Lee dies (again my opinion) are sloppy in the tolerance department.
While I enjoy my Dillon 650 with ease of cleaning Dillon dies by pulling the top retention pin without having to remove the dies from the toolhead, I would gladly use my RCBS carbide pistol dies without hesitation.
But to opine Lee dies are "sloppy in the tolerance department", let me share my "opinion" of Lee dies.
- Yes they are cheaper than other brands but still made in the USA.
- They have shorter threaded body section but you can use the locking ring under the toolhead.
- Their carbide sizer rings have smaller radius at the die mouth to allow further resizing down towards case base than other brand dies.
- Especially with overly expanded brass with expanded case base dimensions, my Lee dies will resize brass further down the case base with smaller OD than Dillon or RCBS dies.
- Particularly with 40S&W "Glocked" brass, users of other brand dies need to "push-through" resize with FCD but my Lee resizing die will resize to under SAAMI spec dimensions to not require the FCD and it remains in the die box. For 40S&W cases expanded to .430+" at the middle and .423"-.424" at the case base, my RCBS carbide sizer will maintain the case base OD at .423"-.424" but my Lee carbide sizer will resize to .420" all the way down to case base.
My shooting and reloading mentor taught me to reload on Dillon 550 and Lee Pro 1000 and my USPSA match pistols could not tell the difference. Over the years, other match shooters and I did many comparison tests of our match loads' finished dimensions (using same Montana Gold jacketed bullets) and my rounds were on par or better than rounds loaded on other brand presses/dies. Of course, eyebrows were raised when my rounds produced smaller shot groups than their rounds because my fixed volumetric Pro Auto Disk dropped within .1 gr variance consistently while their powder measures drifted during a 1000+ round reloading session.
Most of the load development and comparison test rounds I posted past several years on THR have been loaded on Pro 1000 in "progressive mode" using Lee dies. The smaller radius carbide sizer opening haven't given me any issues the past 25+ years and with more consistent bullets like Hornady HAP, Montana Gold FMJ/JHP, Rocky Mountain Reloading FMJ/JHP, Speer TMJ, Zero FMJ, etc. my OAL/COL variance run less than .005" (using resized brass) with most falling under .002"-.003" (Hence why I often post 115 gr FMJ OAL variance at 1.130"-1.135"). With C-H 205 single stage and Lee seating/taper crimp die, I can reduce OAL variance to mostly under .002" using RMR 115 gr FMJ with 60-80%+ being spot on. I can also taper crimp to .001" variance unless the bullet is out-of-round and case wall thickness is not even. I can't hardly call these finished dimensions "sloppy" tolerances.
So for the price, I find the "sloppy tolerance" of Lee dies quite acceptable for me and I would even gladly use Lee dies on my Dillon 650.
But of course, this is only my opinion.