Lee Collet Neck Dies

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Longboat

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I did a search on here never saw anything come up about the Lee collet dies. Although I'm sure there must be.

Some people praise these dies and some people think neck sizing in general is poor practice even with Redding equipment etc.

I have been reloading less than a year but went in hard. I decided to try the Lee collet dies for my bolt guns. And after using them for 100's of reloads I can't see why anyone would really have anything bad to say about them?

All of my rounds still chamber after 3 or 4 firings. The headspace and dimensions on my brass is staying the same so far. Neck tension is super consistent. Concentricity is about .001" runout or less and .0017 at worst. The die forms the neck walls so consistently I do not see the need to ever neck turn. My groups are .5 MOA on a factory Bergara HMR 308 and even better on the Bergara BMP 6.5 Creedmoor-dime sized holes with 10 shot groups with maybe 2/10 little fliers occasionally.

Plus the things are so damn cheap and simple. Am I missing something? Why the neck sizing and Lee Collet hate? Any reason I should be bump sizing instead???
 
My experience with Lee collet die has been nothing short of amazing.
Cheap, easy to use, 50% of my ammo is absolutely zero runout (on a Lee press not even a Forster press), while the other 50% never gets to 2 thou runout.

I resize my body every firing.
If not, there is not that same consistency between firings.
When having body sized everytime, the case always has the same volume, and always the same velocity.

This is a 10 shot group target, done with the Lee collet die, and body sized with Redding body die.
My vertical is very minimal, while my horizontal, everyone on the line was getting pushed left and right with the gusts of Connaught.

M0snzRkh.jpg
 
Nice job. I will get a little more advanced for sure. I'm new enough I've never heard of the Redding body sizer before lol but will look into it. I want to join Connaught this year. I emailed the target rifle like 3 weeks ago but nobody has responded yet haha...
 
http://mysticprecision.com/

He's the guy to buy the Redding body die from, I learned that process (Redding Body + Lee Collet neck size) from Jerry in fact.

Myself am new-ish over there, less than a year old member.
What kind of rifle you got?
Target style Fclass? Or more of a tactical with a brake?
 
I have the 2 rifles mentioned above. I bought the Bergara BMP Chassis rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor about a year ago. It really impressed me alot.

Then last October I signed up for a PRS match at CFB Petawawa but the 6.5 was not allowed. So I said screw it and bought the Bergara HMR in 308. I wanted a reasonably portable 308 anyways. It did super good. It was my 1st time doing anything like that, no idea what ti expect and I got 4th place.

And I got the new Ruger Precision 338 Lapua Magnum about 3 weeks ago but havnt got her out yet. Went overboard just for the sake of going overboard lol.

Thanks for link...
 
I'm wondering if anyone aneals every firing as well. I picked up an AMP induction annealer. I seen the inventors a few days ago on shot show say to anneal every time for perfect neck tension. Pretty easy to do with that setup.
 
End of 2017 and all of 2018 I annealed every firing, just sold my annealer, it was an annealeez torch annealer.
Replaced with an AMP mk2 induction, geez I think we'll get along just fine!

Sending you a PM.
 
She just got here last week. Havnt used it yet. Got other crap to get out of the way then I can sit down and play in a few days...
 
Just picked up a collet crimper for my 44 mag with berrys 220gr bullets. These bullets dont have a crimp groove. I still dont know about loading them in a lever with a magazine tube.
 
I'm the same as Marty, Redding body die, and Lee collet die, anneal and trim to length after every firing. I think it's important to use the body die and not just neck size.
 
In this hobby, we always have to buy new stuff!

Edit : Just supplied you a picture of the box of the die Jerry sold me,
This doesn’t touch your neck at all, so can can still enjoy the low run out and uniform neck tension that Lee collet die is providing you.

giNSTLG.jpg
 
The Lee collet die is fantastic, I use it for 308 rounds and I can go 6+ reloads with 42.5gr RL15. The accuracy is consistent, and I'm using cheap Hornady 150gr soft points flat base.

I'm getting around .8 MOA in reality, or .4 MOA if I'm responding to a forum thread
 
My buddy bought the Lab Radar it will be in this week. I bought the accessories for it which all came in the mail today. More stuff always lol. Selling off my RC collection of Helicopters and Planes and gearing up for shooting.
 
I see no sense in lubing a case and size it in a body die and then use the Lee collet die to size the case neck.

I say this because I have several Lee collet dies and prefer using the Forster full length benchrest dies with the high mounted floating expander.

When just neck sizing the Lee collet die will make more concentric cases than a normal neck sizing die or bushing die.

That being said the Lee collet dies are meant for die hard neck sizers too lazy to lube their cases.:stirthepot2:

Bottom line the Lee collet die has the ability to produce cases with less neck runout than bushing dies and why they are so popular.

But I prefer full length resizing and Forster dies for making very concentric cases.

Below I tried using the Lee collet dies and a torque wrench for uniform pressure on the case neck. But the duct tape would always rip and the string would break so I switched to Forster dies. :evil:

1vfVT3Q.jpg


The best part about reloading is the person pulling the press handle decides how to do it. So pick the dies you like to use the best and do not worry about what other people think. :stirthepot2: Laugh2

C8rGyKI.jpg
 
I'm up for trying anything. It will continually evolve. The Lee Collet is awesome for starting out I would say. The proof will be on the paper whatever I do.
 
bigedp51 said:
I see no sense in lubing a case and size it in a body die and then use the Lee collet die to size the case neck.

I say this because I have several Lee collet dies and prefer using the Forster full length benchrest dies with the high mounted floating expander.

When just neck sizing the Lee collet die will make more concentric cases than a normal neck sizing die or bushing die.

That being said the Lee collet dies are meant for die hard neck sizers too lazy to lube their cases.:stirthepot2:

Bottom line the Lee collet die has the ability to produce cases with less neck runout than bushing dies and why they are so popular.

But I prefer full length resizing and Forster dies for making very concentric cases.

Below I tried using the Lee collet dies and a torque wrench for uniform pressure on the case neck. But the duct tape would always rip and the string would break so I switched to Forster dies. :evil:

1vfVT3Q.jpg


The best part about reloading is the person pulling the press handle decides how to do it. So pick the dies you like to use the best and do not worry about what other people think. :stirthepot2: Laugh2

C8rGyKI.jpg
Click to expand...

I don't know why, but just had this feeling you'd come by and chime in on this ;)
There is something you got to give us body+neck collet size guys vs premium FLS die do it all,
We accomplish almost the same thing (if not even the very same thing) for much less $$$.
Considering some guys are reloading 4-5 rifle calibers, buying 5x NM forster FLS dies could run close to 1000$, vs 250-300$ the other way around.
 
Rocket Surgery said:
The Lee collet die is fantastic, I use it for 308 rounds and I can go 6+ reloads with 42.5gr RL15. The accuracy is consistent, and I'm using cheap Hornady 150gr soft points flat base.

I'm getting around .8 MOA in reality, or .4 MOA if I'm responding to a forum thread
Click to expand...

Hehe.....you are the first I have seen admit it. I believe it happens on the other threads, and social media generally....
 
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