Lee Collet Dies vs Redding S bushing dies

[dlebeck]

I asked this one on another forum. What are your opinions of the Lee Collet neck sizing dies?? What are your feeling about the Redding S bushing neck sizing dies and what brand of seater die do you prefer?

[Hired Gun]

IMO, the Lee is clearly the better die even though it cost a fraction of the Redding die. It works the neck less and needs no lube. To adjust the neck tension one only needs to polish the mandrel to the desired size. It also works on a variety of same length shells. For example, I use my 25-06 die on 25-06AI and 257Wby. I quit using full length and other brands where ever I can use a collet die.

[Delta Hunter]

I agree with Hired Gun. I own a few of both types and nowdays the only one I use are the Lee collet dies. It makes consistently straight ammo, works the brass less and doesn't require lube at all.

As far a seater dies I'm partial to Redding Comp and Forster Benchrest seaters.

Another vote for the collet dies. No lube, easyer on brass, and no need to turn necks.

[300winnie]

Hired Gun,

Did you have to make any modifications to your Lee Collet die in 25-06 to make it work for the .257 Weatherby?

Thanks.

[Hired Gun]

Short answer is yes and no. You can use it like it is if you want. What it will do is leave a real slight line around the base of the neck where it meets the shoulder. You can either go with it. It won't hurt anything or there are two ways to deal with it. One way is to use a washer around the base of the brass on top of the shell holder to space the die up a bit higher but this way gets to be a pain after awhile. I ended up just running a 7/16 drill bit in there and taking a small amount out of the neck sizer part of the die. This will eliminate the line and will raise some ugly burrs in the die. I just stuck a fine chain saw file in there and knocked the burrs off. It doesn't take much and then the die will work clean as ever. I don't have any pictures of the mod but if you want one I could get one by tomorrow.

[Centre Punch]

Guys,
At the request of our fellow member Jimm, i have been conducting side by side tests to see which loads the most accurate ammunition, Lee collet or Redding competition.

So far i have not collected enough data to show which are better, suffice to say both are producing very accurate ammo with neither showing any superiority over the other.
Thats where it ends though, the quality of the Lee dies is crap, i had to de-burr the inside of the collets because the grooves were putting marks on the cases, i also had to polish down the sizing rod to get enough neck tension.

I am waiting to test loads at long range but i have very limited access longer shooting distances.
At this moment i cannot say that Redding Comp dies load more accurate ammo then the Lee collet, but from an engineering point of veiw the Lee dies are a pile of $hite that should be chucked in the bin.

Ian.