Originally Posted by gzig5
Originally Posted by Model70Guy
Originally Posted by gzig5
I haven't worked much with belted cases, is anyone needing to use those collet dies that size that last little bit before the belt? That would be an additional cost unless I built one myself.



I've had one for awhile, and have gotten some good use out of it. Having said that; almost all of the use was solving man-made and odd-ball problems.The main reason that I got it was I had a sizeable pile of .257 Weatherby brass that had been fired in a rifle I no longer had. Resizing it in a FL die wouldn't get it into my remaining .257. The Willis tool saved enough brass to pay for itself the first day. Other instances were a number of rifles that were cut with a non Saami reamer with a reduced base. In return for no discernible advantage, it opened up a situation where the chamber was smaller than typical reloading dies. The collet kept me in the game until I rechambered them in disgust. Another is chambers that are cut so disgustingly over size that when sizing there is a lot of brass that has to go somewhere, and it could go where a die won't reach. This is the principal use given in the dies promotion.

In regular, non oddball use a reloader can get along just fine without ever have even heard of the Willis die and never miss a beat. The situations where it is useful aren't particularly common, and for the most part you can ignore the belt.



I kinda figured it was like that. So far I haven't seen any issues with my 300 Win but I've picked up brass from the range that after sizing wouldn't go into my chamber easily. They had insanely flat primers though. Looking forward to playing with one of these two cartridges next year.



There is a somewhat easier solution to salvaged brass range pickups, at least when it works. Usually it does.

If you get a .300 Win small base die it will almost always reduce the oversized case enough to chamber in any rifle. The utility doesn't end there; if you take the decapping/expander rod out you can put the base squeeze on .257 Weatherby,.270 Weatherby, .264 Win, and 7mm Rem mag as well.It effectively turns it into an improvised body die. It won't work on .338 Win, or any of the full length magnums but at the price of brass these days it can be worth while to buy a small base die and cut the top off with a grinding wheel.

A 30-06 small base die makes a small base body die for a .270 and a .30 SB die will do 7/08 and .243. With a bit of thought there are other possibilities.


Life begins at 40. Recoil begins at "Over 40" Coincidence? I don't think so.