Okay, so I finally got around to playing around with these in .303 British just yesterday, and a couple of things came to mind I thought I should ask.
1) Given that I am squeezing against a mandrel of a set size, is it actually possible to overdo things? I am using an RCBS Partner press, and although it seems not to have much in the way of cam-over, I decided to play things safe and have followed the Lee instructions to back the thing out two full turns from touching the shell holder. First case went fine, so I did one more, and another, and before you know it I'd done the whole box. None of them will, after resizing, admit** a .3105" Hornady FMJBT, a .311" Sierra 125gn SP, or a .312" Woodleigh 215gn RN, which is (as I'm understanding it) as things should be.
They did, however, admit a stray that leaked into a box of stuff I bought, which turned out to mike a diameter of 0.309".
About the only way I can conceivably think I might screw things up is to pull down so hard on the lever that I bind the collet. As things stand, there's a tiny, tiny bit of flex in the press mounting when I've got the ram at the top of the stroke, and I don't think I want to push harder than that. The thing seems to work great, if I take the attitude that I'm going to pull the lever as hard as feels comfortable every time and know that the mandrel will stop me from making the necks too narrow. Certainly better and faster than hammering the little blighters into the whackamole - as nice as neck sizing seems to be vis a vis results on target, it's good to be able to do it on the press.
2) With regard to the bullet seater, I followed instructions for that to the letter too, then I threw a 215gn Woodleigh on top of a full length resized (empty, unprimed) case I had lying around, backed the seating stem as far out as I dared (lots of thread showing and almost wobbly) and pushed it home. I ended up with OAL of 2.990", which is a fair way away from the 3.075" which Woodleigh advised me to use.
This seems odd - you'd think there'd be more "play" in the system than that, especially given that it's not just the Woodleighs which demand full British Empire milspec OAL. What am I missing here? Or should I just back the die out a bit to give myself some wriggle room?
** = by which I mean, the bullet doesn't pass freely down the case mouth, is an EXTREMELY tight press-fit into the case at least, and generally feels like the instructions say it should feel like.
1) Given that I am squeezing against a mandrel of a set size, is it actually possible to overdo things? I am using an RCBS Partner press, and although it seems not to have much in the way of cam-over, I decided to play things safe and have followed the Lee instructions to back the thing out two full turns from touching the shell holder. First case went fine, so I did one more, and another, and before you know it I'd done the whole box. None of them will, after resizing, admit** a .3105" Hornady FMJBT, a .311" Sierra 125gn SP, or a .312" Woodleigh 215gn RN, which is (as I'm understanding it) as things should be.
They did, however, admit a stray that leaked into a box of stuff I bought, which turned out to mike a diameter of 0.309".
About the only way I can conceivably think I might screw things up is to pull down so hard on the lever that I bind the collet. As things stand, there's a tiny, tiny bit of flex in the press mounting when I've got the ram at the top of the stroke, and I don't think I want to push harder than that. The thing seems to work great, if I take the attitude that I'm going to pull the lever as hard as feels comfortable every time and know that the mandrel will stop me from making the necks too narrow. Certainly better and faster than hammering the little blighters into the whackamole - as nice as neck sizing seems to be vis a vis results on target, it's good to be able to do it on the press.
2) With regard to the bullet seater, I followed instructions for that to the letter too, then I threw a 215gn Woodleigh on top of a full length resized (empty, unprimed) case I had lying around, backed the seating stem as far out as I dared (lots of thread showing and almost wobbly) and pushed it home. I ended up with OAL of 2.990", which is a fair way away from the 3.075" which Woodleigh advised me to use.
This seems odd - you'd think there'd be more "play" in the system than that, especially given that it's not just the Woodleighs which demand full British Empire milspec OAL. What am I missing here? Or should I just back the die out a bit to give myself some wriggle room?
** = by which I mean, the bullet doesn't pass freely down the case mouth, is an EXTREMELY tight press-fit into the case at least, and generally feels like the instructions say it should feel like.