DougGuy
06-30-2016, 10:12 PM
I love these things, properly modded* they do a job that no other crimp can do. Lee had discontinued this style die, and the only ones that were available were overruns that were uncatalogued and you had to know just how to find them on Lee's site or you would never know they sold them. Cost was roughly $24.99 each, they were made in .357, .44 magnum, .45 Colt, and quite a few rifle calibers.
Now, these are new production, the collet is longer so there is a different design, and they are made in .357, .44 magnum, .45 Colt, .460 S&W, and .500 S&W. cost is considerably less than the overruns they used to sell, the new dies are $15.98 each. Wonder why none made in .480 Ruger?
Any of these big bore magnum revolvers can benefit from this style crimp if softer alloy is used, a soft alloy in a hard recoiling cartridge can swage at the crimp and allow the base of the boolit to move forward. I use a fairly soft alloy to hunt with, I can scratch it with my fingernail, and this collet crimp die does an EXCELLENT job of holding the heavyweights where they belong. Were I using hard alloy, a simple roll crimp would be sufficient.
These collet crimp dies can be used on j words and cast boolit with no crimp groove or cannelure. The die can crimp the case mouth right into the side of the boolit, ensuring a solid crimp that won't jump. It is possible to distort the boolit with a collet crimp, but this may be a minimal factor if the cylinder throats are sized correctly, any distortion would be smoothed out before the boolit leaves the cylinder.
Also I would like to point out that with magnum level charges of slow burning powder under a heavy for caliber boolit, I find the collet crimp seems to help ignition and I was noticing a really good improvement in Extreme Spread across a chronograph, when developing loads for the C430-310-RF boolit in a 7 1/2" SBH revolver. I was seeing readings from 1180 to 1200 fps which is quite good really.
Here are the 310s done by the modified collet crimp on the left, and standard roll crimp on the right, empty cases showing both styles of crimp opened fully and laid back flat with the side of the case.
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Reloading/DSC03150_zps2fffcc0c.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Reloading/DSC03150_zps2fffcc0c.jpg.html)
Here is a link to the dies on Lee Precision's web page:
http://leeprecision.com/lee-collet-style-crimp-die/
*Here is a link to a thread I posted showing how to modify these collet dies to make the crimp band narrower and get the best placement of the crimp band, right on the case mouth where it is needed:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?201449-Question-about-type-of-crimp-required&p=2239315&viewfull=1#post2239315
Although the collet crimp is not totally necessary I feel that using it with heavy loads has an advantage as I described above, and another thing I would strongly recommend it for is ammo that is carried in dangerous game country where there is NO room for error such as a boolit moving in a cylinder and tying up a gun when it is needed in a life or death scenario.
Now, these are new production, the collet is longer so there is a different design, and they are made in .357, .44 magnum, .45 Colt, .460 S&W, and .500 S&W. cost is considerably less than the overruns they used to sell, the new dies are $15.98 each. Wonder why none made in .480 Ruger?
Any of these big bore magnum revolvers can benefit from this style crimp if softer alloy is used, a soft alloy in a hard recoiling cartridge can swage at the crimp and allow the base of the boolit to move forward. I use a fairly soft alloy to hunt with, I can scratch it with my fingernail, and this collet crimp die does an EXCELLENT job of holding the heavyweights where they belong. Were I using hard alloy, a simple roll crimp would be sufficient.
These collet crimp dies can be used on j words and cast boolit with no crimp groove or cannelure. The die can crimp the case mouth right into the side of the boolit, ensuring a solid crimp that won't jump. It is possible to distort the boolit with a collet crimp, but this may be a minimal factor if the cylinder throats are sized correctly, any distortion would be smoothed out before the boolit leaves the cylinder.
Also I would like to point out that with magnum level charges of slow burning powder under a heavy for caliber boolit, I find the collet crimp seems to help ignition and I was noticing a really good improvement in Extreme Spread across a chronograph, when developing loads for the C430-310-RF boolit in a 7 1/2" SBH revolver. I was seeing readings from 1180 to 1200 fps which is quite good really.
Here are the 310s done by the modified collet crimp on the left, and standard roll crimp on the right, empty cases showing both styles of crimp opened fully and laid back flat with the side of the case.
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Reloading/DSC03150_zps2fffcc0c.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Reloading/DSC03150_zps2fffcc0c.jpg.html)
Here is a link to the dies on Lee Precision's web page:
http://leeprecision.com/lee-collet-style-crimp-die/
*Here is a link to a thread I posted showing how to modify these collet dies to make the crimp band narrower and get the best placement of the crimp band, right on the case mouth where it is needed:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?201449-Question-about-type-of-crimp-required&p=2239315&viewfull=1#post2239315
Although the collet crimp is not totally necessary I feel that using it with heavy loads has an advantage as I described above, and another thing I would strongly recommend it for is ammo that is carried in dangerous game country where there is NO room for error such as a boolit moving in a cylinder and tying up a gun when it is needed in a life or death scenario.