Okay gents, I'm about to order the Redding Competition Shellholders along with a headspace gauge. I plan to use these with my Redding body die and Lee Collet neck sizer. Of course my intention is to "properly" set the headspacing measured at the shoulder.

Now from what I've read doing much searching here on AR and other places, I've read that you should set the headspacing 0.001" to 0.002" less than a fire formed case. But I live in Arizona and I try to shoot virtually year round. So, I'm concerned with temperature variation.

Do I have a valid concern?

Also, has anyone else used this combination of Redding comp shellholders, body die and collet necksizer? If so, did you find a noticeable improvement?

Not with temperature and the head to shoulder distance. If your ammo gets that hot you should worry about pressure first.

The Lee collet sizer does not size the neck as much as I like for hunting rounds. I have several but I prefer to use a FL sizer for most rounds especially hunting ammo. When I want more precision I use a bushing neck sizer.

quote:

The Lee collet sizer does not size the neck as much as I like for hunting rounds

I had to take some sand paper to mine

I bump my shoulders .003/.005 and measure across the C/L datum of the shoulder.

Like this...

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Originally posted by ramrod340:

quote:

The Lee collet sizer does not size the neck as much as I like for hunting rounds

I had to take some sand paper to mine

I should probably mentioned I ordered a smaller mandrel for the collet neck sizer that squeezes the neck down to what my RCBS FL die sets the neck too.

quote:

I should probably mentioned I ordered a smaller mandrel for the collet neck sizer that squeezes the neck down to what my RCBS FL die sets the neck too.

No expander with the lee, seating a flat base bullet into a tight neck can be a problem. Boatails will act as an expander, so not a problem. For hunting, just send 3 fired brass to RCBS and have custom dies made.

Is this for a bolt action, break open single shot or a gas gun?

Larry Gibson

It's for my bolt action Tikka.

Why not just neck size and leave it at that and when they start giving a little resistance in chambering full length size the. Another alternative is to partial size in a full length sizer die.

I have a few Lee collet dies and only have problems with the one for my 22 Hornet. I've polished the mandrel down and it improved just a tab. The one I have for my 30-06 is absolutely great.

quote:

Originally posted by SmokinJ:
Why not just neck size and leave it at that and when they start giving a little resistance in chambering full length size the. Another alternative is to partial size in a full length sizer die.

I have a few Lee collet dies and only have problems with the one for my 22 Hornet. I've polished the mandrel down and it improved just a tab. The one I have for my 30-06 is absolutely great.

I've gone the neck sizing route using just the collet neck sizer, but was just not real comfortable with how tight the spent case was and how much effort it took to open the bolt.

I've been neck sizing with lee collect dies for about a year, and it has decreed my group size and have had no problems. This is my first experience with lee dies, other than the lock rings which suck, and have been replaced, I kinda like their dies for the price. I'm reloading for a bolt action, and an Ackley improved case if that helps.

It depends on what you are shooting. For DG I'd bump more than for prarie dogs.

0.002" to 0.003" works just fine for me for plains game hunting.

Lee Collet dies work fine (or great!), but you may need to bump the shoulder from time to time. That seems to depend on the load, the brass and the chamber. Some more often than others.

By the way, and you may know this (but I did not!).... headspace will increase initially as you size. The body of the case is squeezed smaller and needs to go somewhere - it goes into length. As you adjust the die down it will reach a point where you start reducing the headspace; but don't be alarmed to see it increase before you decrease it!

quote:

Originally posted by ARWL:
It depends on what you are shooting. For DG I'd bump more than for prarie dogs.

0.002" to 0.003" works just fine for me for plains game hunting.

Lee Collet dies work fine (or great!), but you may need to bump the shoulder from time to time. That seems to depend on the load, the brass and the chamber. Some more often than others.

By the way, and you may know this (but I did not!).... headspace will increase initially as you size. The body of the case is squeezed smaller and needs to go somewhere - it goes into length. As you adjust the die down it will reach a point where you start reducing the headspace; but don't be alarmed to see it increase before you decrease it!

I've been using the Lee Collet die for awhile now and I like it too. No neck lube and it works the neck brass less than those expander balls. Furthermore I think it results in less lengthening of the neck. As mentioned in prior thread, I tried neck sizing alone with the Lee die, but found my spent cases a bit too tight with the bolt rather difficult to open. Not impossible and not with a great deal of effort, but definitely to the point of slowing me down. I don't like that in a hunting gun. So now I used the Redding body die with the Lee Collet die to effectively FL size the brass.

But now, I'm looking to add the Redding Competition Shellholder set to see shoulder headspacing. One person I talked to about this (not here on AR btw) said I could use this combination of the body and collet dies, but said I would have greater runout than if I used the Redding Type S Bushing Die in conjunction with the competition shellholders.

I'm questioning that last piece of advice. If it's true, well I'll invest yet again in another FL die. But before I do I was looking for opinions from those that use the body/collet die in concert with the competition shellholders.

Thanks for the numbers on where to set the headspace. I was concerned with the 0.001" end with regards to the extreme temp changes I see here in Arizona.