The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Sim G wrote:Crying out loud Dave!!! That's ten sets of Lee dies! And, they offer a custom die service for about 100 quid.

I know! They are the three die Redding Competition set, so micrometer adjustment for the neck sizing and bullet seating with a full length body die. Being a 6.5-284 did not help matters much either. I did consider getting them from the USofA but add postage and tax and duty and so on and the time to get them here...

Yes it was very expensive and yes I probably did visibly pale when I saw the price.

Hi
Just been down my gun shop and showed him the cases and he rang them up, and guess what they said try a bigger bush even said try a 337 well i know i could go bigger but i don't want the bullet to fall striate throw are these people real do they know anything about what they are selling ????????

On another note i have just bought a RCBS case prep center.
Is there anyone else that also has one, the plug its a two pin why do the keep sending stuff over here with two pin anyway will it be ok to cut the two pin of and replace it with it a three pin.

It says 13 amp 250v on the plug so is that ok to change

Andy

Hi

While I do not pretend to have the wealth of experience some forum members have, I can tell when my ammo improves.

I upgraded my basic "Lee" set several years ago. Although I was always happy with the basic package, I felt neck sizing was the way forward in terms of extended case life, accuracy, and ease of loading, if I'm honest. I used to hate the chore of case lubing!

I bought a "Lee Collet Die" and a very expensive "RCBS" MICROMETER SEATING DIE. I am delighted with both.

As I only load my cases for my rifle, I have only set them up once. I check for movement on refitting obviously. I love the fact that with the seating die, you introduce the bullet through the side of the die body during the seating stroke. I never liked balancing the bulllet on the case mouth while starting the seating stroke. Easier with boat-tail bullets, but at the time I was using flat base.

Just my opinion, I'm as probably as much right as wrong. Works for me!

Daz.

I tried a lee collet die in 303 once it was a disaster kept buckling the case mouths dont know wether it was me or the die but I binned it in the end.

It was you not understanding the pecadilloes of Lee dies.

I will take your word for it Adam.
That was of course several years ago I replaced it with a redding neck sizing die and I have had no problems with that at all.

""BTW don't try the cartridges in a gun other than last fired the cases"".

Robin128, would you please elaborate on your advice. Thanks,

Cherokee wrote:""BTW don't try the cartridges in a gun other than last fired the cases"".

Robin128, would you please elaborate on your advice. Thanks,

I'm sure Robin128 will be along in a moment, but in essense, neck sizing fire formed cases is a good point to start reloading for accuracy because the cases are a perfect fit in your chamber. By default, they can't be a perfect fit in any other, only by accident. If your reloads are marginal smaller in all dimensions than the other chamber, fine, but no advantage over full length sizing. If any dimension is larger you can run into problems.

This could result in the bolt being hard to close, or worse. I haven't really considered the worse case scenario, I've always reloaded my cases, for my rifle.

I suppose if you fired a badly trimmed case in a rifle with an extremley long throat, reloaded with a taper crimp, and then fired the round in a short throated chamber, things could get exciting! I have no knowledge of the maximum tolerances involved. I'm not into custom or modified chamberings. Leave that to the "Wildcatters".

If you could build a round that chambered with the start of the crimp in the lands, the case would not be able to stretch and release the bullet properly. I can only imagine the pressure!

Maybe my theoritical round can't be made, but keep fire formed cases with the rifle that formed them!

Stay safe.

Daz.

Cherokee wrote:""BTW don't try the cartridges in a gun other than last fired the cases"".

Robin128, would you please elaborate on your advice. Thanks,

Sorry, missed this.

My understanding of necksizing cases, rather than full length resizing, is that it works best when fired again in the same gun. Chambers may differ by the smallest amount in the same calibre that can prevent chambering.

Basically, I only neck size cases to be fired again in the same gun.

Thanks both for your comments. One more question:

If you use factory ammunition, could you not experience a similar problem?