Lee collet neck sizing die

[243winxb]

Lee said- "With a press without having an over center feature, apply about 25 lbs. of pressure to the handle once it bottoms out to resize the case. On most presses, this translates to over 600 lbs of pressure on the ram."

A measured 35 lbs minimum was needed to size my 243 Win brass necks. This is over working me & the press.

35 pounds X 100 brass not for this 78 year old.

Lees collet neck die, no more acccurate than my Redding Type S Fl Bushing die.

 

[SeabeeKen]

Been using the FCD for many years. Wouldn't be without them. Almost a necessity with hammer bullets

 

[Fuj]

Been using the FCD for many years. Wouldn't be without them. Almost a necessity with hammer bullets

Test lot of Hammer absolutes had me using a .001" smaller mandrel.

 

[6Creed73]

Lee said- "With a press without having an over center feature, apply about 25 lbs. of pressure to the handle once it bottoms out to resize the case. On most presses, this translates to over 600 lbs of pressure on the ram."

A measured 35 lbs minimum was needed to size my 243 Win brass necks. This is over working me & the press.

35 pounds X 100 brass not for this 78 year old.

Lees collet neck die, no more acccurate than my Redding Type S Fl Bushing die.

With the Lee collet die you needed 35lbs of force to size the neck? This doesn't make sense to me, I barely feel the neck being sized. And I can verify it's sizing to the mandrel size correctly with calipers. No way that much force is needed.

 

[Fuj]

With the Lee collet die you needed 35lbs of force to size the neck? This doesn't make sense to me, I barely feel the neck being sized. And I can verify it's sizing to the mandrel size correctly with calipers. No way that much force is needed.

Totally agree !! I annealed cases this morning, full length sized
then on to LCD die. As I mention before.....Give it a squeeze and
about a quarter turn and squeeze again. I'm probably way under
25 lbs. Did'nt take long to do 186 cases.

 

[SKWERLZ]

Lee has changed their design on all their collet dies. Their reasoning was that reloaders prefer the new design where the last portion of the case neck isn't sized. Give the bullet a place to sit when seating (kind of like the Lyman M expander works). I prefer the older style design, but must be in a minority on this as well?

I use a 6.5 CM LCD to size my 6.5 PRC brass with the appropriate thickness washer. Lots of folks are able to modify their collet dies to work for other cartridges as well.

I think the new design is dumb.
I modified a few LCD dies for 7 saum and 338 edge.

Back when I just neck sized it was sure fast and convenient, no lube needed.
Just run it through LCD the prime, powder and seat bullet.

 

[Homerange]

how many times can a case be neck sized with the LCD before it needs to be fl sized

How long is a piece of string ?

Caliber, brass brand, how hard you push them and rifle can all have a bearing on this.
223 pushing 50gr for varminting....never and the Hornady brass is approaching 20 loads I guess.

 

[357Mag]

How many of you guys are using this and not fl sizing ?Rebs -

Rebs -

Howdy !

For the .35 Remington, it's the most affordable and practical way to go.
Loads I assembled for use in my Marlin M-336 XLR .35 Rem we're superbly accurate.

I have used both a Hornady combo shoulder bump / bushing NS die ( Wilson bushings ) and a LEE Collet Neck Size die ( 6mm Remington ) when re-loading for my " DEEP 6 " wildcat. I could tell no difference in obtained accuracy, when comparing groups shot w/ cartridges that were sized with either die.

I myself have not had to FL size for decades. Only neck size. I am not shooting any semi-auto rifles or magazine-fed bolt rifles.

The LEE Collet dies have worked well for me !


With regards,
357Mag

 

[243winxb]

With the Lee collet die you needed 35lbs of force to size the neck? This doesn't make sense to me, I barely feel the neck being sized. And I can verify it's sizing to the mandrel size correctly with calipers. No way that much force is needed.

Annealed vs Work hardened.
modulus of elasticity- Cartridge Brass-
Material is 70 copper/30 zinc with trace amounts of lead & iron , called C26000. Material starts to yield at 15,000 PSI when soft (annealed), and 63,000 PSI when hard.
Material yields, but continues to get stronger up to 47,000 PSI when soft, and 76,000 PSI, when work hardened.

My test brass not annealed.

 

[Chris Edmondson]

One simple way to figure out the proper ram force to use with the LCD is to abuse a handful of cases. If I can see the collet splits on the neck, with a jeweler's loupe, I've pulled too hard. I'll back off until there there are no marks.

With a cam-over press like the Forster CoAx (which isn't recommended by Lee), sneaking up using the die rings works well. Back off so there's no change in neck ID, then drill down until small changes make no difference in ID, that's a good stopping point.

Turned necks are likely to converge more convincingly, and faster than unturned necks, as will better quality, more uniform factory brass.

 

[Homerange]

One simple way to figure out the proper ram force to use with the LCD is to abuse a handful of cases. If I can see the collet splits on the neck, with a jeweler's loupe, I've pulled too hard. I'll back off until there there are no marks.

With a cam-over press like the Forster CoAx (which isn't recommended by Lee), sneaking up using the die rings works well. Back off so there's no change in neck ID, then drill down until small changes make no difference in ID, that's a good stopping point.

Turned necks are likely to converge more convincingly, and faster than unturned necks, as will better quality, more uniform factory brass.

The widely accepted method of camming over with LCD is described in detail here:

Lee Die is Collapsing Case Necks -- Advice?

Two reloading products I stay away from: Hornady One Shot case lube and Lee collet dies after reading and hearing other shooters problems. Alternatives exist, why go through the headaches. Reloading is supposed to be relaxing and fun. Deforming expensive brass turns it into a frustrating...

forum.accurateshooter.com

 

[MSS]

I’ve been using Collet dies for years. They work well if you use them correctly.

 

[Ringostar]

I have been using the LCD in conjunction with the Redding body die for a good while now for several cartridges. Works great. Run-out #'s are real good, but leave it to Lee to screw things up by changing the collet. Their change was in response to some gun writer that suggested it. What I do with the new collets is size once then put a washer of proper size between the shell holder and die and size the second time to size the top portion of the case neck. JMW

I started using a washer years ago, to size 284 Win brass in a 7x57 die. This keeps the shoulder from bottoming out in the collet, and no reason to order a custom lcd to size 284. When people started talking about the new design, I immediately thought about the washer trick to keep the case mouth slightly farther back. I probably wouldn’t even size twice, like you mentioned. Just once with washer would leave neck to shoulder unsized just like a bushing die does.