I have been messing around with the lee collet neck sizer. My question is, Should I get a little bit of a " crush fit" when I close the bolt? Like I do when I partial re size. my rifle shoots the best when I feel the bolt close with a little resistance. But I can't seem to acheive this "fit" with the neck sizer. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks

You likely "pull" the shoulder forward with your regular neck sizers expander ball and feel it bottom on the chamber shoulder. Lubeing the case mouth helps prevent this. That or if you are partial neck sizeing with a FL sizer the shoulder is moveing foreward a bit as the case body is compressed in the die. The more tapered cartridges are not quit as prone to this. The Lee collet die doesn`t work anything except the area of the neck that it is sizeing and unless the shoulder was "blown" foreward with warm loads you wont get this.

Thanks. I will keep going

Hey chain

What loading of the cases are you on? Have they been once fired, twice fired ......?

For a reference let's look at some 30-06 reloadings I've been keeping track of lately. Reloading WW cases and neck sizing with the Lee Collet and measuring where the shoulder is with the Stoney Point Head & Shoulders Gauge:

New case - 4.040"
Once fired - 4.0485"
twice fired - 4.0505" (just beginning to feel a crush fit, depends upon how hard your bolt is to close when empty)
3 times - 4.0510" (moderate crush fit)
4 times - 4.0520" (severe crush fit)

After the fourth firing I had to push the shoulder back cause the bolt was too hard to close on the case.

My point is that you are close to the crush fit that you want from the very first firing, just not quite tight enough to feel it with the bolt yet.

Like Ol'Joe says, you can artificially create a crush fit by using a Full Length Die or a Redding Body Die (much better, no expander ball) and resizing the case body which will push the shoulder forward. You can then push it back to the right place. But you will be sacrificing the tight fit of the case body to your chamber. The case body is also expanding to a crush fit in your chamber just like the shoulder is.

IME, accuracy comes after the first firing of the cases. However, I do like it when I start the regimen after the 4th firing of using the Redding Body Die along with the Lee Collet. That way I monitor exactly where the shoulder is and I will subsequently resize the case to put the shoulder exactly in the same place for the remaining life of the case.

I guess these have been fired once in my rifle, I but them once fired and have fired them only once. I noticed that in the Lee directions that it says the lever is to come to a stop right after primer is ejected, mine doesn't do this. But I am going to keep an eye on your method as it makes sense to me. I have pretty good resistance on my reloads now, and those have shot the best. I will keep playing with the Lee dies as I want to get away from the lube and extend case life. Thanks