Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles A bit of versatility in Lee collet dies

I have just about nailed down my .220 Swift load using AA2700, which is good. I have about 130 rounds of .220 ammo which I made using Hunter several years ago, which is bad because I don't want to shoot it. The brass is once-fired Nosler so I don't want to trash it (yet). I decided I'm going to pull the bullets (53-grain tipped Varmageddon) and reuse them.

I do not like the idea of pulling bullets and then seating a bullet without restoring neck tension, but then again I don't like reusing primers that have been punched out. I've reused primers before and they went bang, but I just don't like the idea...but using Lee collet dies, what choice would I have but to punch the primers out for resizing necks?

I got to looking at the mandrel in my .220 collet die, then I had the idea I might oughta have a look at the mandrel in my .223 collet die. Bingo, the one in the .223 die is shorter. I can pop that into my .220 collet die and resize the necks of these .220 cases without punching primers.

Gotta wonder how many tricks are out there which I've never thought of. I bet there are scads.

Yah, I think I would pull a dozen or so bullets; recharge, re-seat and test fire a few groups. Then proceed based on the evidence.

RR, I went a slightly different route. Ordered new duplicate mandrels from Lee for my normally used calibers, Lee was good enough to charge me only the cost of shipping ($6.00 I think) Then I broke the decapping pin off one of each caliber (wear safety glasses), when I've pulled a bullets and want to make sure neck tension is good, I switch mandrels and resize the neck without punching out the primer.

I was thinking along those lines initially and considering whether I should just pull the decapping pins, and wondering whether I could do that. I do like the fact that the collet die decaps and saves an extra step, so I was looking at Lee's website to see if I could get spare mandrels. That's when I noticed the .220 Swift mandrel had a different part number than the .223 mandrel. That's what made me do a visual confirmation.

I'm not going to fool with reseating without resizing necks. In the past I found that I can feel the difference in neck tension when seating a bullet in an un-resized neck.

I always decap using a Lee Universal decapper, so when I needed to pull some bullets one time, I just cut the pin off of the Mandrel and have used it since that way. On another note, I bought a 30 caliber regular decapping pin from Lee and used it in the Universal Decapper to open a .270 to .308 and then necked back down creating a false shoulder for my .280 RCBS. The Lee pin has a lot more taper and worked wonderful for this operation. I did not loose a case doing this. miles

Great idea, Miles! That's a kink I'll try to remember...key word being "try."

Andrew,

I broke a few decapping pins on my Neck sizer Lee's.. so I just left them that way...
and usually use a universal decapping die to pop the primer out...

for pulling bullets I always use one of those hammer bullet pullers...

that notwithstanding, the way I would normally solve the problem you describe is to use the Full Length die
and adjust so that it just sizes the neck, with the sizing mandrel screw up higher so it won't touch the primer...

another simple way to accomplish what you describe ( if you use the inertia bullet puller/hammer)
is to pull out the size mandrel on the F/L die and then use that to give the case a light roll crimp once you
have reseated the bullets...

For future reference.. Lee Crimp dies are pretty cheap also in most common calibers.

John, I don't even have any FL sizers anymore except for reloading 5.56 for my ARs, .30-30, .35 Whelen, and .375 Winchester. I've gone with Redding body dies, Forster seaters, and Lee collet neck sizers for everything else. I think I have a Redding FL neck sizer and Wilson seater for 6-284. Can't recall what I have for .264, haven't loaded for that one for a couple of years.

Good idea, though.

That decapping pin is meant to center the case as it is sized in the collet. Without it you are going to get all kinds of concentricity issues.Pop the primers out and throw them away.

You're correct, but I think you missed the point. In the case of .220 Swift, I can use the mandrel/decapping pin from the .223 collet die and accomplish neck resizing without depriming.

I did this last night after pulling bullets on about 125 rounds. What I overlooked is that I wanted to try four different primers, so all but 15 pieces got deprimed, and I did toss over 100 primers---but only because I had no proper packaging to store them.

Is there any danger of accidental primer ignition when being removed?

Some have reported primers popping during removal. I've never experienced that myself.

This was beat to death a couple of years ago, might be some danger with crimped in primers or if you hit them hard with the decapper. If you press them out slowly it isn't a problem. Wear safety glasses of course.

There is also no need to throw them away, just use them for practice rounds. Out of a few hundred over the decades I can't recall a ftf.

I'll try to find the old thread.

ETA: And here it is, pay special attention to MD's comments on the last page:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12085704/1

One other that is relevant:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11201414/1

Side note: If you don't want to reuse the primers, it seems far wiser to me to leave them in the empty cases and pop them off at the next range session.

No... it’s not... that’s kind of the point of the collet dies... they let the inside of the neck decide what’s straight, the case will center itself. That’s one of the reasons they load such consistently straight ammo. The pin is undersized for the flash-hole. If it were meant to keep the case “centered” in the die, it would have to fit the flash-hole precisely.

I think he meant the mandrel, Steve...that's why I didn't say anything about that. The decapping rod in a conventional FL die is analogous to the mandrel in a collet die, at least visually. But then again, precision in expression can be pretty important.

It seems like there was a thread about using a collet die without a mandrel three, four, maybe five years ago. I don't remember who, why, or anything.