Bulged some cases with Lee Collet Die
- Thread starter MMH
- Start date
Trash em, this happens when the collet is stuck. Disassemble the die, polish the collet and the taper seat, rhen use gun grease to lube the collet on the taper seat side.
As above the die Is stuck, I always disassemble, clean and lube the die about every 500-1000 rounds as well as well as what’s mentioned above.
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The machine work on the tapers that make the die work is often lacking.
I bit of polishing and good great makes a huge difference in operation and feel
My newest one I modified for 338 edge had a decent finish but I polished it anyways.
I bit of polishing and good great makes a huge difference in operation and feel
My newest one I modified for 338 edge had a decent finish but I polished it anyways.
Unfortunately I cannot blame a sticking collet. I am happy to inform all of you that a 300WM case will reliably bulge when using a 308 collet die.
no better man than an honest man 
I have had a couple LEE collet dies start to squash shoulders over time. I did discover the problem. It seems that a lot of the die bodies are just a little too short on the inside height dimension, which barely lets the collet fingers open up enough to accept a piece of brass. If you can't twist the collet body somewhat easily with your fingers from underneath the die body, the collet doesn't have enough room in the die to fully open back up. Back off the top cap of the die body enough to where you can twist the collet by hand from underneath. This will increase the internal operating space to where the collet can fully open. Since unscrewing the top cap out a little has the effect of raising the die in your press, you may have to screw the die body down to maintain the same neck squeeze you had before. Now I run all my collet dies about 1/4-1/2 turn out on the top cap just to make sure I never squash a neck again.
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