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I got a box of Winchester 7/08 and shot it up when I went out of town.
I just cleaned them and resize the brass with my RCBS dies and removed the stem.

Now I am trying to use the Lee Collet on the neck. Per "winters" instructions you should do it step by step until you see between two points there are no change and then stop.

Since its pressing the neck against the mandrel it may be very hard to see. But to me I do not see any change and now I am pressing the handle hard? I feel I am probably doing this wrong.
What should I be looking for/at?

Ideally how tight should the neck be for a 7/08 bullet?

I am just learning this now to see how it works. Although not sure if I really need it lol.

I will be leaving out of town tmw morning so access to a computer may be sporadic to reply back. Thanks

PS: this guy I think he is brwinters wrote up instructions to use the Lee collet die and to forget the instructions that come with it.

You've already sized the brass with the RCBS die. So why are you trying now to use the collet die on the neck?

Recap from old thread on collet die adjustment:


The first thing I recommend is to ignore the instructions supplied with the die.

The second thing I recommend is to ignore whether or not the press you're using cams over at the top of its stroke.

The die squeezes the neck onto a mandrel, so for a given neck thickness there is a finite limit to how much sizing you can achieve. This die will need adjustment to suit different thicknesses of brass.

Raise the press ram to the top of its stroke. Thread the die into the press until the bottom of the sizing collet (not the die body) just touches the shell holder. Measure the neck OD of a piece of brass.

Run the brass through the die using a full press stroke. It should take no effort since if you're set up as described the die has done no sizing. Turn the die into the press about 1/4 turn. Run the brass in again. You probably won't feel much sizing going on, but give the neck a measurement just to see. If it's still nothing, screw the die in another 1/4th and try again. You'll may start feeling a bit going on as you work the press handle, and if so you'll be able to measure a little sizing taking place.

Rinse and repeat using 1/16th turn in increments for the die. You'll feel increases in the force required for the sizing stroke. Since you're measuring the neck after each pass you'll eventually find two increments where the neck didn't get any smaller. NOW STOP TURNING THE DIE INTO THE PRESS. Remember you're squeezing the brass against a solid steel mandrel which isn't going to give, so even if the press stroke didn't feel like it took very much force the neck is as small as it's going to get.

There's a learning curve to the die, but it isn't hard.

I like to run cases through the die twice, spinning the case about 1/3 turn (rather than the 1/2 turn in the instructions) between passes. This means the parts of the neck that were under the splits in the collet fingers on the first pass will get hit on the second pass.



Correctly executing the set up method I outlined above makes camming over or not a moot point, and it will not even come close to popping the cap. Furthermore since the full press stroke is used every time I don't have to "judge my lean" on the handle.

You've already sized the brass with the RCBS die. So why are you trying now to use the collet die on the neck?

mathman,

Previously I sized brass and had runout of something like 4 thousands, maybe 5 thousands. This makes me think its the die itself that is causing the runout.
From what everyone is saying if I size on the RCBS dies then sizing the necks are not needed.
But if I shot these ammo in the rifle then only neck sizing is needed.
I resize the brass without the mandrel. Saw an article by John Barsness that he put the mandrel back in the die and did not snug down. Is this going to produce less run out?

Look here

Collet dies are GTG......

https://leeprecision.com/files/instruct/RM3512.pdf

Scroll up a few posts. If a person understands how the die works and isn't ham fisted then cam over or not is irrelevant.

Yeah, ham fisted big press cam over power can blow the aluminum cap right out of the steel die. Don’t ask how I know.