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Having a bit of trouble getting it down the .308. Adjusting the Lee die down and giving it a good press I can get about .310 This is two and half turns down from touching the shell holder. Tried a bit more and it didn't seem to make much of a difference.

Do I need to screw it down more again or give it more elbow?

MikeB

A RCBS neck die sounds good to me. You seem to be having a problem with the Lee. If you have it screwed down one and a half turns past the shell holder I think that's all you are going to get.

What is the diameter of your mandrel?

Regardless of how much leverage you use you will never get the case mouth ID smaller than the mandrels diameter unless you reduce its diameter. As I said before it "sizes from the inside out".

.309" case mouth ID should be more than sufficient so long as the bullet is seated well into the throat.

What is the bullet retention like at .310"?

If it is sufficient for your purpose then you are sorted, practical trial will always be superior to any theories expounded here.

I usually press the point of the dummy round bullet against the edge of the bench and lean into it to see how hard I need to lean to push the bullet into the case.

Will you be loading singly or from the magazine?

What has'nt been mentioned here is what brass are you using? Some makes of brass will give better results than others using the Lee collet die.
Having just experimented, I have some R & P that the Lee die will not provide enough tension, no matter how the die is adjusted. The same is true of some HXP. All of these cases have thinner neck walls than others. The Privi on the other hand are easy to get enough tension on. Using my Rockchucker the die is screwed in until it touches the shell holder then 1/2 turn more and I am getting .002" tension and the press is camming overcenter like normal.

I have just measured the diameter of the mandrel in my die and it is .306" diameter. Check your mandrel to see what size it is.

I have found annealing helps with the thinner brass, the only stuff that I ever had a problem with in the Lee collet dies was Winchester which I regard as notoriously thin and springy. In fact I only use Winchester brass now if I am looking for maximum case capacity.

All my HXP brass work well with the collet. What year stamp didn't in your case?

HXP cases of year 1970 with small numbers. Some of my HXP cases of the same year have the date stamp in difference sizes, so the cases are batched not just by year but by size of the stamps. I have noticed that there are generally only two sizes of stamp that are obvious as large or small. The large stamp for 1970 is very large and these are kept for competition use only. Year 1985 are very inconsistant in neck wall thickness but the most consistant in weight which is annoying.
I have a bag of 500 new unfired 1969 brass that I must sort out sometime but I have enough in-use brass to be going on with.

I am using the once fired Privi PPU .303 cases. I will be shooting from a magazine in my No5 Enfield.

I will measure the mandrel later and advise.

It says in the leaflet not to over centre the press if its a non Lee produced press as it might damage the die?

Mike

ps. thanks for the advice all.

Measured the mandrel and its .308 in diam!!

MikeyB

That should be plenty small enough to give you good retention.

The only thing that could be stopping it sizing down is that the fingers of the collet are touching before the sizing is complete.

As for setting up the die I just screw it down onto the shell holder and then just screw down with 1/8th turn increments 'till the correct dimension is achieved. That is in any press RCBS, Redding, Fortser, Holywood, Hornady.

Have you tried the actual grip by pushing the bullet in a dummy round?

Have you stripped the die, cleaned it, checked for burrs imperfections on the parts?

Is the collet and sleeve lightly grease where they meet?