I guess your smith is concerned about how much metal to take off because if you know that number it is a 10 minute job at most in a engine lathe.
With a threaded spud in a drill press you could probably hold 120 grit silicon carbide paper on the drill press table and do it in 15 minutes.
I made a living for 5 years running a lathe and have probably ran one more than most gunsmiths will in a life time. I say this because there is no reason for a competent gun smith to charge much for such simple work.
EDG
I perfer to remove the metal from the dies bottom allowing any shell holder to work with it. In an engine lathe its quick and easy. I chuck the die in the lathe and spin a lock ring or jam nut on threads tight against the jaws. Take a depth reading to this nut and write it down. You can now face the die down what you need measuring to the ring/jam nut. I finish with a 3 blade burr srapper recutting the radious and a polish with very fine sand paper. It can be done by hand on a flat surface and sand paper working in a figure 8 pattern slowly. with the ring on you have a step to track progress also. A 7/8 14 nut and lock ring above can be set to leave just the amount to be removed and work until nut shows scratches with the coarser grits then finish with finer grits to desired finish. The big thing is to recut the mouth radious back to form so die dosnt grab or scratch the brass.
Are you sure those Lee dies don't say "Belgian Mauser" on them? This is a common problem with Lee Belgian dies used in Argentine Mausers. The headspace of the sized/formed cartridge is usually about .010 to long. It can be easily solved by turning .015 off the bottom of the sizing dies and then adjust the die in the press so the sized cases fit the headspace of your rifles chamber.
Larry Gibson
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |