SmallCaliberCentral

Hi all !!!, brand new to forum life and all I have is a smarty-pants phone so please excuse any screw ups on my part. I just bought a tikka T3 .204 varmint that I'm going to reload four, in my research I think I have come to the conclusion that using the "Lee collet dies" and the RCBS full length only "x-dies" would be a case life/accuracy marriage made in heaven. The Lee collet dies are supposedly very accurate while putting a lot less stress on the neck which is supposed to give excellent case life, and the x-dies are supposed to eliminate overall case length growth. Does anybody have any experience with this combination? Thanks in advance for any help.... ROBBY G

I use lee collet dies for several calibers, I really like them and in my experience they have been just as accurate as bushing dies. They usually need a little bit of setup, I usually end up sanding .001-.002" off of the mandrel to get a little more neck tension. I've not used the rcbs x die, I use redding body dies when I need to bump the shoulder back. I can report almost no neck growth with a body die and lee collet dies and you don't have to oil you brass when just using the collet die which saves a lot of work. I just read some stuff on the X die, looks interesting, may have to try it out.

Thanks toasty!! Im gonna order the lee and rcbs dies. I have not shot my new tikka varmint yet, i want to build a custom bore guide first that will not allow the rod to touch the lands at all...i know sounds kinda anal but ive gotta be me.

Any neck sizing I do, I use Lee Collet. 6.5x55. 6.5 Grendel, 6.5-284, .204 Ruger and .223.

That said, for some rifles I also bump the shoulder back with a body die every time. Some only infrequently.

'Buit for the neck, its the LCD. I like the way that I can feel the neck drag on the mandrel if the sizing "works", which I don't get with bushing dies (and yes, I do use them too…). Its just an indicator, nothing more, but it hints to me that my brass is getting stiff if I don't feel the drag.

Alos, I like that the ID of the neck "takes" the uniforming with the LCD, rather than the OD of the neck (using bushing or FL dies).

But mightier, finer-tuned minds than mine may rightly disagree, lol!

bow shot wrote: 'Buit for the neck, its the LCD. I like the way that I can feel the neck drag on the mandrel if the sizing "works", which I don't get with bushing dies (and yes, I do use them too…). Its just an indicator, nothing more, but it hints to me that my brass is getting stiff if I don't feel the drag.

That's some good information. I hadn't thought of that as a way to indicate needing annealing. Will start to pay more attention to that in the future.

i neck size only for brass that's been used in my bolt and s/s rifles. it just makes sense on many levels. there is no need to further stress the brass by full length sizing, and brass that's been fireform oriented is best for consistency/accuracy. i hand load for all my firearms, using mostly redding competition and lyman dies in a redding t7 turret, rcbs rockchucker, and a lee breech single, for .45acp, .45-70, .30-06, .308win, .243win ... but for this new savage 12fv .204r i'll be using a lee collet die set exclusively.