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Offline MnMike

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Lee believer admits problem
« on: February 02, 2008, 06:59:10 PM »
I have a lot of Lee equipment and sometimes defend Lee on this site.

I just bought a Carcano and ordered dies for it. I normally buy Lee and I bought their dies. It turns out that the shell holder that they send is way off. You press in the case and try to get it out, and the rim is ripped off the case. This has been reported by others for quite a while. If Lee knows about this, why don't they raise the price of their dies a bit  and buy the RCBS shell holders, or create a new shell holder that works?

mike
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Offline stimpylu32

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2008, 02:12:08 AM »
Mike

Send them an e-mail , i know that they will make it right , they always do  . with all the diffrent brass out there it is sometimes diffacult to have a one size fits all shell holder . Have you checked to see if there is a burr on the inside lip that may be catching on the rim .

Also just because it had been posted here does not mean that Lee knows about the problem , so please let them know .

stimpy
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Offline tn_junk

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2008, 02:38:52 AM »
I had a problem with the shellholder they sent for my .460 S&W set. Called Lee and they had a new one to me (actually two) express mail the next day.
They are good people at Lee.

alan
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Offline Savage

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2008, 06:48:43 AM »
You might want to check and see if they accidentally sent the wrong shell holder for your dies. It is also possible the brass is out of spec. This might be more provable with a cartridge like the Carcano . There is so much difference in brass that shell holders must be sized to accommodate this variation. Either way, Lee will fix you up.
Savage
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Offline wncchester

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2008, 12:29:51 PM »
I don't understand what there can be about a shell holder that causes case rims to tear off. ???
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Offline njanear

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2008, 12:39:41 PM »
Quote from: MnMike on February 02, 2008, 06:59:10 PM
I have a lot of Lee equipment and sometimes defend Lee on this site.

I just bought a Carcano and ordered dies for it. I normally buy Lee and I bought their dies. It turns out that the shell holder that they send is way off. You press in the case and try to get it out, and the rim is ripped off the case. This has been reported by others for quite a while. If Lee knows about this, why don't they raise the price of their dies a bit  and buy the RCBS shell holders, or create a new shell holder that works?

mike

Mike - watch out for those Carcanos!  They say that when you shoot them,  the bolts will come straight back and go through your skull.  They also say they explode if you look at them wrong, and.....     ::) :P   :o ::)  :P  :o

Sorry.  I just had to do that, before someone else comes along and spreads the Internet gospel.   ;D   :D  By the way, is it a 6.5mm or a 7.35mm?

I did note that Lee lists Shellholder #2 for the Carcano, which is the same one used for the .308/.30-06/Mauser cartridges.  In COTW, the Carcano shows a rim of .448 while the others are all based on a .473 casehead.  Looking for others closer to the Carcano, I see that the #12 (for the 7.62x39mm) is for a casehead of .440.  I wonder if that could be made to work better for you.  Of course, Lee will be the ones with the answers - but you can always ask that question to them.

Good luck!
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Offline Tom W.

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2008, 05:07:20 PM »
I had the wrong shell holder packaged with a set of Lee 45 Colt dies.  An e-mail and two days later a new one, n/c. And I got to keep the old one!
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Offline MnMike

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2008, 05:00:17 PM »

I sent this out because I thought some of the Lee haters would get a kick out of me having a problem with Lee, since I mostly like Lee products and express that on this forum.

wncchester  - The shell holder is too large. It only catches a bit of rim, then strips that off. If it caught more rim it would be OK.

I have a 6.5mm Carcano which I find interesting for several reasons:
Gain twist barrel
Weird iron sight alignment - put the top of the front sight to the bottom of the rear notch
an impossible safety
barrel is .268 - not .264
weird clip
shoots pretty good.

mike
Who loves unloved guns (looking for a 8mm Nambu)
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Offline corbanzo

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2008, 05:57:29 PM »
I got the lee universal shell holder set, I switched out some of the shell holders that came with the die sets just cause of better fit. 
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Offline MnMike

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2008, 05:42:38 PM »
On stimpylu32's suggestion, I sent Lee an e-mail. Here was the reply:

>When we introduced the Carcano dies way back when, there was no source for Carcano brass.  Most guys were forming them from >something else.  The situation is much better now, with Graf and Privi Partisan making reloadable brass for some of the more obscure >cartridges.  I have a sample of the Graf brass, and I will find a shellholder that fits better than the #2 and send it to you.

I don't often complain because I have no faith that it will do any good. Maybe I am wrong and I should complain more when I have problems with a product.

mike
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Mike Ellestad

Offline Brithunter

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2008, 10:34:33 AM »
Whilst not having any experience with Carcano's I though I would mention this though. I use a lot of Lee dies and their Auto prime and have just loaded some RWS 7x57 brass and had to use the #3 shell holders as the extraction groove was too tight on the brass to fit in the std #2 shell holders. The brass extracts and ejects fine from the rifle but it won't fit the normal shell holders for that case.

I have wondered if the CIP specs are different from the SAAMI ones on this point?

I also once had a set of 6.5x55 Swedish dies which stretched the cases on withdrawal, tried everything even polishing the expander to no avail but the dealer swopped them for a new set and returned the old set to the importers no problem. I am about to purchase a new set of 308 dies, the set I have I acquired used and they are well used and last year I brought a Sportco Model 44 single shot target rifle and thought perhaps a set of new dies, possibly Collet dies might be a good idea even though the old ones still load accurate ammunition.
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Offline MnMike

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2008, 04:31:07 PM »
Brithunter:

I do like the collet dies for single shots and bolts, mostly because I hate lubing and trimming cases. The dies also add a bit to the accuracy.

good luck,
mike
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Mike Ellestad

Offline Brithunter

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Re: Lee believer admits problem
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2008, 08:51:19 PM »
Hi MnMike,

     I have several sets of the Collet dies already so am familiar with them. First set I got was in .300 Win Mag years ago when I had a Ruger No1B. No longer any 300 Win mags but still have the dies. The Sprtco Model 44 is a single shot bolt action with three locking lugs to give a low bolt lift. The action is quite heavy with only a loading/ejection port so you drop the cartridge in and slide it forward with your thumb then close the bolt. I say this as I have noticed that if you just try to feed the cartridge with the bolt it can snag on the chamber mouth. The collet dies should help bring out the best of this target rifle, or that's what I am hoping, Sportco was owned by Omark when this rifle was made in Australia.
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