Will a regular Lee 223 Rem Collet neck sizer die work on 223 AI brass?

Mine does
Lyle
AKA yuman

Thanks much. I was going to rechamber a 22 Hornet 22"Contender barrel to 223Rem but if the dies and rechamber jobs is the same price I might as well go with the 223AI chamber.

The Lee collet dies work fine for my 223AI in a single stage press. My hunting buddy uses them in his Dillon too.

Glad to hear it works without modification. The .22 Hornet Collet die won't work on a .22 K-Hornet, but it was a simple job to take a drill bit of the right diameter and enlarge the shoulder area of the collet enough for the K-Hornet to enter freely.

Stonecreek: Did you know that you can put a washer on top of the shellholder and only size the upper part of the neck? Had a Mod 44 Nagaant that I wanted to neck size for but Lee dosen't sell one off the shelf for it but will make a Collet die for it but as a two die set and they want about $65 for them. I bought a uses 308Win collet die at a show for $5 and took the parts out of my 303Brit collet sizer and used a washer the thickness of the difference between the two cases (308Win and 7.64x54) and necksized the cases. If the Nagant had used .308 bullets I could have used the 308 die as it was with a washer of the right thickness. If you start with a shorter collet die you can size any case of the same cal with the right thickness of washers. 308Win will do 300 Weatherby and a 7-08 will will do a 7STW. It would notwork with the 7RUM as the body on the RUM is too large in dia. to fit in the 7-08 die. A 260Rem will do 6.5 Jap-6.5 Carcano-6.5x55-264Win. A 222Rem will do 223Rem -223AI-222Mag Mag-222MagAI. As long as the cartridge you are neck sizeing is the same caliber-is longer- and has a smaller or same body dia. as the die that you are usesing it should work if you uses the right thickness of spacers. One situation were it might not work is sizeing a 30-30 in a 308Win die as the case is longer -its the same caliber- the body dia is smaller but the brass at the neck is so thin that it might size down on the post running down the center.

Fat Albert: Yes, and I do that with a couple of calibers. Specifically, I use a .223 Collet die to neck size .222 Magnum (for which Lee makes no die). I also used a .300 Win die for .300 H&H, but a while back I had occasion to order some parts from Lee, so I got a .300 H&H collet and mandrel/decapper and now use that inserted in a long collet die body.

Curiously, due to the short neck on the .300 Win Mag, you could choose to use two washers and size the forward portion of the H&H neck, or just use one washer which would leave the H&H case mouth slightly belled. I tried both and could see no difference in accuracy (both very good), but settled on sizing the forward portion since the slight bell of the mouth could catch the edge of the chamber and theoretically cause feeding problems. It also looked like a lint trap.

The reason that the die collet has to be reamed for a .22 K-Hornet is that its shoulder is so much larger than the regular Hornet that it will not enter the Hornet collet. I could have bought a replacement collet for sizing regular Hornet brass, but the modified collet sizes the upper 60% or so of the neck, which works quite nicely with the regular Hornet.

I also use a .222 collet die with the bottom .30" or so ground off to size .221 Fireball. Simply obtaining a replacement .222 collet from Lee allows me utilize the same die for .222 when I desire.