Anyone remember the Lee Speed Die? It was an all-in-one die for straight wall cases like the .38 Special and .45 ACP that made provision for doing sizing, decapping, expanding and bullet seating with a single die body. I bought one in .38 Specials and one in .45 ACP because at the time they were cheap and I didn't figure on loading more than a few hundred rounds over the next few years.
As it turned out, that prediction was correct because before my neurologic problems took away my ability to stand, talk, or sign my name, I had loaded 12 (twelve) rounds of .38 Special and 110 of .45 ACP.
I currently have 500 rounds of new nickel plated Federal .38 Special brass and 340 rounds of .45 ACP brass; 90 rounds of which is new nickel plated Remington Brass with the rest once-fired unplated cases.
What I'm looking for is advice from those of you who have used a Speed Die in the past as to whether I should just go ahead and use the Speed Die on the brass that I have - which might be all the brass I load in those calibers for the next twenty years - or if there would be any advantage to getting new dies of those two cartridges? I don't do large runs when I reload, never more than 100 rounds at a time and generally only 50, so the time savings that might come from getting a new three die set isn't all that important, but rather whether the improvements that have been made to dies in the past couple of decades is enough to warrant the expenditure to stop fiddling with the Speed Die.
Thank you.
As it turned out, that prediction was correct because before my neurologic problems took away my ability to stand, talk, or sign my name, I had loaded 12 (twelve) rounds of .38 Special and 110 of .45 ACP.
I currently have 500 rounds of new nickel plated Federal .38 Special brass and 340 rounds of .45 ACP brass; 90 rounds of which is new nickel plated Remington Brass with the rest once-fired unplated cases.
What I'm looking for is advice from those of you who have used a Speed Die in the past as to whether I should just go ahead and use the Speed Die on the brass that I have - which might be all the brass I load in those calibers for the next twenty years - or if there would be any advantage to getting new dies of those two cartridges? I don't do large runs when I reload, never more than 100 rounds at a time and generally only 50, so the time savings that might come from getting a new three die set isn't all that important, but rather whether the improvements that have been made to dies in the past couple of decades is enough to warrant the expenditure to stop fiddling with the Speed Die.
Thank you.
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