Setting Lee Dies Touching Shell Holders

Rifle dies- there can be as much as .002" difference. At the top of the stroke, the shell holder & fl die should make contact.

Bottom line, size just enough so sized brass chamber in rifle.

There two ways to do this correctly. Neither has to do with the shell holder. 1 screw the die down until the brass chambers easily or 2. Get or make a comparator and measure. Both ways work the chamber is king

AJC1 said:

There two ways to do this correctly. Neither has to do with the shell holder. 1 screw the die down until the brass chambers easily or 2. Get or make a comparator and measure. Both ways work the chamber is king

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Yes. Either the Stony Point (Hornady) comparator or the RCBS Precision Micrometer.
I prefer to measure the case to the datum line with the Precision Mic before and after sizing. I want my shoulder set back 0.001" preferred to 0.002" maximum. Less than .002" and any grit could prevent chambering; more than .002" and case failure due to insipient case head separation is eventually inevitable. In the event you are shooting in competition, case wear and work hardening of the brass can be greatly reduced by neck sizing and only full length resizing every 3rd or 4th firing.

Definitely lock the ring/nut on the die when you get it set. I use blue LocTite on the lock ring or lock nut in addition to the brass set screw so it does not move unless I want it to move.

What everyone else said, for steel rifle dies.

For carbide pistol dies, you don’t want the carbide ring to contact the shellholder as that could crack the carbide.

Shell holder, fl die contact, bottle neck cartridges.

RCBS has said in their news letter- To square the die in the press, the die should be locked down at cam over. In other words, full contact.

The Redding competition shell holder sets are used to control shoulder bump & retain full contact between shell holder & fl die. When the shell holder of the correct size is used, slop in press linkage is removed & press flex is less, if there was any. A more uniform sizing.

Lees website has said if the sized brass will not allow the bolt to close, check the ram at the top of the stroke, to see if there is day light between the shell holder & bottom of the fl die.
If there is day light, turn the die down more.

Most fl dies will provide a safe usable sizing of fired brass. Head clearance i have check is not more then .006" using a single stage press. A progressive press/shell plate can be very different. A gage or a comparator is a must have.

When installing a die the instructions say to raise the ram to the stop and screw in the die until it touches the shell holder. Question: Do you fully seat the die to the shell holder so that it's snug or do you just touch the shell holder with the die? I've seen it done both ways in videos.

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If you have a press that has an over center linkage and you drop the handle all the way and screw the die down to the shell holder, it’s going to be in a mechanical bind.

I am in the “just enough” group. Even with 9mm I don’t just blindly crank the die down to contact. I don’t need cases that look like coke bottles once I put a bullet in them. They just need to fit back into the chamber.

Toprudder said:

For carbide pistol dies, you don’t want the carbide ring to contact the shellholder as that could crack the carbide.

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I see that warning mentioned frequently, but in all the carbide dies I've ever handled, from 20 year old RCBS to NIB Lee, the carbine ring is recessed. All of my carbide dies are set to cam-over without issue.

If you have a die with a proud carbide ring, careful. Otherwise, a moderate cam-over is fine.

edwardware said:

I see that warning mentioned frequently, but in all the carbide dies I've ever handled, from 20 year old RCBS to NIB Lee, the carbine ring is recessed. All of my carbide dies are set to cam-over without issue.

If you have a die with a proud carbide ring, careful. Otherwise, a moderate cam-over is fine.

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This is something I have also observed and do, but haven't encouraged others to try because its against the directions. I'm guessing the die makers got tired of dealing with breakage and fixed the problem but left the warning because it "doesn't hurt anything"

As always, read the instructions that come with the die sets.

My old RCBS carbide 1970s.

Walkalong said:

A buddy just stripped out the insert in his Hornady press doing this, damaged his bushings on the die as well, didn’t think he was sizing his rifle case enough.

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I have ran into this problem in the past myself, where I have had to modify a shell holder or machine a little off the face of the die in order to size a case more than was allowed before the two bottomed out against one another, without binding up the press.

It's no wonder a new reloader gets confused by answers given on a forum. A simple question is often answered by advanced reloading techniques and theory...

Sizing firearms cases is just returning the brass case to a size that fits the chamber of the gun (and a lot of members will contradict, add complexity, and argue the simplicity of the basic sizing process). Answering a basic question from a brand new reloader should be kept simple and adjusting/installing dies are a good example.

Step one; read instructions provided by the die manufacturer. The manufacturer designed the dies, and probably wrote the instructions and those instructions are a much better start than anonymous forum answers. Don't overthink the problem as rarely does "incorrect" die adjustment cause and dangerous situation. Examples of stripped threads and damaged dies are extreme (stripping 7/-14 threads isn't exactly easy)

Step two; size some cases and measure. And/or drop a case into the gun's chamber. If the measurements are in line and the case enters the chamber, finish the handload. If there is a problem, if rounds don't chamber then research and trouble shoot K.I.S.S.!

It’s not so complicated.

1) Accept the fact the instructions included with sizing dies which reflect shellholder contact are written to produce minimum spec ammunition - made to fit the smallest of chambers - such for almost all rifles, such sizing to these instructions will produce ammunition which is undersized for nearly all chambers.

2) Acknowledging the above, the appropriate sizing for YOUR chamber will not likely require contact.

So as some have mentioned above - the appropriate die adjustment rarely involves full contact with the shell holder, let alone extreme cam-over pressure.

Varminterror said:

It’s not so complicated.

1) Accept the fact the instructions included with sizing dies . . . will produce ammunition which is undersized for nearly all chambers.

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. . . and will likely lead to head separations far sooner than would be the case if the shoulder position was set on purpose rather than neglected.

You wouldn't install pistons and rings without measuring bores and setting gaps, so you shouldn't resize bottleneck cartridges without measuring shoulders and setting headspace.

use a shim on top of the shell holder if you want to square up your die before tightening the lock ring. a quarter works well.

murf

243winxb said:

Shell holder, fl die contact, bottle neck cartridges.

RCBS has said in their news letter- To square the die in the press, the die should be locked down at cam over. In other words, full contact.

The Redding competition shell holder sets are used to control shoulder bump & retain full contact between shell holder & fl die. When the shell holder of the correct size is used, slop in press linkage is removed & press flex is less, if there was any. A more uniform sizing.

Lees website has said if the sized brass will not allow the bolt to close, check the ram at the top of the stroke, to see if there is day light between the shell holder & bottom of the fl die.
If there is day light, turn the die down more.

Most fl dies will provide a safe usable sizing of fired brass. Head clearance i have check is not more then .006" using a single stage press. A progressive press/shell plate can be very different. A gage or a comparator is a must have.

Click to expand...

I use the Redding competition shellholders, for the reason you mention.

What you mention about progressive press shellplates is correct, I think there is .008” less height on my Dillon 223 shellplate, such that if I screw the die down to contact the shellplate, I am bumping the shoulder that much too far, even compared to SAAMI min spec. Severe headspace problem, IMHO.

Well... I have always just let the ram hit the bottom of the die. I "touch it" pretty solidly. So far I have not broken an insert. My Lee Classic press does not seem to cam over. Have I missed something? "


"Cam over" would seem to be a sloppy way of setting something that needs to be accurate anyway.

Bill M. said:

Well... I have always just let the ram hit the bottom of the die. So far I have not broken an insert. My Lee Classic press does not seem to cam over. Have I missed something?

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Come do some dont. My rcbs rs3 does not either

Bill M. said:

Well... I have always just let the ram hit the bottom of the die. I "touch it" pretty solidly. So far I have not broken an insert. My Lee Classic press does not seem to cam over. Have I missed something? "


"Cam over" would seem to be a sloppy way of setting something that needs to be accurate anyway.

Click to expand...

The Lee presses, at least the ones I have, do not cam-over.

I have a Howa 1500 that has a very tight chamber, it requires sizing die to touch the shell holder, my other 30-06s doesn’t require this but I size all brass to fit the Howa instead of keeping some separate