Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Lee Collet Die Instructions

I think a lot of collet die users really are using too much force. Using my 70's vintage Rock Chucker and my die adjustment setting (arrived at per my instructions) I finish the down stroke using my thumb for the push.

If you wish to get into a heated argument around here, tell people that

a. they do not have their dies adjusted properly,
b. they exert too much force on the handle,
c. they should adjust the die for it to function at the bottom of the stroke.

Get this part of the collet die discussion going and you're good for several more pages.

Wow. Never saw that before.

I thought I was ham fisted, blowing aluminum caps off the top of the die.

That makes me look good.

Ha!

DF

Never did damage.
But I sure ended up with necks too big to properly hold bullets.
PITA when they are primed, and charged before you figure it out.

First one I tried was a 375 H&H and I did read the instructions but assumed that I would feel a bump or something before the toggle over occurred. Wrong and an old RCBS A2 press is pretty good at launching the entire top part of the collet die. It almost hit the sealing. I was disgusted with the entire set up and threw the body portion into a corner of the bench area where it sat till it rusted. Then after having excellent results with other collet dies I sent the old rusty one back to Lee with a note that it was operator error.

A week later a brand new die arrived in the mail and they didn't even tell me I was a dumb MoFo or anything just thanks for the business. Made me a loyal fan of Lee even though I am not 100% on all of their products, but most are good. Like Zedecker wrote if you can't afford the high grade stuff get Lee.

In most cases I don't need to replace the Lee stuff but if I do the price takes the bite of buying twice and then the duplicate dies may be good as body, bump or form dyes saving on additional purchases for those. They also are a good source of blanks for custom seaters and such. The Lee dies are cheaper in some instances than a die blank.

Yeah, sorta late once they're primed.

You can take material off the mandrel with a drill and sandpaper. Easier to remove than replace...

But don't worry. If you mess up, Lee will sell you a new mandrel for pocket change.

Or, if you give them the diameter you want, they'll send you one.

DF

I followed mathman’s instructions to the letter. My press bottoms out at just the right neck tension.





P

OR you could do what I did and glue the bullets in - yeah I really did that about 17 years ago .
Was loading for my cz221 fb getting ready to head to kaycee , wyoming to shoot P.dogs hadn't been handloading long and was in a hurry - some bullets and brass were acting up on me - Yeah -good ole Elmers helped me kill hundreds of P.dogs that trip .
**don't try this at home kids**

I segregate the brass for those situations where I have more than rifle in the same calibre. I haven't FL sized any rifle cases for years. I haven't had the need to do so. Maybe the day will come, but it hasn't yet, and some of those batches of brass have gone past 30 loading cycles.

The cases come out of the rifle smaller than the chamber, so unless a loose chamber has seen them bulged on one side (something you can avoid in future, if you know about it, by a bit of attention to the first fireforming) if they won't fit back in easily after reloading it is something that is being done to them in the reloading process.

FWIW I use several different brands of brass, and both rimmed and rimless (no belted), in a range of action types.

Doesn't it pee you off how, sometimes, a jury rigged dumb idea works.
When you know it shouldnt.

I was thinking, it's a good thing Lee makes the neck collet die cap out of aluminum. If that part was steel....

I think we'd see more presses like clarkm posted above.

The softer aluminum sorta acts like a pop off valve, blowing up/giving way before more serious damage can be done, especially with a big compound press, a muscled up gorilla on the handle...

I wonder if they did that because aluminum is cheaper to mill or if they knew knuckle heads like us would be tearing up stuff.

DF

I'm guessing the latter.

I would think they've replaced a bunch of them...

And, Lee is good about that, even when it's the customer's fault.

If they had Mathman quality instructions, may not have had to replace as many.

Df

Some of us were sneaking up on the case neck reduction when they first came out. Screw it in a 1/4 turn at a time, checking with a bullet until it wouldn't slide in.

Quite a while ago I posted that a lot of people were pulling press handles like they were playing a slot machine. Pulling too fast, too hard or ignoring the danger signs with setup. One of the biggies is a lot of resistance. With the exception of a few, the responses suggested that hard resistance was to be expected.

I gave up trying to convince people presses should be treated like a lady.

Agree I remind myself anytime I'm loading - to NOT treat the press handle like an old bumper jack - you'll only destroy a piece of brass .

Got going a bit too fast expanding some 6br lapau brass to 7br using RCBS mandrel - felt a bit of resistance at about case #80 of 100 and hello buckled the shoulder over in a case . Great now you have the great even number of 99 cases ,
Easy does it . . . .

Took ruining brass more than once [for me] to realise how much power there is in the press and we're working with a soft metal .

I'd say that as long as you understand how it's all to be used (not sure exactly what you mean by "starting from scratch"), then YES. The Lee Collet die, a Redding Body die, and a good seater will do all you need to do. For a good seater I personally choose and recommend the Forster Benchrest seating die. It's certainly every bit as good as the Redding version (if not better), and much less expensive.

As far as I know, among the major manufacturers only Redding offers a body die

Just meant that if I was buying dies for a new caliber where I didn't already have any dies.

If I'm deciding on a new chambering I haven't worked with yet or a new rifle offered in various chamberings, one of the top criteria is whether or not Lee makes a collet neck sizing die for it. Haven't always followed that but in those rare "cases" ordered a custom die set from Lee. Relatively expensive compared to an off the shelf product but well worth it in both convenience and easy to attain accuracy.

Which reminds me, gotta get off my butt and order one for a .250 Savage...