9 mm Dies / Preferences or experiences

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tabs4u

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I am thinking of starting to reload for my 9mm and just want to if there are any experiences or preferences with the type of Die to use in regards to performance and ease of use. RCBS and Lee seem to be the most available in my area.
 
I started with the carbide Lee 9mm set in my Dillon 550. They turned out good ammo and I had no problems with them what so ever. I would recommend them. You can spend more on pistol dies, but I am not sure that the more expensive dies make any better ammo.
 
I have a 3 die set from Lee and they work as good as I could expect a set of die to work. The resizing / decaping die have a carbide insert. The powder thru / expending die work flawlessly with the perfect powder measure, and the seating / crimping die do what it is intended for. Well they are priced right and do work.. Didn't have any problem feeding my Glock and my friend CZ75.
 
I use the lee carbide dies, with the lee factory crimp die.
On my loadmaster.

It works fine, no issues with the dies. Only issues are with the loadmaster, mostly the priming system.
 
I use the Lee 4 die set in my Dillon 550. Many thousands of round made. No issues or concerns to date. I also have RCBS and Redding dies. They all work well. Some decisions are based on economics (Lee) but the bottom line is they all work.
 
thats good to know as I use RCBS dies for rifle and just wanted to see how the Lee dies stood with people if I had to resort to them.
 
I changed out nearly all my other brands of dies for Hornadys. Their floating sleeve in the seater die pretty much eliminates off centre bullet alignment and they provide different seating stems for different bullet shapes. Because you can removed the decapping assembly from the size die removing stuck cases is also easy, unlike RCBS which are impossible unless you have a stuck case remover kit.

If I can't get Hornady I go with Lee. If they had the bullet alignment sleeve for the money I would rate them ahead of the Hornadys. I do use Lees in my Loadmasters & they work fine.
 
ted_dent said:
I changed out nearly all my other brands of dies for Hornadys. Their floating sleeve in the seater die pretty much eliminates off centre bullet alignment and they provide different seating stems for different bullet shapes. Because you can removed the decapping assembly from the size die removing stuck cases is also easy, unlike RCBS which are impossible unless you have a stuck case remover kit.

If I can't get Hornady I go with Lee. If they had the bullet alignment sleeve for the money I would rate them ahead of the Hornadys. I do use Lees in my Loadmasters & they work fine.
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^^^^ this is bang on. I love the Hornady Dies with my Hornady LnL AP, very good dies plus you get a free box of bullets with them which sweetens the deal. Hornadys customer service is one of the best as well.

Cheers!!
 
ted_dent said:
I changed out nearly all my other brands of dies for Hornadys. Their floating sleeve in the seater die pretty much eliminates off centre bullet alignment and they provide different seating stems for different bullet shapes. Because you can removed the decapping assembly from the size die removing stuck cases is also easy, unlike RCBS which are impossible unless you have a stuck case remover kit.

If I can't get Hornady I go with Lee. If they had the bullet alignment sleeve for the money I would rate them ahead of the Hornadys. I do use Lees in my Loadmasters & they work fine.
Click to expand...

I don't know about their pistol dies, but all my Lee rifle dies have the alignment sleeve...........
 
I lube anyway because cases stick way too much if you don't, ESPECIALLY if you just SS or US cleaned them, you will need much more lube.
That's why I just tumble 9mm cases now, and spray some hornady lube, and then done.
 
*MALICE* said:
I don't know about their pistol dies, but all my Lee rifle dies have the alignment sleeve...........
Click to expand...

I can't speak to the Lee rifle dies because I have gone exclusively with Hornady for rifle dies except for a few specialty dies like Redding .223 and .308 micrometer seating dies which also have an alignment sleeve. I was only speaking about pistol dies as that was his original query.
 
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