Question about lead boolits and Lee .308 dies.

[abqcaster]

I recently acquired a used set of Lee .308 dies. I was able to full length sizes the cases and seat j-words, but boolits were another story. I tried seating some Mihec 311410 boolits, sized to .309". A friend had sent them to me, to test out. I couldn't even get them to settle into the neck to seat straight. So I have 3 questions: What are the chances that the expander is worn out (lee .308 expander)? Would swapping in a Lee .310 expander fix the problem, and would just lightly collet sizing the neck, after fire-forming the cases, save me trouble later on? If this information is somewhere else on the forum I apologize for being redundant. I couldn't find anything about this with my current searching methods. Even using Google, just got me forums about using .310 projectiles in .308 barrels. Any links about this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
ABQ

[Aunegl]

I got a Lyman "M" die, when I had a similar problem with my Lee .308 dies.

http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_LymanMDies.htm

[dwb0804]

I am not sure the 308 die has an expander. You may need to get the lee expander die.

[abqcaster]

It does. It's a full length sizing die, with an expander. The collet neck sizing die does not.

[Oldtimer45]

You must flair the case month to seat cast lead boolits. The Lee dies do not do this and it is not needed for jacketed bullets.

[abqcaster]

Right, that answers my first question. I was just wondering if I could do that with a larger decapping pin, like the .311 that lee sells.

[blikseme300]

I use the Lee Universal Neck Expander dies and custom inserts that mimic the Lyman "M"-die. The expander that ships with the die set is for J-words and typically cannot be used for boolits. There is probably nothing worse than boolits that are squeezed down by brass so as to cause leading and poor accuracy.

If the cases are annealed before reloading then a center punch or such with a tapered shank can be used to open up the neck to allow the boolit to be seated. This prevents the boolit from being scraped smaller.

When I ventured into rifle CB reloading I quickly learned that it needs more care than pistol. My mix of tools include an expander die to allow good boolit seating and a Lee FCD collet crimp to remove the belling as roll crimp caused problems.

[abqcaster]

Thanks, blikseme300! That's the info I needed!