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collet sizing die for belted magnum cases
remington nut
Member Posts: 961 ✭✭✭✭
i shoot a .264 win mag, i have some brass that will not chamber in my rifle, not sure if it's my original brass reloaded too many times, or brass i bought cheap somewhere that was already used. does anyone have any experience with the collet die for belted magnum cases? if so what was the name of the manufacturer and is it worth getting to keep belted brass still in use?
Comments
The manufacturer is Larry Willis:
http://www.larrywillis.com/
Innovative Technologies
Attn: Larry A. Willis
1480 Guinevere Dr.
Casselberry, FL 32707
Phone: 407-695-2685
Cell: 407-718-2308
A Collet for Belted Magnum Cases $89.95
Guns & Ammo
(September, 2002 Issue)
Belts on the belted magnum case were put there for headspace control and not for strength, as is sometimes claimed. Once the case has been fired, the life of the case and perhaps accuracy, can be improved by headspacing off the shoulder rather than the belt. This is easily done by backing out the sizing die so that it doesn't set back the shoulder any more than just enough to insure that the case will chamber freely in the gun.
Because of the taper in ordinary resizing dies, the back end of the case (at the pressure ring), is usually left slightly larger in diameter than desired. Innovative Technologies has come up with a clever solution: a collet-type resizing die that sizes the body of the case right up to the belt.
In use, the die body is screwed into the press from the bottom. A fired case is dropped into the top of the die. If it drops in freely to the belt, there's no reason for any further sizing. If it fails to drop in freely, the case is removed from the die body and the collet is slipped over the case until it bottoms on the belt. The case and collet are then pressed up into the die body in the usual way. The collet is squeezed against the case by the die body and resizes it. When the case is removed from the die body the collet comes out with the case and is then slipped off.
Neck sizing, and any required reforming of the shoulder, is then completed using the regular dies for the caliber. All the basic belted magnum cases can be sized using the same collet. This collet die works very well and is a very useful accessory to the reloader of the belted magnum cases.
I would have to question what that case is doing with the bulge right in front of the belt. Is this something caused by shooting or using the regular die for final sizing as nononsense pointed out
I do like the idea of using a collet die for Belted magnums so that you can headspace off the shoulder instead of the belt. But as pointed out there needs to be a little bit of squeeze on the body as well as the neck so that the round will chamber.
The way I found that these cases needed to be put through this die is that they would not chamber.This is caused by a full length resizing.
The resizing die can not resize the portion of the case just above the belt.
The colet slides down and sits right up against the belt and when you push it into the die it resizes the part of the case above the belt that a Full length resizing die cannot reform.
In short the cases that would not chamber did after I used this die on them[;)]
The die is sort of two sided if you take a case and drop it into the top of the die and it won't drop all the way to the belt then it needs to be sized in the die
I was sceptical but decided to try it it works
I see now. I thought you were talking about after the brass had been completely re-sized in both die sets. Just as a reminder and why I like collets for magnums is the bulge you mention in your last post is one of the biggest killers of magnum brass.
A post a short while back by nononsense clued some of us in as to why the belting was used. We all knew it was the headspace guide but not many knew why. I used to be among the masses that thought it was for strength. No such thing. It was actually for reliability with new cartridges. A sort of 'How to get all that pressure moving in one direction thing' if you will.
I use a Lee collet die for resizing my 6.5x55 cases. I'm thinking I wish a had a lot more collet dies. Especially for oft-used cases and magnums. It will make the cases last longer. I just need to see how to get a collet type die as accurate as bench dies without having to keep rotating the cases. Anyhow, I appreciate the information.