There has been some discussion on Lee's Dies, some bad and some good. Since I am now well away from stocking dealers, I buy from the Web. I biught two sets of Carbide Pistold dies, a .357 Mag set and a .44 Mag set. This last month I really put the .357's through their paces. Great results. I loaded both nickle and brass cases. The expander is like the "M" die except it floats. Worked great. The crimp ring is large and will really fold a case in. I suggest to seat the bullet and crimp in two operations with this die. I also bought a set of their .30-06 dies for some testing I am doing with cast bullets. I have been loading some rounds in unsized brass that was fired again in my Ruger No 1 Light Sporter. The bullets used were Laser Cast @ .309" ( I've got BTB on order @ .310" as Marshall suggested). The bullets are a hard slip fit in the fired brass. With Lee's collect crimp, I can hit the necks just enough to tighter them up. The problem with Laser Cast is the length from base of bullet to crimp groove. Too long for 06's neck. I had to stab them back of the crimp groove to keep all lube grooves in the neck. With Re7 I got some pretty good groups at 100 yards, better than the VV N160 Loads I was pushing them in the 2200/2400 '/" levels. I expect better groups from the BTB's. There is one thing I believe now..If you are going to use the slower burn powders, it would be best to thin up those necks with an outside neck turner so they expand to fill chamber throat better. These Rugers have sloppy chambers and the unsized brass loads shot much better. Something to think about...Any suggestions?
Best Regards, James

James,

There is a great article on the Cast Bullet Association's website about that Lee Collet Die for reloading cast bullets. Here is the link:


http://www.castbulletassoc.org/Mar98/Collet.html


Regards,

Ray


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Ray...Most interesting article on collet dies, however the Lee collet die is a crimping die and not a neck sizing die. I would like to get one of the neck sizing dies he speaks of. In seems that the die sizes down on a mandrel. it would be great to have various size mandrels based on what you were loading, cast or jacket. What I like about the Lee collet crimp die is I can used fired cases that I deprime and prime without even neck sizing. Then stab the loaded bullet.
Best Regards, James

PS..The stuff for our project has not shown up yet.

Jim,

Sorry, I thought you were referring to the Collet die for neck sizing. I think Lee refers to their crimp die as the "Factory Crimp Die".

I'm so confused! (grin)

Regards, Ray

PS package should be there today or tomorrow.


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