Shellholders and fit

camster

camster

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Complete new-guy (loaded first rounds yesterday). I've been piecing together stuff together for a while, and am some keen to reload for my hungry swedes. A l'il too keen, as I seem to not have the proper shell holder.
...or do I?
According to what I've read (because my 6.5x55 lapua brass didn't fit) I have the wrong shell holder here. I have a Lee #2, and after I couldn't fit m'first Swede hit the books/net. Seems I would need a Lee #3 (or equivalent from other makers) Here's the tricky part...I have two Lee#2 shell holders here (one from 8mm and one from 30-06 die sets) and my brass fits in one of them, only very snug. (30-06, and 8x57 have play when in them). I have primed one using th'Lee Ram so I'm confident it's centred.

Can I try to use it for FL/Necking and seating too, or is that play important?

EDIT:
Will be going into F/L Redding first, then brass-by-rifle Redding necked
 
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if you can get the brass to be centered then you'll be fine but if it fits to snugly then it may resize the case off center. since you have 2x #2 shell holders you could modify one to accept the larger cases until you get a proper one. I had a lee pro1000 shell plate for 9mm that i wanted to use for 38spl/357mag so i took 2 dremel cut off discs and ground them down to roughly the size of a 38spl rim then proceeded to cut the 9mm shell holders bigger. it worked/s great accept one of the 3 was on a bit on an angle and caused some issues when loading 357mag. I've since replaced it with the proper shell plate but it did get several thousand rounds made.
 
I think I have a spare #3, if I can find it I'll mail it to you so you have the proper one. Give me a day to try and dig it out.
 
Hitzy said:
I think I have a spare #3, if I can find it I'll mail it to you so you have the proper one. Give me a day to try and dig it out.
Click to expand...

That's a mighty kind offer, and I do appreciate the sentiment. I've ordered a few shellholders for the press, and for my hand priming tool too. I have been "getting ready" to reload for decades, so impatience won' affect outcome. Still a very generous thing to do.

I was mostly curious about the bit of play found in proper shell holder/brass match ups. My suspicion is it may loan itself to concentric pressing, but don't know.
 
I had the same problem when reloading 8mm Mauser using a Lee shell holder. When using Federal brass I had no problem with the Lee shellholder for it. When I used Seller&Bellot 8mm Mauser brass I had to go to the RCBS shell holder and even that was a tight fit. Just enough differences in the brass I think.
 
Anecdotal add on... Looking up 6.5x55 :Lee calls for #3 in their charts (it also works for 30-30, .32Spcl, and 7.5 Swiss). RCBS #2 is also good for 6.5x55, and 30-30. Interesting to note Hornady uses a #19 for 6.5x55, but a #2 for 30-30 and 7.5 Swiss...

There's some latitude in tolerances I guess.
 
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