I am trying a 22 PPC Lee Collet Die on my .221 Fireball brass.

It will size .165 of the neck leaving .048 unsized by the shoulder.

Will this cause any problems?
Thanks,

Hawkeye58

If what you describe, means that the top .165" of the neck (from the case mouth) is sized, and the remainder of the neck towards the shoulder is unsized, then in principle that is not a problem.

In fact, a lot of reloaders use partial sizing of the neck to ensure the unsized part of the neck centers the round in the chamber. A lot of people claim good results with this technique. Often such partial sizing is achieved using bushing dies.

As with all neck sizing, eventually you'll need to FL size your cases. But whether this point is reached earlier when you only partially size your necks??

One word of caution. The Collet die is not exactly known for creating a lot of neck tension. If you only size a part of the neck, this problem could become accentuated. So you need to pay attention to your neck tension, possibly using an undersized mandrel if you find you are getting too little tension.

- mike

quote:

mho

Thanks,
You seem to agree with my thinking. Just wanted another opinion to verify I wasn't missing something.

I have polished a few thousandths off of the mamdrel on other Lee collet dies to increase my neck tension.

Hawkeye58

I id the same, took some fine paper to the mandrel and polished her backa little, increased necktension to an acceptable level

If you wanted to size more of the neck, you could use a .222 Collet die and machine (hell, just use a grinder) the proper amount off of the base of the collet where it engages the shellholder. This would, in effect, create a .221 Collet die.

Alternatively, you could machine as much as possible off of the top surface of your shellholder to have the collet reach a little more of the neck.

quote:

machine the proper amount off of the base of the collet where it engages the shellholder

That's what I ended up doing. Took the die apart and used a file to remove about .040 inch

Works great.

Thanks,
Hawkeye58