit of the shoulder gets sized along with the neck. But, if the 6PPC collet is machined to leave part (say .020'') of a 6PPC neck unsized as Heavies mentionned then yes it will size a 6BR case without touching the shoulder and without shimming the holder.
An indication of whether the 6PPC collet is sizing a 6BR properly would be to measure the 6BR case length before and after sizing. There is no change in length when the collet is sizing properly.

 

[SteveNC]

Works fine for me...but I am only a varmint hunter without a max accuracy rig.

 

[Heavies]

I've used the 6ppc Lee Collet Die for the 6MMBR with no problems whatsoever, other than turning down the decapping pin to fit the small flash hole.