Lennyjoe
Member
I have a mixed blend of Lee, RCBS and Hornady dies and they all work as advertised
Pretty muchWe generally dont get I to bad mouthing products. All major brands work well, and even the least expensive Lee does a fine job.
I try to buy anything but LeeOkay, what are the worst die set brand that I should avoid? Or dies that won’t do as advertised?
I have both and also like Forster
Funny that everyone immediately assumes Lee....................................
I have had issues with dies but abuse or improper use is often the cause and not all I have were new when I became their owner.
Sometimes, I actually prefer Lee dies over others. I can’t think of any brand I avoid altogether because they are consistently poor quality.
At one time I bought the inexpensive sets but routinely had dissatisfaction with unnecessary sizing beyond my expectations. Rather than contacting the company for honing or questions I would just move on, now I look for a die cut with a reamer that closely matches my chamber especially on competition guns.. Hunting or plunking I just want smooth and not overwork the brass so my advice is for those interested to refine your needs and expectations because there are very good inexpensive dies some just size more or less than others.it is about fit and finish, and there are some nuances of how some of the various die brands work, so - personal preference. this thread might be more valuable if it morphs into why people prefer one brand over another, or - say, for single stage, turret, or progressive press use. I just use an old singe stage, so - all the same to me there, but think there are nuances people prefer for different uses. for whatever reason I kind of like the floating Hornady seater stem, but - no idea if it actually work better, but it makes sense it would help keep the bullet aligned as it feeds up into the die. RCBS in my few expreiences, has just sent me pieces when I got stuck and asked them a few questions, they just sent me differerent expanders to try them and I didn't even ask, so - was pretty impressed with that.
My experience with dies is similar to that, but interestingly, the only die set I ever bought, that wasn't acceptable was a Redding.....the only Redding set I own.
The only dies that I don't prefer are the lee expander dies. I have lee dies for every cartridge I load and they work great, I have some rcbs dies too. The expander plug on the rcbs is good and I've heard the Lyman m dies are even better. The lee expander can really over expand if the case length isn't consistent , not the end of the world especially of you're lengths are consistent. That's really the only gripe I've got with any die I've used to this point.