I am trying out a Lee collet neck sizing die for the first time and ran into a little snag.

The dies are for a 6mm Rem. The cases were once fired from factory Remington ammo.

Following the instructions, I turned the die in 1-1 1/4 after touching the shell holder and sized a few cases. I decided to test pull after reading about possible concerns in the manual and here. I could push seated bullets into the case fairly easily by pressing the tip against my bench by hand.

I screwed the die in a bit more and it had a much better "feel". Like I could feel the die working. Afterwards I could not move the bullets by hand.

I read about this method in a gun rag some time ago and wonder what everyone else does, if anything, to test bullet pull. I am concerned it is still not up to par. Can you simply mike the case neck?

I did not want to crimp to prevent working the brass as much as possible. I hope get as many firings as possible before I have to anneal or buy new cases and start over with fireforming.

Metalman,

If you measure the case neck before seating a bullet , and again after seating , you will see how tightly the case is holding the bullet.

.003 - .004 is good for ammo that sees rough handling ( semi auto and mag revolver )

.002 should be plenty in a bolt gun.

True disciples of the immaculate group typically use less , even to the point of " soft seating " , where the bullet is slip fit and actually seated the last few .001 by the rifling when chambered. This is only good for single loaded rounds !

The typical test is , as you mentioned , a firm push against the bench. Won't give you a number , but works pretty well.

Just .02


Travis F.

Collet dies are great once you get used to using them. They produce some of the straightest ammo.

I had the same problem you speak of when I got my first set of Lee Collet Dies.

The way I corrected the problem was by putting a lot of pressure on the lever, I put probably at least 50lbs on it. The key is doing it the same every time. I sort of got a feel for it after a while and I have the exact same rythm for each case. You only need to screw the die in until it touches the shell holder and one turn more.

Another way to solve the problem other than the above is to polish down the mandrel BUT, you must be very careful because you can't add any metal back once you've removed it.

You can order a mandrel from Lee to your specs if you want.

Good Luck

Reloader

Another solution

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=497361

you can put a light crimp on it. In my experience in side-by-side loaded-at-the-same-time tests a light crimp will increase velocity by 10 fps or so and decrease group size by 1/8" or so. My final step in each caliber. For $8.00 how can you go wrong?