Shell holders?

[kenbro]

Hi, are there any shell holders (For press, 223) with tighter tolerances than say Lee ones?
I've just been priming some cases with a Lee Ram Prime and some off the cases are getting damaged to the rim because the case rim to shell holder isn't very close.
Wondered if a different brand might help.
It doesn't help that the primers are Ruag and they're always harder to seat.
Thanks, Ken.

 

[LeftHandGuy]

My guess is that any of the other manufacturers would claim that their shell holders have tighter tolerances than Lee!!

RCBS is possibly a good shout, or if you are using a Lee no 4 shell holder, you could try a number 19 instead, for a while I was making 7.62x25 (Tokarev) brass from .223 brass using the shell holder from the Tok' die set....

 

[MarinePMI]

Honestly, you're better off just getting an RCBS hand primer (not the universal jaw one, but the one that takes shell holders).

 

[Fosbery Holster]

I’ve dumped all my Lee shell holders they didn’t even come close to fitting the case heads correctly on 6.5x55, my personal opinion is they were not fit for purpose, monkey metal.

Changed to RCBS no further problems.

 

[Bowland blades]

Lee shell holders are horribly machined , i am about to chuck the ones i have . 20 mins with a diamond file at the minimum to get one near usable and i bought a dammed set ! The New type Lee hand primer is no place near the old one with the circular magazine either

 

[LeftHandGuy]

Lee stuff is definitely more "rough and ready" but the only piece of Lee kit that consistently let me down was the BSD for 375 H&H.

Over here I am pretty sure that Lee would send you a replacement if you called them up and said that their shell holder was repeatedly damaging brass. The UK importer may extend that courtesy to you?

Kranks did for me when I broke the depriming pin out of the Lee Loader I bought from them. But that was 10 years ago and they made the point that they didn't have to do that for me!!

 

[Bowland blades]

Lee stuff is definitely more "rough and ready" but the only piece of Lee kit that consistently let me down was the BSD for 375 H&H.

Over here I am pretty sure that Lee would send you a replacement if you called them up and said that their shell holder was repeatedly damaging brass. The UK importer may extend that courtesy to you?

Kranks did for me when I broke the depriming pin out of the Lee Loader I bought from them. But that was 10 years ago and they made the point that they didn't have to do that for me!!

Actually an indication of wholesale prices being very low perhaps ? or the cost of card payments and the hassle that is cash now maybe?

 

[LeftHandGuy]

Actually an indication of wholesale prices being very low perhaps ? or the cost of card payments and the hassle that is cash now maybe?

As in, it's probably cheaper for Lee to skimp on the QC and just eat the cost of sending replacements to the few who notice or bother to ask for help? I am sure that's true. I'm sure Lee kit is built to looser tolerances than RCBS, Redding, etc... But at least their pricing reflects that.

In any case, it can't hurt to ask can it?