LEE COLLET DIES

[ReedG]

Thanks for the Daily Bulletin on Lee Collet Dies. These are the best design there is for neck sizing and I'm amazed that every manufacturer doesn't have a version of them.

1. No lube.
2. Straight necks.
3. Entire neck is sized,unless you use a washer).
4. Never a "donut".
5. No unnecessary working of the brass.
6. Sizes the inside of the neck to consistent dimension regardless of the neck thickness.

Happy New Year to All!

 

[memilanuk]

Reed,

I agree, I wish someone other than Lee would make these out of quality materials... they just feel so cheap. I'm not wild about the collet finger marks on the neck either, but as long as they shoot...

Do you have any pictures of your washer trick? Where do you put it?

Thanks,

Monte

 

[AndyW]

I love the collet die idea but the quality of materials is less to be desired. I have found that where the bottom of the spring?,collet) is pushed against the shellholder the metal starts to roll over. On my 7mm mag collet die that I actually had to take a dremel and ream it out so the belt on the case does not get jammed and shave metal off the case. Has anyone else had this problem?

As far as the finger indentations and the case go, I just give the case a little spin and give it another squeeze. Seems to minimize the marks.

 

[ReedG]

Monte: Most everyone has a problem with the quality of the Lee products. I wish they would make a higher quality model for competition shooters, but so far that hasn't happened. But I think Redding, RCBS or anyone could do it. The Lee powder measure is a good design, too, if it was made out of aircraft grade aluminum with a better quality micrometer it would be super. The partial neck-sizing trick with Lee Collet Dies is accomplished by getting a washer that has a hole large enough to just slip over your case, set the case in the shellholder as usual, slide the washer down over it, and resize in the normal manner. The washer goes between the shellholder and the base of the die, keeping the neck from going all the way into the collet. The thickness of the washer determines how much of the neck gets sized. I've shot thousands of these when I was going through the "partial neck sizing" spell. With factory chambers which have large necks, the partial sizing helps keep the round centered in the chamber. All but one of my rifles now have custom chambers and I size the full length of the neck with them.

Donovan: I have quite a few sets of Redding bushing dies and have no squabble with how they work and the fine tuning of neck tension possible. In my own shooting, I have ceased-and-desisted on attempting to super-tune loads with a thousandths more or less of neck tension. I find that keeping my cases annealed every couple of shootings the chasing of neck tension adjusting goes away. I don't like that bushings won't size all the way to the shoulder. And pushing the neck into a bushing stresses and works the brass which the Collet Die doesn't do. Having several mandrels of different dimensions will easily take care of any need to adjust neck tension.

I surely understand "different strokes..." and that's what make the industry thrive. It's a challenge to my ego to take my $3,500 bench rifle to the range, set up my Hood, Harrell's, Redding, etc., and screw in a $19.95 Collet Die to size my cases.

But I believe the Collet Die is the best process for resizing a neck. I see the marks, I see the quality issue, but they work for me.

 

[keithcatfish]

I LOVE my collet dies. I don't have a benchrest rifle so I can't vouch if they make ammo capable of shooting in the ones but my completely stock Savage 223 shoots .3MOA with loads made with the collet die.

To solve the neck tension issue, I drilled a 1/4 inch hole through the arm of my press, stuck a hook through the hole and hung a 25 pound weight off it. I let the weight down very gently and at the bottom of the stroke, let the weight hang freely.

Funny thing is, my rifle shoots the same size groups even without ammo made with the hanging weight.

 

[justpete]

Finger marks can be eliminated by using 400grit wet-or-dry wrapped around a nylon bore brush to smooth the ID of the fingers. But it requires pressure applied to the fingers to get them close to their compressed position. This makes the shape they form when compressed closer to that of the case neck OD.

Takes quite a bit of work and when finished I found I had to polish them the same way going all the way up to 2000grit. Used water instead of oil by doing most of the work under a running tap.

I can't get the die to mark up a case neck even by applying excessive force with a Co-Ax press to new brass, Win or Lapua. The indicator on a spinner will sometimes show a slight deflection but a mark can't be seen under moderate magnification.

Polishing the mandrel had no real effect or made any real improvement. Gave up trying to use it as an expander for new brass and replaced it in that capacity with a Sinclair die body and mandrel.

FWIW, Pete

 

[keithcatfish]

Pete,

Be careful applying "excessive force" to the collet die. The cap on the die is made of aluminum and will shoot out of the top of the die with a loud bang and hit the ceiling, thus ruining the cap. Can you guess how I figured this out?