Thread: Has anyone ever run tests on a belted magnum collet resizing die (before and after)

I came across old threads before christmas about this larry willis belted magnum collet resizing die, so i bought one as a gift. It arrived right on time which was great. Couple of days ago i put about 100 hornady 7mmRM cartridges across it. Even 3x fired worked fine. Works really well and it does size in perfectly just above the belt. Had no time to check the results on paper yet.

Has anyone recorded any results with one of these? I see they get imported here from time to time.



https://www.larrywillis.com

Look like a good idea although I used to use a lee collet neck size die on 300WM and it worked great so no need to full length re-size. Saying that if you had to do a full length re-size it was not fun.

Yeah had a look at his website. The die is not to be confused with the Lee Collet die which resizes the neck. As the OP points out, this die sizes the area just above the shoulder.
Looks to be a nice bit of gear.
Couldn't work out how one die will do all the different belted cartridges though.


Also had a look at his favourite quotes. No hard to see his political leaning. Like this quote which sums up 2 of our parties. (Sorry to the OP for bringing politics into his thread.)

“I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you’ve earned,
but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”

- Thomas Sowell

(Building wealth envy while calling people greedy is the main Democratic strategy for getting votes.)

I tried it on sized and non sized. It worked fine either way

Greetings All,
I believe that the die is to iron out the bulge that develops just in front of the belt when the cases are FL resized to just bump the shoulder slightly. Due to the somewhat sloppy tolerances with some belted chambers this leaves the bit right in front of the belt unsized and even bulges it a bit making chambering hard. I believe that the die only sizes the area in front of the belt but not having seen one could be wrong. A standard FL die should take care of the area behind the shoulder. The tighter nature of many current chambers may be making this less of a problem.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by zimmer

Yeah had a look at his website. The die is not to be confused with the Lee Collet die which resizes the neck. As the OP points out, this die sizes the area just above the shoulder.

Ah, slip of the finger, BELT, not shoulder. Dolt.

I have the die and also use Hornady brass. the die does nothing my Hornady full length die won't do, so I don't bother with it. from memory it sized it down further than the full length die, but there was no need to do so, its just working the brass more.

Greetings Again All,
Years ago a friend had a .308 Norma Mag rifle that had been re barreled. Cases were hard to get and some of the cases had been fired in the rifle prior to the new barrel would not chamber in spite of being full length resized. The problem was the body just in front of the belt. I suggested that my friend ran the cases into a FL 300 win mag die with the expander stem removed and with the case sitting on top of the shell holder. This allowed the FL die to reach the front of the belt. The case was then knocked out with the rod from a Lee Loader. Worked a treat and he never had to repeat the process in spite of some pretty frisky loads. Gunsmith chamber likely helped.
Regards Grandpamac.

Interesting thread.

Thanks grandpamac. I have had this issue with my 7RM and chambering is difficult even after sizing and bumping the shoulder back. I will try your .300WM trick when I can.

Cheers

The die works as advertised. After several reloads the belted cases can get to the point where you cannot chamber them even if FL sizing as the die cannot size the area just in front of the belt. It has worked for both my 7mm RM and a mates 300WM. A great bit of kit.

My Tikka has a loose chambers and the cases developed a bulge in front of the belt.
I have one of these dies but the chamber is so ridiculously loose it was a lot of work, in the end modified a loose tolerance lee full length die to run down to the belt.
Happy to move the Willis die on at a decent price if anyone wants it

Just out of interest are you headspacing off the shoulder or the belt when you use the Lee FLS die?
Or is that your reference to loose tolerance in the Lee meaning your are not affecting the shoulder.

Originally Posted by bully

I have the die and also use Hornady brass. the die does nothing my Hornady full length die won't do, so I don't bother with it. from memory it sized it down further than the full length die, but there was no need to do so, its just working the brass more.

Just curious how many cycles you've managed to get out of your hornadys? Also do you anneal each time or just fire as is?
Cheers
Tim

Originally Posted by zimmer

Just out of interest are you headspacing off the shoulder or the belt when you use the Lee FLS die?
Or is that your reference to loose tolerance in the Lee meaning your are not affecting the shoulder.

The Lee die is machined off just above where the allowance for the belt was...and top is machined off as well so it cannot effect the shoulder...it is just a sleeve that runs down and gets rid of the bulge...works a treat.
I tried to do the same thing with a Redding body die but the cases are so enlarged it was to much work...the Lee dies just seem a a more generous capacity.
Bitch of a chamber and I have a new barrel to go on...still shoots like a laser beam mind.

Originally Posted by T.FOYE

Just curious how many cycles you've managed to get out of your hornadys? Also do you anneal each time or just fire as is?
Cheers
Tim

for neck tention reasons I think I was only doing 6. but now I have an anealer and aneal every time. just watch for a ring just above the head. (head separation line) you can feel for it with a paper clip. but you will see it also.