harrell

This is the first time that I have used a Lee neck sizer die. I neck sized some once-fired Federal brass. They are fairly hard to close the bolt on after reloading. I was wondering if I am setting the die correctly or if there may be some other problem. Should the bolt be hard to close when they have been neck sized only?

bigcountry

They need to be shot in your rifle. Using the Lee with brass from any other rifle will cause that.

Now if you use the Lee after two firings, you might also get hard chambering. After that you might want to FL the case.

harrell

thanks for the information. they were shot in my rifle and resized for that rifle

bigcountry

How many times shot in your rifle before hard chambering?

harrell

the factory ammunition was fired once. i neck sized and the first time reloaded was hard to chamber. i went ahead and fired the reload and there was no pressure signs. i was neck sizing as i thought it would save some trimming. in the past reloading i used rcbs dies . this is my first experience with the lee collet neck die.

bigcountry

Well, could be a number of things. A chamber that has some wobble can cause this. In other words, your FL smaller brass fits fine, you then fire and fireform to the chamber and now hard. I can't say it should act like this from one firing. It takes me 3 or so firings for hard chambering. And this is 3 calibers or so and the lee.

I wouldn't get too worried if it shoots well, you just might have to FL everything. Now if it shoots bad, thats another issue.

Solitary Man

I use the Lee collet neck dies for all my rifles cartridges except for one. I've had the same thing happen to me with my 7mm mag. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless the brass is really hard to chamber, especially if you're shooting at paper. For hunting I'd want something that chambers a little easier. For that you can full length size or use a Redding body die to size the body and the Lee die to size the necks. I do the latter.

I've had great luck with the Lee dies. I tune them up when I first buy them by polishing the collet and collet sleeve and applying a little grease to them. They work a lot better after this treatment.

harrell

thanks again for the information. the rifle is rem.700 vssf 22-250 and shoots well. i will tune up the lee die as Solitary Man suggested and go to the full length sizing if necessary.

harryinny

Try seating the bullet in Slightly further. I Mean a HAIR further. It might be That the case itself is stretched out a bit. Thats how i sorted it out with NO loss in accuracy.

Harry