ohihunter2014 said:
is there a reason one is better than the other? new to this so would like to know for reference. the rcbs ones I found were like $55-60 must have been a special die or something.
There are differences.
While I mostly use Lee dies, I also use Dillon and RCBS dies. Since there are custom/specialized dies at much higher prices, these comments are for "general" die sets sold at lower prices.
- Die sets come with different warranty. Many manufacturers offer lifetime warranty. While Lee products come with 2 year unconditional guarantee against wear and breakage from normal use and limited lifetime guarantee, reloaders often have gotten lifetime customer service support even when breakage was due to user error like depriming pins.
- All Lee die sets and only Hornady's American Series sets come with shell holders. You need to buy shell holder separately when buying other brand/model die sets.
- All die sets come with die box except Hornady's American Series die sets (hence cost saving point to compete with Lee die sets). Notice American Series die sets also lack knurling around the die body.
- Lee dies use sleeve tensioned primer decapping pin which instead of breaking against berdan primed cases (2 flash holes with solid center instead of Boxer primed cases with 1 flash hole in the center) will simply slide up. Other brand dies which use threaded primer decapping pin will break against berdan primed cases (And Hornady American Series die sets come with 2 extra threaded pins along with lifetime warranty).
- Lee dies come with combination "Powder Thru Expander" die which will expand/flare case mouth while allowing powder charge to be dropped into the case. This feature allows the use of various Lee powder measures so if you are buying Lee press/kits, buying Lee die sets makes sense.
- Only Lee 4 die sets come with the Factory Crimp Die (FCD) which is a "finishing" die (for pistol essentially taper crimp die with larger carbide sizer ring at die mouth) reloaders use to seat and crimp in separate steps and/or to fix out-of-spec/round finished rounds from improperly sized cases, tilted bullet or out of round bullets so all finished rounds will fully chamber in SAAMI spec barrels. While I use Lee dies, I do not use the FCD (they rest in die boxes) and seat/crimp in one step with Lee dies or seat/crimp in separate steps using Dillon/RCBS dies.
For rifle FCD (different from pistol FCD), most seating dies won't crimp the neck and FCD will squeeze the very end of case neck and crimp against the bullet same as factory ammo.
- Back to pistol carbide sizer ring. Not all resizing die will resize the brass the same. While all resizing dies are made to SAAMI specs, carbide sizer ring at die mouth will have varying radius, ID and taper.
My Lee 40S&W resizing die will resize further down with smaller OD than RCBS resizing die and not require the use of undersized "U" die or push-through resizing with FCD or G-Rx (Glock Rx) dies for most of mixed range brass.
- Dillon dies have pull pin top which makes cleaning/checking of dies easier without having to remove the dies from the press/toolhead.
I hope this helped.
