Gentlemen,

I have been experimenting with a Lee Collet Neck sizing die in my .303 British. It seems like about half of the cases sized don't have enough neck tension to hold the bullet in place. I am trying to be very consistent about the motion and the brass used.

What have you done that has helped this problem?

Thanks in advance.

Joel Slate
Slate & Associates, LLC
www.slatesafaris.com

7mm Rem Mag Page www.slatesafaris.com/7mm.htm

Joel,

This sounds like your brass has uneven neck thickness.

You might be able to improve things by taking out the sizing button and polishing it a bit. You have to remove a bit of material until you get the desired results.

------------------
saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

Screw the die in until it touches the shellholder.If not enough tension,screw the die in little by little until it does have enough grip on the bullet.When you are satisfied remember to size and turn the case 90 degrees and size again.This is what the directions say to do for best accuracy and decreased runout.It works well for me and the bullet seating die is great,it must be set to touch the shellholder also.Good luck.

Tula,

basically I agree with you, but the directions on the die state, "Screw in until it contacts the shellholder, then screw in one turn more". use that as your starting baseline and make adjustments from that point.

A couple of other recommendations:

(1) Disassemble die and make sure it is clean
(2) Spin collet fingers in some emery cloth to remove any burs from manufacturing (they're not always there, but sometimes are)
(3) Place dab of grease on collet fingers and reassemble
(4) Adjust die according to directions and have at it
(5) If tension is still unsatisfactory, either remove mandrel and polish with paper in an electric drill or send $5.00 to Lee and order an undersized mandrel, or get some new brass

Martindog

I usually rotate the brass 45 degrees (not 90, as this would just place the four-section collet back in the same place -- you want to squeeze the small sections of neck brass that fall into the gaps between the collet prongs, not "resqueeze" the same section) and give it a second "squeeze" to even up the neck tension. This is quick and easy and becomes second nature after using the die for a while.

Make sure that your die is adjusted low enough to give full compression to the collet. If properly adjusted and "squeezed" twice, you can feel resistance as the neck "drags" off of the mandrel.

If both of these methods fail, then do as suggested and "slim" the mandrel down with emory cloth or order an smaller-sized mandrel from the factory. In my experience, the mandrels tend to be a bit too large in general (but the factory knows that it's impossible to make the one that comes with your die larger, while you can make it smaller if necessary).

Good Luck!

My first attempts using the Lee collet neck die were disasterous. I either buckled the case necks or didn't get enough neck tension. I took it apart and it looked to me like the insides were just too roughly finished to work properly. I polished the collet and the mouth of the collet sleeve (the part that squeezes the collet) with some wet/dry sandpaper and 3 in 1 oil starting at 320 grit and working up to 1200 grit. I then chucked the mandrel in my drill press and polished it down .001". When I reassembled everything I used a little lithium grease on the collet where it enters the collet sleeve. This whole process doesn't take as long as it sounds and the results are well worth it. Now when I buy one of these Lee collet dies, the first thing I do is polish the internals. I haven't had any problems since doing this first and my ammo has almost zero runout.

Gentlemen,

Thanks so much for the help. I will experiment a bit with it when I get home from work. I have noticed that the rounds which have been sized properly that I have shot seem to be very accurate, often less than an inch at 100 yards, which isn't too bad for an old army rifle.

Thanks again...!!

Joel Slate
Slate & Associates, LLC
www.slatesafaris.com

7mm Rem Mag Page www.slatesafaris.com/7mm.htm