good die set for 303brit.

[mac1911]

Looking for a good die set for 303 Brit. Will be loading both cast and fmj

[longbow]

My vote goes to the Lee Collet die.

I started out with an RCBS set and it worked fine except... it sized the neck way down to about 0.310" ID but I am using 0.315" boolits so lots of working on that neck!

I had backed the die off to neck size only because full length sizing pushed the shoulder back about 1/16" so again too much working of the brass. Neck sizing only helped but I found that the 0.315" boolit going into a 0.310" neck resulted in sizing the boolit down as well as working the brass so I made a 0.313" expander button which solved the boolit sizing during seating issue but didn't help the brass. Accuracy improved noticeably.

The Lee Collet die works like a charm. To qualify, I made a mandrel that results in 0.313" neck ID after sizing. However, you can apparently run the Lee Collet Die without a mandrel simply by adjusting it until the right ID is achieved I wish I had known that before I made a mandrel!

If your gun has a tight chamber maybe not an issue but I have 5 Lee Enfields with sloppy chambers and oversize groove diameters of about 0.314" so I am shooting 0.315" boolits and sizing a neck down to 0.310" then stretching it back up with a boolit is just silly.

My brass is lasting very well and accuracy has improved dramatically so I am happy with the results.

YMMV

Longbow

[docone31]

If you find the collet set makes the projectile too small when seated, Lee can send another one a larger size.
I had to go larger. I sent two finished castings and they made it work.
Didn't take long either.
Lee will work with you.

[462]

My .303 British dies are an eclectic set. I bought the Lee Deluxe set, which includes the collet neck sizing die, kept the neck sizer and sold the full length sizer and seater dies (don't like them). For neck expansion, I use Lyman M-dies only, and had a custom expander plug made. For seating and full length sizing (if needed) RCBS dies are used.

As Longbow said, the Lee collet neck die can be adjusted to get almost any inside diameter you need.

[longbow]

I set up a Lee turret press with my .303 dies and Lee Universal Expander then added a bracket for the Lee Perfect Powder Measure (sounds like an advertisement for Lee!) so I manually throw powder charges I can see.

The only disadvantage of neck sizing is if you have several guns with varying chamber sizes. You may have to segregate brass for each gun or full length size occasionally. I have one .303 with a tight chamber and the rest are all interchangeable.

Longbow

[ukrifleman]

Nothing wrong with Lee dies, I load 14 calibres with them including .303 with no issues.
ukrifleman.