i got a lee case length guage and shellholder for my .243 i got the ball cutter as well. i had never trimmed cases before and there werent any instructions so i went to the you tube. i screwed my depth guage in my cutter and started trimming with my drill. i noticed it was taking a long time and when it stopped throwing brass shavings i checked the case lenght and it was 1.910 inches long! supposed to be a max lenght of 2.045 inches. i think someone screwed up somewhere and it wasnt me.

quote:

if at first you dont succeed. blow it up.

Just follow your signature line.


As to the question cannot help never used Lee but do like your sig.

lol thanks. lee told me i need to use the lock stud. i told them i was cause thats the only way to use my drill for it. they said i was wrong. so looks like no more lee stuff for me. didnt even offer a replacement.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/faq/index.cgi

Case length gauge explained

Screw the case length gauge (the part with the pin that goes through the case) all the way into the cutter. There should also have been a shell holder with threads on the inside, that screws onto the lock stud. This locks the case into the shell holder/lock stud assembly.

Now, when you trim the unprimed case, the pin on the end of the case length gauge bottoms out against the lock stud when the correct case length is reached. There is a picture illustrating this on the back of the case length gauge package.

yeah thats what i did. theres no other way to use it on my drill without using the shellholder and the lock stud. i checked the length of the case lenght guage against my friends 308 and its noticibly shorter holding them side by side. it also is quite loose as his is a very close tolerance with the inside of the case neck. i think i got a smaller caliber that was stamped .243. either way lee didnt want to offer any help on it. so i guess instead of buying a new lee press im going to dish out the extra money and buy a rcbs one and maybe a few more sets of dies as rcbs is by far a superior product with superior customer service.

quote:

Originally posted by craveman85:
so looks like no more lee stuff for me.

IMO it will be your loss.

Yes you MUST use a stop, whether the lock stud or the ZipTrim hub WITH the shellholder and case trim guage and cutter.

I use the Lee case trimmers frequently, with excellent results.
Also, the Collet Neck sizing die (and the deluxe kits) are a bargain.

(I do not say that lightly, having used (and still use) expensive Custom made and off the shelf Benchrest grade dies)

oh the signature came from off roading with a dodge intrepid i had. i removed the front fenders, put some wheel spacers on it and ran some small mud tires on it with a snorkel. had 1 obstical it could not overcome. there was a tree in the middle of a mud hole. the car still sits there under a fresh table top for the dirt bike track.

i contacted them again to give them one chance to redeem themselves. talked to the same guy. told him the over all length of the case length guage was 0.105 inches shorter than a .308 case length guage. his reply was that the .308 is a shorter case than the .243. only thing he said that was right. if a .243 case is longer than a .308 case then shouldnt the length guage be longer? apparently not in the eyes of customer service people. then he tried telling me that it was trimming to the correct length for factory ammo. a factory case i checked was 2.040 inches long. i checked 50 of them and there was one that was .002 under and one .004 over that mark. lee is dead to me.

quote:

Originally posted by craveman85:
i got a lee case length guage and shellholder for my .243 i got the ball cutter as well. i had never trimmed cases before and there werent any instructions so i went to the you tube. i screwed my depth guage in my cutter and started trimming with my drill. i noticed it was taking a long time and when it stopped throwing brass shavings i checked the case lenght and it was 1.910 inches long! supposed to be a max lenght of 2.045 inches. i think someone screwed up somewhere and it wasnt me.

Leave it as is, do the rest of the cases, rechamber the rifle, and give the new cartridge a name...

Being loose and trimming to 1.91 sounds to me like you simply have the guage (guide or whatever they call it) for a 22-250. I believe it is 1.91"

I am surprised.

It does not reflect my experience with Lee at all.

They have made custom length gauges, dies, moulds, etc.

If it were me and I had your experience i would be miffed.

I would Email customer service explain the situation AND attach a link to this thread
and/or mail the them part.

I bet They will fix it.

Hey Craveman, I just measured my Lee Case Length/Trim Gauge from the Tip to where it touches the Cutter and it measures 2.035". It has a recessed band near the Tip where 243WIN is Stamped.

If yours is different than that, then you do have a problem. Call back and if you get the same guy, ask to talk with whoever he reports to.

Best of luck to you.

quote:

Originally posted by craveman85:
so looks like no more lee stuff for me.

lee is dead to me.

instead of buying a new lee press im going to dish out the extra money and buy a rcbs one

Good for you. That'll show 'em. See if the made in china RCBS stuff is any better.

quote:

rcbs is by far a superior product with superior customer service.

Well...you may be right about green's customer service. But if they didn't screw up as often as anyone else who would know if their C.S. was good or not? (Somehow I can't get warm and fuzzy about "made in China" reloading tools.)

It's certain you have a length pin for .22-250.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Being loose and trimming to 1.91 sounds to me like you simply have the guage (guide or whatever they call it) for a 22-250. I believe it is 1.91"

Yep
I'll wager it's a mis-marked depth stop.
Measure it & if its diameter isn't .243 but .224 then you know the answer.
I've actually abandoned my Forster trimmer & reverted to the Lees system because it is more consistent & accurate than the "lathe" type case trimmer.

I would post the trim pilot to Lee with a polite letter explaining the Customer Services experience. I would be surprised if Lee did not set right the problem. Lee products in my experience are inexpensive and very reliable.

+1 on the returning it to Lee. I can't believe they won't make it right. I've never had this type of trouble with Lee. If you got a mis-marked .22-250 instead of a .243 then chances are, someone else will get one too.

Crave, trimming your brass a little short isn't that unusual. It will just be that much longer before you have to trim them again.

quote:

Originally posted by Antelope Sniper:
Crave, trimming your brass a little short isn't that unusual. It will just be that much longer before you have to trim them again.

Maybe if it's ten thou or so but more than a tenth of an inch is a tad too much IMO.

Remember back in the day when we all had the tin cut outs, one for oal, and one for trim to lengths before we all got micrometers? On some of those, the trim to length was more then .1" under max case length.

quote:

Leave it as is, do the rest of the cases, rechamber the rifle, and give the new cartridge a name...

..... or keep trimming and you'll eventually have thick-walled 45 acp cases stamped .243 Win. It's actually alot less effort to purchase new 45 acp cases.

quote:

Originally posted by craveman85:
yeah thats what i did. theres no other way to use it on my drill without using the shellholder and the lock stud. i checked the length of the case lenght guage against my friends 308 and its noticibly shorter holding them side by side. it also is quite loose as his is a very close tolerance with the inside of the case neck. i think i got a smaller caliber that was stamped .243. either way lee didnt want to offer any help on it. so i guess instead of buying a new lee press im going to dish out the extra money and buy a rcbs one and maybe a few more sets of dies as rcbs is by far a superior product with superior customer service.

Very many years ago I had the same problem with lee in one of their hand target loaders. The spud with the pin was too short and ruined my first case. Had a set of Lee 222 dies also, used them on my match cases and it scratched the hell out of them. The vent hole had a bur on the inside. I removed the die from my RCBS press and chucked it out the back door. Two days later my neighbor two doors down found it with his mower. When all you pay is peanuts all you get is monkeys. It only hurts once to buy the best, the first time. I guess that's a lesson learned.

Someone beat me to wrong caliber stamped on it. My other thouhgt was a missing part; collar or depth stop. I've used a lot of Lee stuff with very few problems so I can't say anything about there customer service. RCBS has good customer service. RCBS sent me parts for their trimmer this summer that may not have been in mine when I got ten years ago, they also sent the threaded parts I damaged using it with out the brass slugs under the set set screws.

craveman, check and make sure you don't have the .243 WSSM (.243 Winchester Short Mag) case length gauge.

I'm sure you don't have the .22-250 gauge because you could see that immediately. The .224 case gauge would be a very sloppy fit in the .243 case neck.

If you're absolutely sure that Lee provided you with a .243 Win. marked case length gauge, you can adjust the length as follows:

1. have several SIZED cases that need trimming (measure to make sure they NEED trimming).

2 remove the case length gauge from the cutter.

3. apply BLUE Loctite (242) on the threads of the case length gauge.

4. reinstall case gauge onto cutter BUT DO NOT TWIST TO THE POINT WHERE THE CASE GAUGE CONTACTS THE CUTTERS (I use vice-grips with a piece of biycycle innertube to protect the gauge from the jaws of the vicegrips)

5. adjust as desired BEFORE THE LOCTITE SETS

I suggest trim length should be only about .003" under max. OAL.

With repeated use, you'll find that the tip of the case length gauge make a little dimple in the case holder (and trim length will decrease a few more thousandths under max. OAL. But this only occurs after A LOT of cases have been trimmed.

quote:

Originally posted by craveman85:
i got a lee case length guage and shellholder for my .243 i got the ball cutter as well. i had never trimmed cases before and there werent any instructions so i went to the you tube. i screwed my depth guage in my cutter and started trimming with my drill. i noticed it was taking a long time and when it stopped throwing brass shavings i checked the case lenght and it was 1.910 inches long! supposed to be a max lenght of 2.045 inches. i think someone screwed up somewhere and it wasnt me.

Craveman, unscrew the gauge pin from the cutter and measure it from the end of the pin to the shoulder that abuts the cutter. It should read no less than 2.035. That's the trim to length. If it's shorter call Lee Ent. back and tell them that they made the gauge wrong and give them the dimension that you have. That pin should be the same length as your case should be after it's trimmed, usually .010 under the specified case length. Good luck Dude!

I am not going to argue about which products made from Richard Lee patents are made better--the ones in red boxes or the leased patent ones in green boxes, or whose customer service reps might be grouchier or less prone to suffer fools gladly. I will say that there are instructions for using the tool under discussion. http://www.leeprecision.com/ht...elpVideos/video.html You might note that Lee does not show it being used with a drill.

My own experience with it is that the locking of the tool leaves much to be desired, and if you use it with a drill, you'd better be sure you have the thing screwed down tight. If the thing loosens up under power and you don't know it you can certainly trim a neck a lot more than you really want.

Any rifle cases that I want to use to shoot target groups get trimmed on a lathe type trimmer. I like the Lee system for pistol cases since I don't have to trim a lot or often and doing them by hand is not a problem. Rifle cases are another matter. The Lee system will trim anything over "Lee Length" but it does not tell you how much shorter the cases that did not need trimming were. I have found that these cases can be short enough to cause flyers when shooting target loads. I always check all my rifle cases with calipers and trim all to the shortest reasonable case length. The Lee trimmer encourages you to skip this kind of crucial checking.

[QUOTE] My own experience with it is that the locking of the tool leaves much to be desired, and if you use it with a drill, you'd better be sure you have the thing screwed down tight. If the thing loosens up under power and you don't know it you can certainly trim a neck a lot more than you really want.

QUOTE]

I don't know what kind of system your using but the lee system is designed to be used with a drill. The stop at the bottom of the shell holder that screws into it had a stub for a drill. If the gauge spud comes loose, your running the drill backwards... If the gauge spud measures less than 2.035 it's too short and should not be used... The measurement of concern is the tip of the spud that enters the primer flash hole to the shoulder at the threaded end that abuts the cutter. Drill powered or by hand, if the spud is too short by golly it is wrong... My experience was that the spud was too short that many years ago. Don't read stuff into what is not there. Nuff said.

quote:

Any rifle cases that I want to use to shoot target groups get trimmed on a lathe type trimmer.

Again not my experience.
let's see--in front of me sits a Redding micrometer trimmer, a Forster, an RCBS and more than a few Wilson trim dies.

I do not find the consistency of any of the the lathe types to be better than the Lee Zip Trim and Pilots properly assembled.

Currently , I am shooting Long Range with a .308 LRS-2 Blaser, a Tac-2 338 Lapua Blaser and a Harris Talon 300RUM.

All are trimmed, chamfered and polished on a ZipTrim.

Groups are as good OR BETTER than any of my other lathe type trimmers.

that is my experience--Your mileage may vary.