I have been reloading straight walled pistol ammo for about 20yrs( 44mag, 45LC and 45ACP),
but I have not tried rifle ammo. I have 100 cases of Lake City Match '06 brass and hundreds
of other '06 brass. I have a set of Lee Collet '06 dies. My real question is about sizing
and lubrication. Any insight on reloading the '06 will be greatly appreciated. I have a circa
1950's FN Mauser action with a "22 barrel. These rounds will be primary for Whitetails.

Welcome to the reloading forum.
You will find a lot of folks from Texas here.

If all of your cases were fired in your rifle they will likely chamber in your rifle with no problem for a few loadings with the collet dies.
My experience with the collet dies is they are good for ammo that will not be subject to rough handling or being fed through a rough feeding rifle. The collet dies do not produce a high neck grip on the bullet. If you handle your ammo carefully they will work fine.

For the rounds that you hunt deer with you might prefer to use a standard full length sizer. They are easy to use but do require some technique be developed to get the lubrication right. All it takes to learn is find about 20 or 30 of your worst cases. If you have no crummy brass some doggy 30-06 brass can be be easily found and sacrificed for a little practice. Just make sure they are clean and free of dirt. Lube well and try out a FL die.
If you get too much lube you will get some ugly dents. Just keep backing off the lube until the denting stops. Because of the taper in the 30-06 case it is easy to learn the proper amount of lube for sizing. You will easily learn with 20 or 30 cases.
There is always a chance you will get a case stuck in the FL die due to lack of lube. If you do get it pulled out and keep going. With a little care you will avoid a stuck case. If you get one stuck no big deal. After you do it once you are not likely to do it again for a long time if ever.

As noted above, if all the brass was shot in the rifle you intend to shoot it in again, you can use your collet die; otherwise full length size it all.

As for Lee collet dies, I've had some where the neck wasn't sufficiently tight but most of the time they work great with no problems of ammo durability. The big advantage with them as I see it is that they don't need lube.

In 40 years of reloading, I've gotten one case stuck in a die. If you get one stuck, you'll learn how to use a stuck case remover. If you use enough lube, this will never happen.

I use Imperial Sizing Wax to lube cases. You just put a little on your fingers and in turn a little on each case. A little goes a LONG way. It's the easiest, least messy and best case lube method I've found.

You'll get the best accuracy for hunting if you work up your loads with one specific case brand. My Encore 30/06 LOVES Varget with 165 gr. Barnes TSX or Banded Solid bullets. To get a firm grip on these bullets, I use a Lee factory crimp die. Three shot 100 yard groups with either of these bullets runs 1 inch or better with the banded solids being the most accurate and hitting the same place as the TSXes.

2x on the remarks above.

The Lee Collet Die is a Neck Sizer, easy to use and fine for a range, target shooting & plinking situation where you can fiddle if something goes awry.

IMO a Collet Die or Neck Sizer (opinions vary) is not adequate for relaoding ammunition to be used in a Big Game hunting situation. Such ammunition requires a Full Length Sizing Die to ensure 100% reliable ammunition. While, I'm sure you'll get some Soothsayers who claim this is Balderdash a F/L Die for a .30/06 Sprg. is about the most common F/L Die (Set) available on this planet and isn't gonna break the pocketbook.

Go with that and adjust the F/L Sizing Die to the Headspace of your rifle's chamber and you should get accurate, reliable ammunition with outstanding case life.

quote:

I have 100 cases of Lake City Match '06 brass and hundreds
of other '06 brass.

just a note here.....military brass often has quite a difference in combustion chamber and I'd warn you to separate them and load them differently as pressures can be quite a bit higher in the LC brass when loaded the same as commercial brass.

I'd recommend loading the LC brass until it was cracking etc and then dispose of it and then use the commercial brass but work up a new load for it.

Try this.....fill a LC brass with any powder....fill it to the top of the neck.....then pour the entire contents in one of your commercial brass and see how much extra room there is....if you do not find this to be the case then ignore my comments

I started out loading 30-06 with the original Lee Loaders which only neck size. If you don't load to the upper levels your brass will last a long time and accuracy will stay good. If you load to hot levels you will start getting cases which are hard to close the bolt on after 4-5 firings, this all begins with brass that has been fired in your rifle. An excellent deer load that will keep cases fitting your chamber for a long time is 44.0 grains of 3031 under the 150 grain Speer Hotcor. This gives under 2800fps but is certainly both accurate and capable on deer. At least it was in my rifle.

165gr Accubonds pushed by IMR-4064 will tote the mail. Start at 47gr of IMR-4064 and work up to what you rifle shoots most accurately. The 30-06 remains a great caliber often overlooked due to manufacturers big printed cataloged performance numbers.

Don't forget that the GI brass will have a primer crimp around the primer that will have to be removed before you reprime it. You can buy a little gizzie that will make short work of it or you can use the point of a pocketknife to ream it out. It doesn't take much and you only have to do it once.
Do seperate your brass according to GI and non GI and the non GI according to mfg. To keep it simple, I'd just work with one brand or the GI brass by itself. I agree that you need to get a F/L die to keep things simple. F/L size your cases and you'll have plenty of accuracy for deer hunting and plenty of reliability with you ammo feeding thru the magazine and into the chamber.
IMO, assuming you're using a modern bolt action rifle, the ideal deer load from a 30-06 is a standard 165gr hunting bullet of your choice (you don't need no super-dooper, bonded boutique bullet to kill a deer), 55-57grs of IMR4350, standard primer, and practice, practice, practice. From field positions. Packing those benches around in the woods gets heavy and sometimes you can't get the deer to hold still long enough to get them set up.

Thanks for the info. I have been reading the forums for a long time, just don't post much. By the way I also have a Garand I would like to reload for. I know that is different than reloading for my bolt, but I will try that when I get this reloading down. Again thanks alot.

kingd:
Mill surp match brass does not have a primer crimp. This is about the only real difference between "match" brass and ball ammo brass.

muck

Muck, dang, I didn't know that. I've 200 rounds of 1x match brass that I just have to be having, Same head stamp, same year, original boxes. I guess you never get too old to learn something. Thanks.

Congrats, the 30.06 is easy to reload for. The hard part is figuring out what components to use. I found that my rifle loves the 165 Hornady BTSP, H414 powder, and Win Lg Rifle primers. I load a mild recoil load for the 06. I get 2680 out the barrel from the 165 and it kills deer quick! This load is very accurate as well shooting under 1 moa at 100 yards. If this powder does not work than I would try H4350. Esox357.