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Joined: Jun 2004
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Based on my Hornady concentricity (?) tester, the Lee crimp die does a lot to reduce runout. Interesting. How do you suppose that works?
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 713
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Aug 2007
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Based on my Hornady concentricity (?) tester, the Lee crimp die does a lot to reduce runout. Interesting. How do you suppose that works? The case neck comes out of your chamber concentric unless you have the very rare chamber that was not reamed concentric. Don't believe me put a concentricity gauge on a fired/unsized neck. It will be perfect The Lee Collet has a floating mandrel. You can reach up under the die when screwed into the press and toggle it around. That means the mandrel will not push the neck around when the collets close around it. Also there is no pulling force that can pull the neck one way or the other like an expander has when it is jerked back through the neck. The neck concentricity after using the Lee Collet will depend upon how much of a variation you have in neck thickness from one side to the other but concentricity on the bullet will be very good, if you exercise good seating procedures with a good seating die. Also the Lee Collet typically does not give you much bullet grip since the mandrels are .001" to .002" below caliber. You can order smaller mandrels for more bullet grip and I usually do to try for .003" bullet grip. Anything more and the seating force will increase and could cause more runout.
"The beauty of the 2nd amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it" - Thomas Jefferson
Criminals prefer unarmed victims and dictators prefer unarmed citizens
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 37,108
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 37,108 |
For more case neck grip on the bullet, you can chuck the mandrel in a drill and cut it down a bit with emery cloth. Go slow, measure often. It's easier to take it off than put it back on...  If you mess up, you can get another mandrel from Lee. I think you can order an undersized mandrel. I never have; I just cut'em down to suit. DF
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 44,828
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 44,828 |
Based on my Hornady concentricity (?) tester, the Lee crimp die does a lot to reduce runout. Interesting. How do you suppose that works? The case neck comes out of your chamber concentric unless you have the very rare chamber that was not reamed concentric. Don't believe me put a concentricity gauge on a fired/unsized neck. It will be perfect The Lee Collet has a floating mandrel. You can reach up under the die when screwed into the press and toggle it around. That means the mandrel will not push the neck around when the collets close around it. Also there is no pulling force that can pull the neck one way or the other like an expander has when it is jerked back through the neck. The neck concentricity after using the Lee Collet will depend upon how much of a variation you have in neck thickness from one side to the other but concentricity on the bullet will be very good, if you exercise good seating procedures with a good seating die. Also the Lee Collet typically does not give you much bullet grip since the mandrels are .001" to .002" below caliber. You can order smaller mandrels for more bullet grip and I usually do to try for .003" bullet grip. Anything more and the seating force will increase and could cause more runout. He wrote crimp die. I've sized many thousands with Lee collet dies, and I know how they work quite well.
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 713
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 713 |
Ooops
We were talking about the Lee Collet so I glossed over that
My bad
"The beauty of the 2nd amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it" - Thomas Jefferson
Criminals prefer unarmed victims and dictators prefer unarmed citizens
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 5,567
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2009
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What kind of match rifle? Savage 12VLP
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,340
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2004
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I love using body dies in conjunction with Lee collet dies.... and the Hornady headspace gauge kit.
I've sanded all the spindles on my collet dies to reduce them in size for a little better neck tension.
One feature of the body die that nobody really has brought up but I have used it for a quite a bit is reclaiming ammo that was set up for one guns headspace so that you can actually take a loaded shell and reduce the headspace so it can fit in a gun with a tighter chamber.
I recently bought a match-grade 308..... I had a bunch of hand loads here from another gun that were about 10 years old.... I ran at least 200 rounds through the body die so that they would fit in the new gun and it worked perfectly.
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 44,828
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 44,828 |
The only danger there is squeezing them enough to make the case length go out of bounds.
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,340
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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I guess I never thought of that as a possibility but will watch in the future. I ASSume (we know what that means) there will be basically no effect since the brass was already sized and loaded. Usually my redding body dies move the brass the least of any of the other ones I own. As a matter of fact in this 308 most of the brass had been fl sized before in a hornady fl die that is so aggressive that when I run that brass into the body die it doesn't even seem to touch the sides of the die. Basically the body die is a shoulder bumper in this case.
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 44,828
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 44,828 |
I keep a Hornady FL die in 308 because it's aggressive about putting a "like new brass" taper on the case bodies, but it does it without moving the shoulder back too much. It's just the ticket for turning once fired LC, WCC, PMC, PPU etc. fmj ball range pick ups into suitable fun time gong ringing ammo with a universal fit across the chambers of nearly a dozen rifles.
The Hornady 223 FL die I have is far too aggressive though.
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,340
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Yup... it seems to me that Hornady is about the most aggressive downsizing standard FL die brand out there!
At least all my sets are. My little 308 bar spits out Hornady sized brass like hot butter!
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 7,963
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 7,963 |
I tried running loaded ammo that did not fit rifles chamber and stuck one!!
Threw body die away could not see any good out come out of that. And for $30 was not worth the risk.
Redding did not want to help either, can't blame them.
kk alaska
Alaska 7 months of winter then 5 months of tourists
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 19,066
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 19,066 |
I like the Lee Collet die, and have been using it for a long time in 223, 308, and 30-06.
I use the Redding body dies if I want to bring the case back to spec from the shoulder to the web. Mostly for range pickup brass, or once-fired stuff.
If I just want to bump the shoulder, without working the body/web area, I use a Forster Bushing Bump Neck Sizer die, with no bushing in it. This works well for brass that is already dedicated to a particular rifle.
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Joined: Oct 2004
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Campfire Tracker
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I tried running loaded ammo that did not fit rifles chamber and stuck one!!
Threw body die away could not see any good out come out of that. And for $30 was not worth the risk.
Redding did not want to help either, can't blame them. The only thing I can conclude is you had a defective die... unless the previous die changed up some crazy dimensions on that ammo.
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Joined: Feb 2001
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2001
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Bad die setting,lock ring slipped which ruined brass for my chamber. Foolish mistake trying to resize brass on a loaded round.
kk alaska
Alaska 7 months of winter then 5 months of tourists
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