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Hi who do you guysrate as making good die sets

LeWilson. Me . Depends on the type of shooting you do. Lee are good value for money and they work. I use Lee for full length resizing but I ditch the expander. I use LeWilson bushing dies for neck sizing and a LeWilson seating die for jacketed bullets. For cast boolits I neck size then use a custom expander to open up the neck portion to accommodate the size of cast boolit. To seat my cast boolits I use a LeWilson type seating die that I make my self for use with a Arbor press.

Thanks alpha

Lee

It all depends on your criteria of best, best very often gets in the way of good.

There are rarely such absolutes as you suggest in this world.

In my experience there are no die makers that make every die well, most of the die sets for a calibre that I use come from a mix of manufacturers. Mainly Lee, Forster, 310 shop, Vickerman, RCBS, CH-4D, NDFS (old) and Lyman.

Only "bad" thing I've come across in my very limited collection of dies is Lee's decapping pin arrangement- I'm not overly keen on their collet clamping method for it and I'm not convinced about the benefit to the end user compared to the more conventional arrangements.

Other than that, horses for courses. Not sure my Redding dies give me much more than any of the others (and as it turns out I use them with a Lee neck sizer anyway...).

Lee dies are great for the money, I've never had any issues with them at all. I've used RCBS dies too but find the locking ring mechanism to be quite poor, even when I lock it down on the seating die it still comes loose when I unscrew it out of my press. I've used Redding bushing neck sizing die and I prefer this to the Lee collet method and I think they're worth the money. I've also used Forster full length and standard seating dies and find these are very good quality dies and the locking rings (clamp type) do not budge at all.

I've managed to get sub-moa using all the aforementioned dies at 100m. Maybe the high end dies make much more uniform bullets which would be most beneficial for 1000m shooting for example, but I don't know as I've never shot paper at that distance, just Fig11 targets. Just go with what budget you have to be honest.

WelshShooter wrote:Lee dies are great for the money, I've never had any issues with them at all. I've used RCBS dies too but find the locking ring mechanism to be quite poor, even when I lock it down on the seating die it still comes loose when I unscrew it out of my press. I've used Redding bushing neck sizing die and I prefer this to the Lee collet method and I think they're worth the money. I've also used Forster full length and standard seating dies and find these are very good quality dies and the locking rings (clamp type) do not budge at all.

I've managed to get sub-moa using all the aforementioned dies at 100m. Maybe the high end dies make much more uniform bullets which would be most beneficial for 1000m shooting for example, but I don't know as I've never shot paper at that distance, just Fig11 targets. Just go with what budget you have to be honest.

Reminds me- I must look for some decent lockrings for my Lee dies. Just don't quite trust them compared to the positively locked rings I have.

For the money though, you can't complain about Lee dies (or any of the other Lee stuff I've got- progressive press, powder thrower and one or two sundry items IIRC.)

I have used just about every current die set plus a fair few no longer available and being quite honest they are for the most OK. Personal favourite are Forster dies as they are well priced and give fine results. I have made my own in the past however unless it is for a Wildcat there is very little advantage other than because I wanted to give it a try. Newlon and PTG both produce some good die blanks with the former accepting Mitutoyo micrometer thimbles which do look the part. The one I do use a lot is a fairly universal de-capping die I built 2-3 years ago

One interesting note, I have machined many different dies over the years for a variety of reasons and Lee are notably incredibly tough material wise.

I take the point earlier in this thread about locking rings. I automatically switch all mine out for Hornady Sure-Locs. They're so much easier to use and don't bit into the thread as other types do. I've never really liked the aluminium locking rings on Lee dies though. I know it's done for cost reasons but it's an uneasy mixture, in my view.