I was prepping some .243 brass (new) for loading the other night and was using my LEE collet neck sizing die to true the necks and set neck tension to a uniform amount.

After a few, I noticed my die seeming to want to "stick" to the cases, making the extraction a little difficult. Not to many cases later, one really stuck. I gave it a little elbow grease and walla, I tore the neck right off the case. It is now stuck in the die on the mandrel.

Couple of questions:

What the heck did I do wrong?

How do I go about fixing the problem?

What do I do to make sure I don't do it again.

Thanks for your help.

300winnie
I sent mine back to LEE and they replaced it with a brand new one. Have not had the problem again.

Send it back to Lee and they will replace it.

I had a similar problem w/ a 300WM Collet die that was a quite a few years old. I was able to fix the problem by taking the die apart cleaning it well and polishing the Mandrel a bit which seemed to make it work well since. That's the only collet die problem I've had. I do believe that Lee should have more than 2 years of warranty.

The collet dies dure do produce straight ammo.

Good Luck

Reloader

From my experance the 2 years limmit is not inforced .
I sent a Lee die back that was 10+ years old and looked it .
I was FL sizing 30-06 and got one stuck .
Tryed to remove it , failed , just riped off the case head ( my falt), called Lee .
They said send it in .
They replaced it with no questions .

Johnch

Lee is good about making customers happy; I was having fits with a bullet seating die that had a plunger that didn't work with all bullets. I sent them an email, and they sent me a new plunger, no questions asked.

Ha, got you guys beat with Lee's warranty.

Had a 6 cavity .38 swc mold about 6-7 yrs old and had cast at least 1000# of bullets. The sprue plate pin wouldn't stay in. So as I was returning a ProPot IV with three times as much use for a rebuild. I just included the mold with a note explaining the life of it and it's use. Expecting to pay for the repairs and getting the same mold back.

They rebuilt the pot to like new for $12, and replaced the mold with a brand new one @ n/c.

---------------

Another time I happened to come up with enough cash to buy a Load Master press they claim is so wonderful. After fighting with it a couple yrs eating those dinky lil plastic $2 parts. I'd given up and used it as a single stroker til about five yrs. Decided to do something about it and tried again to make it work and couldn't. Wrote C/S @ Lee. Got a nice letter from Dave Shono, to box everything up I didn't want and ship it back. They'd refund the current list price unless I could provide the purchase papers, which I couldn't by then.

Knowing their melting pots, molds, case trimmers and some other items were great. I made a three page list til I was sure of owing them on top of the refunded amounts. Lo and behold within two weeks I got a big box of goodies without any paperwork. The next day an envelope came with the ticket and a refund check for over $300. Amazing and this was over FIVE full years!

Lee Precision, may not have everything as perfect as they believe and advertize, but, they are a good sound, honest company willing to go to the far end toward satisfying some of us assholes that don't deserve it. I wish them well.

George

quote:

From my experance the 2 years limmit is not inforced .
I sent a Lee die back that was 10+ years old and looked it .
I was FL sizing 30-06 and got one stuck .
Tryed to remove it , failed , just riped off the case head ( my falt), called Lee .
They said send it in .
They replaced it with no questions .

Ya'll have had better experience w/ Lee than me.

I nicely asked them to fix a Collet die once and they told me that if it was over two years old they would charge to fix it. It was going to be just as expensive as buying the die new again.

Maybe I got ahold of the wrong fella that day. I can't complain. They have the warranty written clear as day in the package.

I'll still buy the Collet Dies not for Lee's service by any means but, purely because they produce very straight rounds.

Reloader