can you use the lee collet die for a 30.30 on a 308 win?
i am looking at the die and cant see why not as it looks like it only contacts the top of the case. this should be the same thickness as the 308 so it saves me buying a second die? what do you think?
im probably missing somthing.
thanks guys greg

I have not personally tried what you are after, but you can often "fool" a Collet Die into working with a shorter cartridge than the one the die is set up for. The standard trick is to place a washer around the base of the case to force the collet to close earlier.

I don't know if this will work in your case, but it may be worth a try. Eventually, you'll probably fork out the extra 20-25$ for a .308 die.

- mike

mho has it backwards. In order to use a Lee Collet die with a LONGER case than the one for which it was designed, you can place a washer, or set of washers, on the shell holder head to keep the shoulder of the longer case from contacting the collet. This allows the collet to squeeze down on the neck and resize it.

I can't say about the .30-30/.308 combination, but it is possible, depending on how much excess "room" there is in the body area of the die. However, I suspect that the much narrower shoulder area of the .30-30 dies would contact (and crush) the .308 shoulder. The reverse might also be accomplished, athough only the upper portion of the .30-30 neck would be sized in a .308 die.

I have used the washer method to size .222 Magnums in a .223 die. But it's probably easier to (1) buy the proper die, or (2) when a caliber is unavailable, like the .222M, just take a drill bit approximately the size of the case body and drill out the collet to the right depth. I did this to convert a .22 Hornet to .22 K-Hornet. It was a five minute operation that worked like a charm.

I *hate* it when I get things wrong!
- mike

I would think it woul be better to size the 30-30 in the 308 die. I don't have a set of the 30-30 Col die but, I bet the 308 case will not go into the 30-30 die. Quite a difference in the body of each case.

Email Lee and ask what the dimensions are inside their 30-30 collet. If it's just enough to fit the 30-30 case in w/o contact, you'll be out of luck.

Good Luck

Reloader

No, it won't work! The thickness of 30-30 necks is quite a bit less than that of a .308. No matter how you were to position the case, it would fail to size the neck small enough to hold a bullet.

I once tried to use a .280 Hornady neck sizer to re-size a 7x30 waters case. it would not come close to holding a bullet!

quote:

Originally posted by grizz:
No, it won't work! The thickness of 30-30 necks is quite a bit less than that of a .308.

With the Lee Collet die, it is the diameter of the mandrel which controls the ultimate inside diameter of the brass, no matter what the thickness of the neck walls (within reason).

The answer is still no! The collet would not colapse far enough to put pressure on the neck of a 30-30 case. The collet for a 30-30 collet sizer die would have a smaller inside diameter to allow it to squeeze down the neck of the thinner 30-30 brass.

Grizz: I haven't tried it. Have you?

Not yet! I plan on getting a .308 collet sizer die, I'll try to neck size a 30-30 case to see if it can be done. I doubt it will work. but I've been wrong before, once or twice!

Edited to correct the FCD to collet die. Old age ain't all it's cracked up to be! Golden years FOOEY!

quote:

Originally posted by grizz:
but I've been wrong before, once or twice!

Not wrong! Just temporarily misinformed.

Let us know whether it works or not. It should depend on how large the gaps are between the petals of the collet. If there's enough gap, then they would sized down very thin brass. If not, they'll stop at a diameter larger than needed.

quote:

can you use the lee collet die for a 30.30 on a 308 win?

I just re-read Greg's question. I miss-read it the first time, he's asking if he can use an existing 30-30 collet die on a .308! In THAT application I believe it would work! The length of both cases is nearly the same, so it should work. I'll give the other way a try when I get the .308 collet die.

Doh! The light just went on! Ya know like in the cartoons, the little light bulb in a balloon? I have a 7-08 that I load for AND a collet sizer for it! I also load for the 7X30 Waters. So I tried to neck size a 7x30 Waters in the 7-08 collet die. It worked! I seated a 7mm bullet in the sized case, I COULD seat it further with hard pressure against my loading bench, but that's about the bullet pull I get using the collet sizer in it's proper applications. So, in that particular application it IS possible.

Since I don't own a 30-30, I won't be able to test the idea Greg has, but I could do the same test I just did for .308 to 30-30,( I have plenty of 30-30's for necking down to 7X30).