Lee Collet Die

Did something different last night. I got a collet die and sized my 308Win brass. But I am confuse don how much to crimp this. Directions says to push in two full turns on a RCBS press so it doesn' t cam over. I was scared of not getting enough tension so I really torqued down the press lever. Almost tore it off my bench. Ha, ha. does it take alot of pressure, or very little?

Wow, nobody has Collet Dies?

[frizzellr]

I have a set that I can' t figure out how to use either. I have to play with them some more to figure them out.

[Mark whiz]

You don' t really NEED any crimp - unless your firing a semi-auto elephant rifle. But I' ve been experimenting with this die too. The results are still out on whether crimping helps any or not.

But to answer the question, you don' t need much crimp. Work the die down in increments to see the amount of crimp being applied. I like to look down from the top of die as I run the press and when the collets about touch sides - it' s time to quit.

Mark, we are talking about Collet dies, not crimp dies. We are talking about sizing not bullet seating.

[frizzellr]

Mine keeps leaving marks on the neck of the case but it doesn' t size it down enough. Maybe I need to screw the die in further to the press.

I am going to try to load some bullets tonight. I about tore my press off my bench using it. It that doesn' t size it down enough, I might try to polish the collet down to .001" as they suggest.

[MR300WM]

Bigcountry last year when I was having some trouble with my 300WM I bought a set of Lee collet dies and tried them. I was not very happy with the results and went back to using the RCBS neck sizer. I did find that by rotating the casing after sizing and resizing helped. I do believe that collet needs to be reduced. I haven' t tried the Lee dies since replacing my brass that was causing my problem. I also ran some 220Swift brass thru but the neck didn' t have enough tension to hold the bullet securely. I think I need to send the dies back to Lee and let them do the polishing since I don' t know if I can keep them perfectly round. Good Luck. OH by the way I believe that the instructons said you need to apply about 25ft lbs of pressure to the die. This is not that much pressure. I would suggest you find a grease monkey and try his torque wrench set at the proper torque and this will give you an idea of how much you need to push the lever.

[herman]

I use the collet die for my 223 in a RCBS and and like it .I went by the instructions screwed it in till reached the shell holder and screwed 2 full turns more,when I size I push down till the primer pops out ,turn the case 180 degrees and press down again,neck tension has been fine so far.
Really like it for these small cases.
You mentioned crimp? I don' t never crimp so I have no idea about it.

[frizzellr]

You mentioned crimp? I don' t never crimp so I have no idea about it.

I believe he is talking about crimp as in what the collet does to the neck to resize it. You know, crimp, smash, squish, compress....