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| Lee collet dies: I thought I might share some thoughts on the disadvantages of the collet dies: they work great for a while and I think they are quality made dies.However, after the brass has been resized several time( 4-6 times) it begins to get a little hard, depending on brass quality, caliber, and many other factors, and therefore will begin to spring back more and more, giving inconsistent neck tension. If you are using bushing type dies, you can always go to another size bushing when this happens and continue to get good, consistent neck tension. On most varmint calibers, I have found that about .001 to .0015 neck tension is about right for giving the best neck tension for proper "burn" and allowing the bullet to seat straight in the case for best concentricity. I have also found that the more neck tension you have, the more difficult it is to seat bullets straight and completely concentric with the cartridge case. I have also found, though years of expermenting, that cartridges that have .0005 of bullet runout,or less, will group much tighter than cartridges with say, .002 runout or more. If you turn necks, then the regular bushing die is great, however, if you don't turn necks, then the Wilson type S die with the floating carbide expander button is appropriate. One more thing, Redding busings are great, however they are the same size on both sides, whereas the Wilson bushings are .0005 or 1/2 thousands smaller/larger on each side....For example, the side with the number on it, turned DOWN in the die, will size the case neck 1/2 thousands more,than if the number on the the bushing is turned UP. With these bushings, you can "tweak" your neck tension very closely. Just rambling thoughts that have helped me "shrink" groups over the past 45 years of reloading and since I'm one who loves to test and always expermenting with different techniques and methods, there are some things that I have come to realize that you can "carve in granite"! Hope this makes sense and helps a little. There are some other things that will contribute to tighter groups,but thats another story....Good luck.. |