In ideal two-stage collimation systems, the secondary collimator–absorber should have its length sufficient to exclude practically the exit of halo particles with large impact parameters. In the UA9 experiments on the crystal assisted collimation of the SPS beam a 60 cm long tungsten bar is used as a secondary collimator–absorber which is insufficient for the full absorption of the halo protons. Multi-turn simulation studies of the collimation allowed to select the position for the beam loss monitor downstream the collimation area where the contribution of particles deflected by the crystal in channeling regime but emerging from the secondary collimator–absorber is considerably reduced. This allowed observation of a strong leakage reduction of halo protons from the SPS beam collimation area, thereby approaching the case with an ideal absorber.