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skeet1
01-28-2009, 09:41 PM
I just wanted to tell you guys how great I think the Lee Collet Die is. I am shooting a Long Branch No.4 Mk1* (1950). As we have all been told the Enfields tend to stretch cases to the point that case head separation occur. I have not experienced this while using the Collet Die. I have had no head separation and the cases rarely need trimming. I know that using a light cast boolit load reduces the amount of stretch but not that much. I'm currently using the Lyman 314299 sized .314 and 28 gr. of H322.

After the first fire forming I used the Collet Die as per instructions and it just works great. Now instead of using the rim for headspacing the shoulder now controls it. What a great invention!!!!!!!!!

Skeet1

HeavyMetal
01-28-2009, 09:58 PM
Bought my first Lee collet die for my 30-30. Makes great ammo, so much so that when other rifles followed, 222, 22-250, 7.62x39, 22 Hornet, 308 they each got the dulexe 4 die set!

Real happy with this design! Have also modified the full length sizer die so that it only sizes tha case body above the rim on my 30-30 cases.

Now I can neck size, and not touch the neck, and size the base so the case will fit any of the 4 30-30's in the family and still get that neck sized accuracy. So far this idea has worked well and I still have no case stretching.

docone31
01-28-2009, 10:15 PM
I have a Lithgow that I paper patch.
I couldn't use that die if my life depended on it. I had to send it to be enlarged. My sizing is .314 also. How in the dickens did you get the .314 to seat properly with that die unmodified?
Mine would push the castings into the case no matter what height I set it at. Also, I had to bell the neck with a drill bit, wobbling it to open it up enough set the castings.
Once the die was modified, I get stellar performance.
I agree with case life. I have cast and wrapped over 500 loads in the same 50 Wolf cases, and 50 Winchester. The Winchester is thicker so I had to lube the mandrel in the sizing die. Otherwise, it crumpled the neck.
They are my first collet die set, and in my Lithgow, STELLAR!
They do the job.

Dan Cash
01-28-2009, 11:05 PM
Twenty years ago I hopped on the collet die band wagon with a .222 die. Bullets slid right through the resized necks. If I adjusted the die enough to get neck tension, the creases in the brass caused splitting on firing. Boo Lee dies, their collet dies, their factory crimp dies and their priming tools. Those used to be good but have gone to pot lately. End of vent.

fourarmed
01-29-2009, 12:15 PM
I had a bad experience with my first collet die, but two things fixed it. First, I disassembled the die and discovered that the collet and the closer were both badly galled. I filed and sanded them smooth, then lubed them with a light coating of grease. That stopped the grabbing. Then someone on this board - where else - told me to set the die according to the instructions, size a case, rotate it slightly, and size it again. The second sizing reduces the neck diameter by about another thousandth. A third time seems to make no significant difference.

1hole
01-29-2009, 02:16 PM
The Lee Collet Neck Sizer is perhaps the best neck die available, at any cost. It leaves the straightest necks on common cases, with less trouble, than any other. They certainly aren't made as smoothly as I would wish but it isn't hard to fix the rough cones on the collet or its matching closer sleeve or to tweek the diameter of the inner mandrel.

There is a learning curve to using it, but once it's understood it's easy. Users can't simply set it up in a 1-2-3 process by which the die is screwed to a certain point and then going precisely some distance passed that certain point! Even so, anyone with a small level of mechanical apptitude can learn to use it, ... otherwise, they should stay away from it and buy a simplier neck die with no moving parts.

For over 20 years, in my 40+ years of reloading experience, I've had excellant service from my Lee presses, priming tools and their dies for loading ammo that shoots as from good as any others, on average. That is, short of my very expensive Forster and Redding competition dies and a Co-Ax press. And the "better" tools load only marginally superior ammo to that from my assorted Lee tools! Maybe it depends on the user???

mtgrs737
01-29-2009, 03:13 PM
Lee was good enough to modifiy a set of their collet dies to work on my 6.5mm x 55mm swedish mauser so that I could properly load oversized cast boolits. I sent them a couple of cases, a few boolits, the dies and $10 and they modified the sizing die and the seating die to load this oversized .269" diameter boolit and had it back to me in less than two weeks. All I needed to add was a Lee universal case mouth flairing die and a Lee factory crimping die to remove the case mouth flair. My Thanks to Lee for great products and great service!

pdawg_shooter
01-30-2009, 02:16 PM
Lee was good enough to modifiy a set of their collet dies to work on my 6.5mm x 55mm swedish mauser so that I could properly load oversized cast boolits. I sent them a couple of cases, a few boolits, the dies and $10 and they modified the sizing die and the seating die to load this oversized .269" diameter boolit and had it back to me in less than two weeks. All I needed to add was a Lee universal case mouth flairing die and a Lee factory crimping die to remove the case mouth flair. My Thanks to Lee for great products and great service!

+1 on the Lee collet sizer. Its the only way I will ever load a jacketed.

skeet1
01-30-2009, 10:41 PM
Docone31,
You were wondering how I use .314 bullets in an unaltered die? The answer is that I also use a Lee Universal Expander die and flare the case mouth. Some say that if you seat the over sized bullet using an unaltered die you will reduce the size of the bullet when you seat the bullet. This evening I pulled a bullet from a case I had loaded a few days ago and it still measures .314. Evidently the thin brass case neck has little or no effect on the bullet.

Skeet1

docone31
01-30-2009, 10:54 PM
Skeet,
My castings jammed on the collet neck, I had already belled the cases, the die would jam on the ogive and either pull them out of the case, or jam them in the case.
I had to get my die modified. Now it is great. Ole reliable.
I would get a paper ring in the die. It would either tear the patch, or make a ring. Once it was modified, it was like a jacketed load. I cannot load .312 using the sizing die. It has no effect, .311 was no difference. I have a seperate die set when I load jacketeds. Same type, collet. The unmodified die set is for .311, .312. The .314 paper patched castings jammed in the original collet.

Old Ironsights
01-30-2009, 10:59 PM
No slam on Lee (because they were really cool about it) but I ordered a custom Collet Die set for my 9.3x72R... and it was utterly useless.

OTOH, after a nice discussion with Lee Tech Support, they AGREED that the die set was inappropriate for my intent and took it straight back and sent me a refund.

I ended up getting a custom set from Square D.

If you are thinking about ordering one because it's hard to find dies... call Lee TECH first. Save everybody some time and Lee some money.

Three44s
01-31-2009, 12:59 AM
I have not used a Lee Collet die for boolits .......

....... but for the J-words ...... they have been great .......!

I had one issue ...... once ...... it involved .22-250 cases after I had outside turned the necks ...... and I experienced overly reduced neck tension.

I called Lee and for a few bucks received an undersized mandrel ...... problem solved.

VIVA Lee Collet Dies!

Three 44s

dromia
01-31-2009, 06:21 AM
I use them pretty much for all resizing, my cases are batched to my rifles.

I use the collet dies in conjunction with a suitably sized lyman "M" die plug.

Like the majority of Lee products they need a bit of fettling, many of their products don't leave the factory ready to go and need a bit of finishing thats probably why they are so cheap.

Some things from Lee just aren't worth this effort when you can get stuff that works from go, however the Lee collet dies are worth the effort.

So when I get a new one I polish the collet and collar as a matter of course and then grease it, just as fourarmed has described.

DLCTEX
01-31-2009, 10:21 AM
I use the Lee collet dies on several rifle rounds and like the fact that I don't have to lube the cases. I have and use many Lee products and they have all given good service and perform the intended task well.

guninhand
02-02-2009, 12:59 AM
I use an unmodified .303 Lee collet die on my '49 6 groove Longbranch. It's throat is .316 and I use .317 boolits from the custom "fatter 30". As long as the case is already fired, the Lee does a great job on putting just the right amount of neck tension on the fired case. Results are quite pleasing and I haven't even gotten into the accuracy tricks yet.