THE LEE COLLET DIE AND I
I’ve bought, tried, examined, fiddled with, yelled at, sold and given away Lee Collet Dies; and never had success until I figured out how to make them work. Here’s how I do it:
Remove the o-rings from the cap and lock ring. Put them aside.
Remove the mandrel/decapper. Put it aside.
Put the die together, tighten the cap hand tight, start the die in the press.
Put a fired case in the shell holder, raise the ram to the stop.
Screw the die down until the shell holder touches the collet.
Now, carefully, screw the die down, raise the ram to the stop and check the case with a bullet. A bit at a time. Keep doing it. As the die goes down, the case neck will get tighter. Eventually the case neck will be tight BUT there will be a flare at the chamfered neck big enough to start a gas check on the bullet.
I try a few bullets to get the neck just right, and now the LCD works fine on 223, 22-250 and 305 cases.
When the die is set just right, I make a dimple with a punch at 6 o’clock on the cap. Makes it easier to set the die next time.
Voila!