Interesting little problem with lee dies

Well it seems to work for me... every bullet has its optimum velocity where its designed to stablilize...

I dont know how much better a five shot group can get the .4" out of a stock remington 700 vls off a harris bipod dont forget I am just out plinking for fun.

I have never had a problem with lee dies up until this set... and like I said its only issue is with short small bullets. 55 69 75 80 grain they work awesome.
 
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MSG,

I have a couple of sets of Lee dies and agree that at times they can be a good buy if put to the right use.

To sumarize an answer to your original question; no it does not appear anyone else except Boomer has had this issue with Lee dies that you describe. There could be two reasons why:

1. Your dies are screwed or at least built differently than theirs.

2. Pretty well everyone else here except you is seating out to or just off the lands, so they have never encountered the problem. Lee is admittedly lower cost equipment and perhaps one way they achieve that lower cost is to engineer gear that accommodates what the vast majority of customers want, but unfortunately not every possible combination that every customer out there wants.

When I was younger, I used to love discussions and would find myself having a counter reply for every suggestion or opinion I encountered. Sometimes I'd catch myself spending some of the time I was absorbing the information given to me compiling my reply rather than really trying to absorb what I was being told. I still love discussions but now that I'm a couple of winters older, I try to shut up and do more listening than talking. Pretty well every time I manage to stay shut up, I learn something new.

I went back and reread Boomer's post slowly just now. His reply made good sense to me and he seems to be the only one here who has seen what you describe.

Give seating just a CH off the lands a try. I think you'll have fun. ;)
 
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One question... if you seat the bullets to the lands for one rifle... you can only use that ammo in that rifle correct? I have a few 223's and would like to be able to use the ammo in all of them if required that why i like to follow factory specs from reloading manuals they dont write this information down for fun.

I have experimented by lightly seating the bullet out as far a possible then chambering it in the gun of course there is no powder or primers when I did this that would be plain foolish. The bullet should be pushed into the case as far as it will go and then the lenght should be touching the rifleing...

Like I said I dont know much about loading ammo that is touching the rifleing maybe someone could explain it for me in a simple not to techinical way.

I was hoping to go test fire these today but it was so foggy out you couldn't see 100 feet infront of you.
 
One question... if you seat the bullets to the lands for one rifle... you can only use that ammo in that rifle correct? I have a few 223's and would like to be able to use the ammo in all of them if required
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Maybe yes,and maybe no,it depends on the particular rifles.I load for two cartridges for which I have two rifles chambered for each,and I load to the same overall length for both rifles with good results.

they dont write this information down for fun.
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They usually list an OAL that they are fairly sure will function in all rifles,however,it may not be the most accurate OAL in any rifle.

The bottom line is that all rifles are individuals,and you need to try different OALs to see which works best in each rifle.The same OAL may work well in several rifles,but not in other rifles.
My point is that unless you are willing to at least try different OALs,you may be wasting you time by doing all that extra case preparation.
 
msg.drew said:
One question... if you seat the bullets to the lands for one rifle... you can only use that ammo in that rifle correct? I have a few 223's and would like to be able to use the ammo in all of them if required that why i like to follow factory specs from reloading manuals they dont write this information down for fun.

I have experimented by lightly seating the bullet out as far a possible then chambering it in the gun of course there is no powder or primers when I did this that would be plain foolish. The bullet should be pushed into the case as far as it will go and then the lenght should be touching the rifleing...

Like I said I dont know much about loading ammo that is touching the rifleing maybe someone could explain it for me in a simple not to techinical way.

I was hoping to go test fire these today but it was so foggy out you couldn't see 100 feet infront of you.
Click to expand...

The only thing wrong with what you did here was it looks like you didn't mark the bullet. By marking I mean painting with a marker or smoking with a candle. Unless you do, you have no way of knowing if the bullet didn't pull back out because the rifling bit into it. Maybe you want to look into a Stony Point OAL guage/comparitor.:) Great tool for the money IMHO.

Once you have the optimum OAL for that particular rifle, make a dummy round identifying the bullet and the rifle. When you go to make ammo for that rifle next time, just start with the seating stem backed out a few turns, raise the ram with your dummy round in the shellholder, and screw the seating stem down undil it hits the seated bullet.

As sj is suggesting though, optimum OAL takes a bit of trial and error to figure out.
 
:p I was just browsing your "store" and noticed you sell the Hornady OAL guage. Why don't you take one for a spin?;)
 
Yep it needs specialty cases I guess I could make one by drilling out and tapping a 223 case so I could use it... then I would have to sell it as a demo lol $$$ :D

To be honest I was quite happy doing things the way I have been doing them for years..I am going to keep using the lee dies I am just curious to see what they have to say about this unique problem...
 
msg.drew said:
Yep it needs specialty cases I guess I could make one by drilling out and tapping a 223 case so I could use it... then I would have to sell it as a demo lol $$$ :D

To be honest I was quite happy doing things the way I have been doing them for years..I am going to keep using the lee dies I am just curious to see what they have to say about this unique problem...
Click to expand...

The thread is a 5/16 x 36, not exactly in every store, but not impossible to get either.

Just for info.
 
Well looks like there is something wrong with the dies or they arnt made to do what I want... Lee got back to me and will be sending parts... I assume its a retrofit to make it work properly.

" I have run into this before, If you forward your snail mail address and remind me what you need I can send a replacement seating plug that should solve the problem."

I dont know about you but when people bash LEE well there customer serivce seems to be top notch same as RCBS and Hornady.

So now that your all done bashing me saying I dont know what I am doing there was a problem...:D:owned::p
 
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Here is the new and improved replacment part just as I expected it would be.

P10700132.jpg
 
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