I'm a 300m sports shooter using Lapua Palma and Peterson SRP brass with a Redding multistation press. I primarily resize the neck, avoiding full-length sizing and annealing. Which method - Lee Collet Die or SAC bushings - is better for resizing the neck in this context? Your experiences and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
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.308 Brass Resizing: Lee Collet Die vs. SAC Bushings - Which is Best for Neck Sizing?
- Thread starter Yriana
- Start date
If a typical loader with mixed brass, no neck turning or prep etc then I think the collet die is the winner. Have made tons of great ammo that way.
IF you're doing big boy brass prep, matched brass etc , and want every little bit of consistency then I think the bushing style can help.
It sounds like you're doing a lot of consistency prep already, so the bushing stuff probably has something to offer you!
A lee collet die is pretty cheap. Buy one AND the bushing stuff and do some testing and show us lol. I see zero downside there!
I can also say I've seen positive effect from annealing/normalizing my brass. Worst case is generally ONLY getting fewer neck splits on some rifles. Best case is that AND better consistency. Could be worth looking into as there are some easy and affordable options.
IF you're doing big boy brass prep, matched brass etc , and want every little bit of consistency then I think the bushing style can help.
It sounds like you're doing a lot of consistency prep already, so the bushing stuff probably has something to offer you!
A lee collet die is pretty cheap. Buy one AND the bushing stuff and do some testing and show us lol. I see zero downside there!
I can also say I've seen positive effect from annealing/normalizing my brass. Worst case is generally ONLY getting fewer neck splits on some rifles. Best case is that AND better consistency. Could be worth looking into as there are some easy and affordable options.
Thank you so much. Yes, I‘m doing a lot of work in order to prepare the brass the best possible way for reloading, but the competition level is really high and I think that experience is the best teacher. So I always love to hear what other shooters think or do. I have Redding dies with various bushings, Redding and SAC, and for some brass I use them, while for others I prefer the Lee one. I don’t really know why, it’s just a sensation. The last time some of my team changed the way of preparing brass choosing to make the full length resizing every time. I’m not convinced that this is the way, but I’ll also give it a try with the Redding type S full body die, we’ll see. I never did the annealing, because I would have to buy an annealer that in Italy costs a lot of money (the prices here are much higher than in the US), and I’m not able to, so I won’t pretend to be capable of doing something I am not ;-)
In fact, when I use the Lee collet die, I use a washer to form only two-thirds of the neck, while the SAC Bushing does that job on its own. I prefer that way of forming the neck, with the greatest pressure at the mouth of the case and gradually easing off. I've found that my Krieger barrel shoots bullets more consistently and accurately if I form the cases that way. But it's certainly different from rifle to rifle. For us who shoot paper targets at 300 meters with a pretty small 10, maximum precision is important.
