Lee Collet neck sizer 243

Anyone ever worn out one of these. Just ordered a new one. I'm not able to keep it "adjusted". I either don't get enough neck tension or the collet sticks up in the die body and I crunch the brass. I'm going to attempt to polish the rough areas out of the collet and the female part this afternoon. I believe it's got enough dings/nicks to just replace, but I'm out of the sizing business until I get the new one or continue to full lenght size (which I'm against generally).

I did notice that brass that had a distint chamber, inside and out, sized better. I'm going to spend some time this afternoon managing that issue. I'm loading 243 Nosler 55 grain boat tail, ballistic tips. We shoot at praire dogs each spring and I prefer to shoot neck sized ammo. Neck tension is the main problem (when it isn't sticking). I'm loading these out to 2.710 oal and that barely gets the boat tail into the neck with a little grip on the .243 dia of the bullet. Seating lower isn't a good option. The rifle doesn't like them seated deeply. Rifle is LRP 243 (new) .

I've had neck tension problems with some 308 brass. It turned out that I needed to anneal the necks. After the necks were annealled, the neck tension returned to normal.

I've read about that. Have not done any annealing. I'd of suspected that also if I wasn't also having problems with brand new (once fired) brass. I'm going to investigage annealing.

The ONLY way to increase the neck tension produced by a LCD is to grind, turn or polish the central mandrel to a smaller diameter.
Taking .0005-.001" off the mandrel, and doing it consistently for the entire length of the mandrel, isn't easy but it can be done by nearly anyone.
I'd use one of my cylindrical grinders or even my toolpost grinder to do the job to perfection but if you only needed to take .0005" off a credible job can be done with crocus cloth and a drill to spin the mandrel.

I have used the heck out of my LCD's, especially the 243. Never had any of those issues my self.

You could try calling Lee before you modify it in any way. I have found Lee's Customer Service to be great. The last time I needed to call them with an issue, I had bought a Deluxe Die Set in 22 hornet and for whatever reason it came with all 22H dies except the LCD which was marked 222 Rem. I tested it on 222 brass and it was for a 222 so I called Lee and explained what I had got. They apologized and shipped me out a new LCD for 22H and had it in a couple of days and even told me to keep the one for the 222, which I just added to a RCBS set I already had.

The other time I had to call them I had bought a die set in 223 and the FL sizer came missing the decapping pin. Called and asked what to do and they said they would get me a couple of pins on the way. Package arrived with 3 pins and a new 223 FL Die.

FWIW you might just give them a call and see what they recommend, especially if this is a new die (I am not sure whether you ordered a new die to replace the malfunctioning one or its the new one you are having trouble with).

I find they work better if I polish the heck out of them with emery paper then lube with white lithium grease. This allows the parts to slide up and down freely. If they stick, the brass will jam and not settle into place correctly.

I wore out one of these in .308. It was mostly my fault though...When I read the instructions, they said to apply like 20 lbs to the die so I yarded on it pretty good (new reloader). I warped the contact ring that contacts the mandrel to close the fingers. Once you perform the operation that foxx recommends it takes about 3 lbs to size the case. I have found that annealing helps a bunch as well. Neck tension becomes much more consistant and sizes easier.

To clarify my rambling post above. I warped the contact ring to the point it held the fingers closed. I ended up crushing a bunch of brass before I figured out the fingers weren't springing back open. I had just annealed my first batch of cases and thought I had over annealed them, crunching a bunch of them before I figured out it was the die and not my annealing. I ended up getting another die and performed foxx's fix to it. Works well when lubed properly.

I did buy a new die. I'm not getting any better results. I even tried my newer press to make sure I didn't have press/ram issues. I'm going to try the polish/lube fix next. Additionally, I'll give Lee a call on Monday. I'm willing to try to polish down .001 also, but before I do that, I want to eliminate any obvious problems. I have also tried new brass (Hornady), once fired W/W, with mixed results. Reminder that my issue is that I'm trying to seat a short 55 gr Nosler ballistic tip just deep enough to get past the "boat tail". Noslers data calls for that bullet to seat way out with a col of 2.710. I've used the original nsd to load a couple of thousand of those things. I may have had this issue in the past and never noticed the slip fit. That's one of the reasons I like boat tails when loading enough ammo to shoot pd's. Thanks for the replies. I'll update if I have any new data over the new couple of days.

Have you tried using powder grphite for lube? I use it when necking 223, 7mag and 308, never an issue. I also anneal around 4th load or so then FL size and start over.

Just to clarify...

When I am talking about polishing, I am not saying to make the mandrel/rod smaller. I mean make the collet or the petals smooth and smaller in the outside diameter so it will be able to easily slide up and down inside the die. They need to be able to move freely. I don't know why they come from the factory so tight inside the "tube" of the die. I got the idea from an instructional video on YouTube. Don't remember what it's called, but someone on there made a good video explaining how to polish, lube and adjust them so you form the neck just at the very top edge of the neck (for less neck tension) or deeper (for more neck tension). I can't describe it well, but I really work the outside of those petals with the emery cloth until they slip around freely. When setting the die, I do it gradually. Turn it down a bit, run it through the press once and check for tension. Ideally, at first I get nothing. Then I screw it down a bit (1/8th turn?) and check again to see if there is enough tension to hold the bullet. I know it takes many attempts... Once I get to a point it holds the bullet, I stop. Normally I see marks from the petals in the neck at that point, but those marks are very light and do not go very far down the neck. Maybe just 1/3 of the way down, certainly not all the way to the shoulder. With that approach, I can't see any harm in removing a lot of material from the OD of those petals. Also, I have noticed that I cannot feel it working or closing down around the mandrel. Maybe that's because I have an RCBS press that "cams over". Regardless, I am careful to just "sneak up to it" so there is just enough of the neck getting re-sized to hold the bullet in the case, thinking, "I can't change the mandrel size, but I can change how much of the neck gets sized to the mandrel."

I appreciate the feedback/suggestions. I will try all, lube, polish, slow adjust, and calling Lee customer service. I have resisted annealing. May be that I can’t ignore that any longer.