Lee Collet Dies vs Redding S bushing dies

[340Shooter]

Originally Posted by woods

Yes, absolutely

Had one made for my 6.5 rem mag and plan on having others made for 375 Ruger and 338 RUM

Woods,

I am thinking of going the custom route. You mentioned that you use the RCBS Comp seater. Do they custom make those also? And do you get custom Lee crimp die made?

[woods]

Originally Posted by 340Shooter

Woods,

I am thinking of going the custom route. You mentioned that you use the RCBS Comp seater. Do they custom make those also? And do you get custom Lee crimp die made?

Don't know if they custom make the RCBS competition seater, probably not. For my 6.5 rem mag I use the 6.5x55 Swede RCBS comp seater and will settle for a Redding Comp seater or Forster Comp seater if the RCBS is not available.

I'm kinda off of the Lee crimp die because they tend to progressively shorten the case length when you have to chamfer off the previous crimp. I discovered this on my 280AI when on the 6th or 7th reload I could no longer crimp with the LFCD because the case length fell out of it's range. Now I shoot for .003" bullet grip and haven't seen the need for crimping anymore. Probably should on the 375 Ruger or the 338RUM but we'll see.

If you get a custom Lee Collet made also get them to send you mandrels .002" and .003" under caliber diameter and it will give you some options for more bullet grip. They only cost $5.00 each after you hit the minimum amount for shipping.

[joe0121]

I love my Lee. No issues with the case wanting to stick. Eventually Ill get around to reducing the size of the mandrel a bit to get some more neck tension. Probably when I get a Co-ax press. I re-load for the 300 WM and after three reloadings the don't like to feed. I set up my Hornady FL sizer the set the should back .010 and run it down. I also anneal the brass for this step. Brass gets annealed and fl sized every three shots. I'm kinda a new reloading and I started out with over 200 peices of brass so I haven't had one fail yet and I'm on 6 reloadings.

[cfvickers]

Originally Posted by 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.

In consideration of the $77.00 difference in the price of a set of dies, the small inconvenience of polishing out a couple burrs is very small to me. I often buy used dies on ebay that are sometimes worn from sizing nickel brass. I take a 28 gauge cleaning brush and wrap it with 1500 grit sand paper just a hair past the top of the brush, put it in a drill and run it into the dies, it quickly polishes out the burrs scratching the brass and doesn't take enough metal off to effect the neck tension a measurable amount. And it takes 5 minutes or less. worth my time.

[g0rd0]

I have used my lee collet dies for many years. No problems.
I use 7mm rem mag and I used to also use the collet die in 3030 win for a handgun. I sold the hand gun and sent the dies with it.
I find that when siseing after I sise I pull the case out just a little, spin it and redo The bullet always keeps its place when I do this.
I also seat the bullet way out out past max oal so that as I chamber the round the bullet contacts the rifleing, this insures that there is positive contact with the rifleing as soon as peasure builds.
For hunting I full lengh sise and seat the bullet to oal specs.
When I first got this rifle I had problems chambering after 3 or 4 reloads, a freind told me to trim the brass and once I started trimming NO PROBLEMS at all

[Mild Bill]

I like the concept of the lee collet dies, and in fact had bought some for the cartridges I load.

I used a forster co-ax press and about all I accomplished was popping the top of the lee dies out of the body.

never could get a consistent set up for re-sizing the necks with them.

[bc308]

340Shooter

No problem having Lee make you a custom set. They made a friend a 7WSM set last summer. Turn around was about five weeks after he sent two fired cases to them.

Thanks to all who have posted on this topic. Regardless which brand one leans toward, I read that tinkering is all part of the fun.

Norman