I have started accumulating my .257 Weatherby brass formed from 7mm Remington Magnum brass and fired in my gun.

I am thinking that neck sizing is the way to go from here, but do not see Lee making a collet die in this cartridge.

What are your opinions on the best way to go from here, and what brand of neck dies should I be looking at if that is the consensus?

Thanks.

If it's just a hunting gun, I'd probably just use the full length die to do a partial resize, that's probably your best bet. On the flip side, if you wanted to get real serious about it you could get something like a Redding bushing die or something along those lines. I don't think anything in between is worth fooling with... and that's coming from someone who's resized a bunch of cases with double radius shoulders.

I absolutely adore the .257 (and other smaller) Wby calibers. But one thing which is not very nice about these cartridges, is the general lack of choice as far as dies are concerned.

You are correct, there is no Lee Collet Die available for the .257 Wby. However, Lee will make you one for a fairly modest sum: Lee Custom Collet Die Instructions.

From Redding, only the type S neck and FL bushing dies are available if you want to go the bushing way. No Competition Bushing dies for these calibers, I'm afraid.

Another option (other than just a run of the mill die) for the .257 Wby, is to get a Forster FL sizing die for that caliber, and then have Forster modify the die to be used without an expander. This should get you straight cases after sizing, but you won't have the option of changing bushings to vary your neck tension. So you basically have to settle on a single outside dimension for your neck to be sized to - and have to live with varying springback depending on how work hardened your cases are. This sounds like a drawback in comparison to the Redding type-S bushing dies, but there are signs in the stars and the moon, that a fixed die (i.e. without bushings) will provide less runout than a bushing die. See this article on 6mmbr.com about the modification of the Forster dies. Btw, I believe Hornady does a similar modification, if you like Hornady dies...

So, although the .257 Wby is not blessed with a bunch of die choices, there are a few in addition to just standard dies. I don't know which route you'll choose to go, but I would personally stay away from (regular) NS dies - and only NS with something like a Lee Collet or a Redding type-S NS die. Regular NS dies are often a bit iffy when it comes to producing straight ammo. Just a personal opinion.

- mike