I am thinking about buying Lee dies for my new 308. So far I ha ve been using RCBS for 222 Rem and 243 Win. What are your opinions on Lee products?

The Lee Collet Neck Die in the Deluxe set does a beautiful job. HOWEVER, the threaded cap is made of aluminum. I made some nice cases with a new Lee Collet Die. All three of them. The fourth stripped the threads of the aluminum cap. On some cases, you have to exert considerable pressure. The more you turn the die down, the tighter the collet makes the neck purchase. I wound up going to Ace hardware and picked up a steel bolt to use instead of having Lee replace my broken part with another cheap aluminum cap. I believe it takes a 3/4" 16TPI.

I have the Lee Deluxe die set in 30.06 and the collet die set in .375H&H. I think they are both great sets. I have Lyman in .270 win, a herter's die set in .264 win mag, and RCBS in everything else.
I bought the Lee's last. I wish I would have discovered them First. Great dies at a price that can't be beat, plus comes with caliber load info and shell holder.
I do use Lee carbide dies in all 4 handgun cartridges I reload for.

Collet dies have a accuracy guarantee, the RGB dies are less than $10 the way I see it you can't go wrong.

I just got a set of .223 rem. deluxe dies and can find no problems yet. I like not having to lube the cases with the collet sizer. When loading a lot of rounds, not having to lube saves time.

I am a total fan of Lee Deluxe dies. The Collet Neck Sizing Die is a thing of pure brilliance. No lube, no stress on the brass, but there's a problem. I think SST has been a victim of the Collet Die problem. You cannot under any circumstances "turn them down" for a tighter neck. The principle of the Collet Die is that it forms the neck against the mandrel which holds the decapping pin. If the diameter of that mandrel is .242" it doesn't matter how far you "turn it down" you cannot get a neck less than .242". But you can strip the threads on the aluminum safety cap and force the innards right out the top of the die. Lee made it that way on purpose. The most dangerous thing with a Collet Die is an RCBS Rock Chucker or similar press which has enough leverage to do lots of damage when misused. The directions for the Collet Die clearly tell how to set up the die, to resize before the press cams over. When this is done, it literally only takes the weight of your arm on the lever (25 lbs. actually) to fully neck size a case. If you go slowly, you can actually feel the resizing take place. This is not an application for more muscle or a bigger hammer. I have seen several Collet Dies that have had the top punched out by Rock Chuckers and guys who didn't feel a need to read the instructions.

The Collet Die principle is the best of any die I've ever seen. Even the Redding collet die, which is an excellent piece of equipment, especially if you want to tinker with "bullet crush", works the neck of the case. The Lee die simply presses the neck against a mandrel, no lube, no unnecessary working of the brass.

The Lee dies are great, very inexpensive, give them a try.

The collet die teamed up with the factory crimp die is like peas and carrots.The seater die that comes with the collet die bottoms out at full stroke for very accurate seating depth.Its hard to get neck tension perfectly.....the crimp die easily corrects this.Gentle pressure with the crimp die is the key at least in my rifles.For less than $10 it`s a great buy.

Practically all my dies are Lee, and they work fine for me.

There is one thing to look out for. About 1/3 of my Lee dies had internal burrs. In one case, I was getting to scratches down the neck of the case, 180 degrees apart. You could definitely see that the last tool through that die had two flutes. In about three other cases, there was a burr clear around where then neck joins the shoulder. This would scrape the entire neck of the case. The strangest was a burr clear around the inside of a bullet seater die. When you pressed a bullet into place, the burr would tightly grip it, and pull it back out when your reversed the lever.

In all cases, 30 seconds with a Dremel tool fixed the problem.

So the net is, I use them, and like them, but wish they would be a bit more "sanitary" in their finish work.

The collet die may hold a bullet a little tighter if you size the neck again. Turn the case a little before you do this.

The internal mandrel in the die could be polished down some also if necessary. Try running them thru more than once first of course.

reedg makes a good point regarding using the collet die with a Rockchucker. My Lee Deluxe Set is for a 300 WinMag. If the die is turned down too far, the leverage on a Rockchucker will either crunch a case or blow the aluminum cap off the top if you don't stop camming down when you feel the collet close. Even though the directions state: "Extra bullet grip can be obtained by screwing the die in an additional quarter-turn.", you must have the die turned into a Rockchucker more than that to have a feel for it so leverage and a strong arm don't get you there before you know it.

Even though the directions state that you can get a tighter bullet grip by turning the die down an extra 1/4 turn, the best way to get there is to simply polish the mandrel, and be careful not to reduce its diameter by more than .001".

[ 08-23-2003, 22:20: Message edited by: SST ]

Thanks a lot! With your info I will buy Lee dies without uncertinity about the quality of the handloads.

Just a couple of observations.
1) I am a big Lee die fan, especially the collet dies. They must however be used properly.
2) If you need more neck tension, you have two options. Lee will provide mandrels for collet dies in any diameter you specify (for $7.00 I believe). Or you can chuck it in a drill and use emery cloth to take .001" or so off it. I did that for my 7mm-08. Then when you resize it will take less effort, or if you use the same effort, it will resize a little more.
3) The latest dies I have bought from Lee have had a really great finish both inside and out. I was impressed with not only the sizing and bullet seating dies, but also the factory crimp dies seemed to be of better finish than previous dies from Lee. The internal finish of the collet dies used to be a common gripe. Apparently Lee has been listening to it's customers and making positive changes. My collet dies are very smooth and work very well right of the box.
I think Lee has come from the rear, and being looked down upon as making cheap reloading equipment, to the forefront and making some of the most ingenious, highest quality reloading tools made today. They are not engineered to be 50 or 75 times stronger than you need like the others. They are designed to work and work well, very well. I love the turret press and think it is the best buy in reloading.

Just purchased as set of Lee Factory Crimp dies for my 308. I use them for several other cartridges and like them. Inexpensive but produce good quality reloads. Until the new 308 dies. Put my first lubed case (new) into the sizing die. Couldn't get it past the EZ expander ridge. It was pretty roughly machined and the ridge caught on the the mouth of the brass. A little clean up with some very fine sandpaper and the drill press and back into business. Well, not quite. The brass goes through the expander fine, but now the neck sizing portion of the die is so rough all around that there are many visible scratches on the brass. A quick check shows that the neck portion was never polished like the body portion of the die. Packed it up and sent it back to Lee yesterday. I hope to get it back soon. Must...shoot...new...rifle....soon.

I have collet dies for every caliber! I love them and less bullet runout than some of the other better known brands.

I just purchased my first set of collet dies and am impressed with the neck runout. I have been a redding "s" series and wilson buyer till this point.

BUT,..how the hell do you get the FL die to NOT introduce anywhere from .003-.007" runout? I tinkered with the body adjustment up and down some,..but got frustrated quickly, as my cases were nice and straight after firing Does anyone have a BETTER direction to set the FL die in a rockchucker press??

I agree with all the posters above who say that Lee dies are excellent in quality and well worth the money. I love their powder measure too, and the hand priming tool.

JustC,
Have you tried removing the expander ball?

Once the expander ball makes the brass crooked, sometimes firing does not straighten it out completely.
Try some new brass, resize without the ball. See if you can seat a bullet.

Once I got rid of the big run out problem of the expander ball, then I was after the small problems the seater makes. Sleeved seater dies get rid of that cause of run out.

I guess I did forget that one of the last couple of die sets I bought from Lee had a rough expander. I hardly ever full length size, so I've forgotten about it. When someone mentioned it above it jogged my memory. I used some jeweler's rouge on crocus cloth to polish it to a mirror finish, which didn't really change the dimention at all. Now it's smooth as silk. They could be better in that respect, but in all honesty it would add to the cost and it's easy to fix. They are a great value and really the RCBS dies I've seen lately haven't been all that impressive, their expanders are rough also.

[ 08-28-2003, 17:17: Message edited by: Bobby ]

Clark,..being that the decapping rod in the FL die is held by a collet as well,..would you suggest simply taking the two recommended wrenches and taking the die apart,..and removing the ball? How difficult are these dies to put back together with reguards to the collet that holds the stem? as you can tell,.I am a newbie with these dies.

Thanks

LEE Dies
Lee dies do a very job but, should be restricted to their presses. There are not enough threads on the Lee dies to be able to screw them down far enough.
I E-Mailed Lee Precision about this. They lied and would not admit their dies lack of threads. Their 2003 catalog advertises "Now with Longer Threads". Did they find out that people want to use their dies on CONVENTIONAL PRESSES?