Choosing a first set of reloading dies

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Sho34

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I'm having a hard time choosing which set of reloading dies to start off with. Mostly my problem is struggling to understand what each different set is actually offering. I've done my reading, but still can't figure out how to wisely spend my money.

I understand I need to decap the primer, resize the case, reprime the case, charge it with powder and seat a new bullet. I also understand most dies do more than one job. I'm looking to reload for a bolt action rifle with the intent to target shoot and improve accuracy at ranges of up to 300 yards.

Can anyone suggest a few dies or a set that will cover everything I need to do?


Thanks!
 
what calibre are you planning on shooting? do you have a reloading manual yet? it will answer your questions above.

for rifle there is full length resizing/decapping die's, neck only/decapping dies and bullet seating dies. there is also factory crimp dies and case flaring dies for cast bullets.

others will chime in later.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
what calibre are you planning on shooting? do you have a reloading manual yet? it will answer your questions above.

for rifle there is full length resizing/decapping die's, neck only/decapping dies and bullet seating dies. there is also factory crimp dies and case flaring dies for cast bullets.

others will chime in later.
Click to expand...

I've done plenty of reading. After all I've learned, I'm still getting a little confused with the packages each company offers. I keep hearing about expanding dies. is that for flaring the case head before bullet seating?
 
I would get a good manual on reloading first to explain in detail the steps or at least check Youtube ..

I find the Lee 4 die set a good value to get going and give you decent quality..
 
I've read several manuals and understand how the process works. What I'm having trouble with is finding a die set that covers each step of the operation. Between youtube and the reloading books I've read, people use different terminology for the same function. What I would call a case head flare die, someone or some other company calls and expanding die. I'm just trying to avoid making mistakes.
 
Watch this video, it's a long one and it's very detailed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21P8LDUqWYU&index=7&list=FLUhmZQalFU7TtwzRjiv60kw

If you are going to re-load hand gun / pistol cartridges, it's best to get the 4 die set, I got the Lee .45 ACP die set.

Lee description of a 4 die set
http://leeprecision.com/reloading-dies/hand-gun-dies/

1. Carbide sizing die will remove the old primer, size the brass and allows you to seat a new primer with the Lee presses
2. Powder through expanding die, it flares the case mouth a bit to allow for easier pouring of the powder charge
3. Bullet seating die, as the name implies will seat the bullet in the appropriate depth
4. Finally, the factory crimp, it crimps the case to the bullet, for easier chambering.

Crimping is recommended for hand gun cartridges.
 
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this was my purchase of dies for starting to reload

So for accuracy's sake and making your brass last longer you don.t want to fl full length every reload and since your decappingi s built into the fl die I got a separate decapping die rcbs 1 then I got a lee collet die 2 so you only work the neck of the case leaves

the rest of the case fire formed to your chamber then I got a forster bullet seating die competition 3 then the redding body die 4 when you need to bump the shoulder of the case back you'll know when this needs to be done by how tight the fired case is to extract

and you might want to get the redding competion shell holders so you only bump the shoulder the minimal amount needed

everyone has there own favorite die this is just the root I took go to Mystic Presicion sight and read his reloading info
 
I have said this soooo many times. Newcomers who read too much and watch too many different videos, get completely confused.
You didn't say what calibre rifle you have, but assuming it is a standard, say 308 or 30-06, you just need a standard, two die set, as made by RCBS and several others.
That is all you need for reloading jacketed bullets in any bottle neck rifle calibre.
Get a set and follow their directions on how to set them up. End of the story.
 
http://leeprecision.com/ultimate-rifle-die-set/

as far as the die goes, I got the Lee 4-die set which has carbide resizing/depriming die, powder through expanding die, bullet seating die and carbide factory crimp die.
if you use Lee press, this covers everything. If you use other press with other power measure, like I am using dillon 550b with dillon powder measure with Lee dies, you have to buy the matching powder die to match your powder measure.

even the lee powder die goes to 'waste', along with the shell holder that comes with the set, the price is still cheaper than other brands with all the matching dies as far as I can find. I got all on amazon.com and have them shipped to my hotel when I was in US. So, it's even cheaper even with the Canadian dollar goes down into the toilet.


Sho34 said:
I'm having a hard time choosing which set of reloading dies to start off with. Mostly my problem is struggling to understand what each different set is actually offering. I've done my reading, but still can't figure out how to wisely spend my money.

I understand I need to decap the primer, resize the case, reprime the case, charge it with powder and seat a new bullet. I also understand most dies do more than one job. I'm looking to reload for a bolt action rifle with the intent to target shoot and improve accuracy at ranges of up to 300 yards.

Can anyone suggest a few dies or a set that will cover everything I need to do?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
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H4831 said:
I have said this soooo many times. Newcomers who read too much and watch too many different videos, get completely confused.
You didn't say what calibre rifle you have, but assuming it is a standard, say 308 or 30-06, you just need a standard, two die set, as made by RCBS and several others.
That is all you need for reloading jacketed bullets in any bottle neck rifle calibre.
Get a set and follow their directions on how to set them up. End of the story.
Click to expand...

Yup. This is pretty much dead on. I would add that as well as this advice, you get what you pay for. I have them all, and find that after lots of use, I prefer my Reddings and RCBS Comp dies. A huge thing I find is the really cheap ones tend to take to rust much easier.
 
*pins cheapskate medal onto his shirt*

If you're at all handy with machine tools, most of what you need for small quantity reloading can be produced fairly simply on a lathe, and used in a drill press.

Start with a good reloading manual, read everything you can about the physics of what happens in the chamber, and then build your tooling as you need it.

A set of pin gauges in the .25 to .35 range is very useful, and the torsion bars of old s10's are a cheap source of good steel (oil-quenched and tempered).

And don't assume the inside of your rifle is shaped the way SAAMI says it should be. Part of the motivation for making your own tooling is to match it to your rig/brass.

Ulrich
 
Sho34 said:
I've done plenty of reading. After all I've learned, I'm still getting a little confused with the packages each company offers. I keep hearing about expanding dies. is that for flaring the case head before bullet seating?
Click to expand...

i guess it's information overload as h4831 mentioned.

yes the expanding die will flare or bell the case mouth so it's easier to seat the bullets (mostly used for cast bullets so as not to shave a layer of lead off the bullet) but it's not needed for boat tail bullets or even flat based jacketed bullets. the basic 2 die set is a good start as you can get more stuff later on once you have the basics down.

once you have fired factory ammo in your gun it will be sized for that gun. from that point you can buy a neck sizing die so it only sizes the neck which will help with accuracy. after a few reloads with the same brass you may have to full length size the brass so it fits better in your chamber.
 
OP. assuming you plan to start reloading for a bolt action rifle, 4831 has it spot on.

As you have surely learned from your reading, a fired case comes out of the chamber very slightly expanded. In a 2 die standard set, the re-sizing die forces the case back to somewhere close to original dimensions. In the process, the de-capping pin normally found in a standard re-sizing die pops the spent primer out of the case. As you withdraw the case from the re-sizing die, you drag the case neck over a button that re-sizes the inside of the neck to a diameter normally appropriate to properly accept, and hold with some tension, a jacketed bullet.

You prime and charge the cartridge separately, using any tool that floats your boat that you and your banker can agree on - simple hand held or other manual priming tools work just fine, and a powder measure takes most of the tedium out of re-loading, although you will still need a good scale to set up and to periodically check your measure - and then the second die - the seating die - will force your new bullet into the re-sized, primed charged case.

It really is no more complicated than that. Two dies, a case holder, something with which to prime and charge, and bob's your uncle. You can mess about with backing the sizing die off to neck size only- what most folks did exclusively unless they were bench rest shooters - and you can mess with the seating die to crimp those jacketed bullets with a proper cannelure, if you really want to. For bullets without a cannelure, no roll crimping with a seating die is allowed, but that's OK, because 99% of your loads don't need a crimp anyway.

Some on here will insist on a neck sizing die, and in some rifles, for some applications, you may wring more case life, and/or more accuracy out of your loads. As long as you know you will eventually have to full length re-size your cases or they won't chamber anymore - they grow with each firing - and they may balk at being chambered as the trophy of a life-time is ducking his head so you can chamber a round, but hey, that's how we learn.

As for crimping, if you insist on shooting big boomers and putting the same un-fired cartridge in the bottom of the magazine, shoot after shoot, or if you treat loaded ammo like a bag of rocks, you may benefit from a crimping die that does not use a roll crimp, so that you can crimp a bullet lacking the appropriate cannelure. It is even possible that certain bullet/powder/seating depth combinations may shoot more accurately in your rifle with a crimp. It is more likely that such a crimp will add sufficient variation to the "pull" that it decreases accuracy, and again, in 99% of cases it is simply an u-necessary step.

2 dies, a shell holder, priming tool, scale and measure, and go for it. Oh, and if you don't lube your bottle-neck cases before you re-size them, a stuck case remover tool!!!
 
For basic reloading the basic two die sets will certainly do the job.

The first of the pair is a full length sizing die that also has a pin to push out the primers (decapping). So it does two jobs in one pull.

This die does not flare the mouth. And that's fine for jacketed bullets but not so good for cast bullets. For cast you want to use a flaring die. Rifle sets that commonly use jacketed bullets are three die sets with the added die being the flaring die. Most of these also expand the neck to suit the cast bullet too.

The dies do not prime the cases. The press itself does this along with the shell plate that comes with the die set being used to hold the rim or extractor groove. But the dies themselves are not involved with priming. And if priming isn't done on the press then it's done with some other priming tool.

The second die is often a combination bullet seating and case crimping die. If you screw down the outer part of the die far enough it'll crimp the mouth of the casing inwards. For a lot of rifle loading with jacketed you don't do that though. Instead you rely on the neck tension. So typically the seating and crimping die is left sitting "high" so it doesn't crimp. And the inside adjuster is used to seat the bullet to the desired depth.


Some folks with bolt action rifles like to either full length size only partially and "bump" the shoulder just enough to allow easy chambering but do not fully size because it stresses the brass and you only get limited loads from it. And others don't full length size at all. Instead they use a "neck sizing die". This is a special die that only sizes down the top portion so the bullet seats with the correct neck tension while leaving the rest of the shoulder and body alone. If you can get away with only doing this much then your brass will last that much longer again.

Lee sells rifle die sets that have both the full length sizing die as well as the neck sizing die. I imagine that some others do too.

So for rifle sets you have two and three die sets for typical bottleneck loading. It's a case of deciding if you're going to fuss enough to warrant the extra neck only sizing die.

There's one other die that I like. A universal decapping die. It looks like a regular die but it's got a HUGE hole that doesn't touch most anything this side of a 500 Nitro Express or perhaps a .50BMG. What it does is decap brass so you can clean it better and so you can get the primer pockets clean too. It's sold separately because it's more of a general purpose die.

I prefer the universal decapper because it doesn't touch the cases at all other than pushing out the old primer. So gritty cases don't get pushed into the sizing dies where they can scratch the steel and result in marks for ever after on every piece of brass you do.

I hope this clears things up a little instead of confusing you even more.

I didn't touch on handgun sets since that's a whole other issue and the three and four die sets come with another couple of dies in addition to the same job duo in the rifle sets.
 
I like Hornady and RCBS dies. Hornady has a better designed lock ring. I usually retrofit my RCBS dies with Hornady lock rings from Brownells. Other than that, you're good to go.
 
Sho34 said:
I'm having a hard time choosing which set of reloading dies to start off with. Mostly my problem is struggling to understand what each different set is actually offering. I've done my reading, but still can't figure out how to wisely spend my money.

I understand I need to decap the primer, resize the case, reprime the case, charge it with powder and seat a new bullet. I also understand most dies do more than one job. I'm looking to reload for a bolt action rifle with the intent to target shoot and improve accuracy at ranges of up to 300 yards.

Can anyone suggest a few dies or a set that will cover everything I need to do?


Thanks!
Click to expand...

You say you are reloading for a bolt action so I suggest the Lee for die set so you can neck resize the cases that have been fired from "your" rifle.
 
Does don't do more than one step without changing something. Usually the seater button, but you can put the decapper in the sizer if it's not there already. Rest of 'em just do what the stamp on 'em says. For example, FL means Full Length resizer.
Like H4831 says, just buy a regular set of FL dies and you'll be fine. As long as you set it up correctly.
That Lee 4-die set isn't carbide. It has a collet neck sizer that doesn't need lube. The FL sizer requires lube. Not that it matters.
 
Start with a lee die set, use it, and maybe one day you will move to something else or not.

Lee dies work, i shoot .3 moa with my 308 at 200 yards with my reloads.
Nothing fancy, weight charges, match bullets.
Thats all.

Works for all my rifle and pistol needs. I only have lee dies right now. Might buy dillon dies if i get a 650.

Neck sizing once fired cases in a bolt gun is convenient because your brass will last longer and you do not need lube. Tumble it anyway for the looks. Pretty ammo is happier.
 
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The die companies generally know what type of set you'll need depending on caliber and they'll automatically come with the necessary number of dies to reload for it.

That said, you want to buy a quality product. My first choice is RCBS simply because of their superb customer service and the quality of their dies and other reloading tools. They have a no questions asked guarantee and if you break it or wear it out they will replace it. Redding and Dillon also offer quality die sets and stand behind their products almost as well as RCBS.

With respect to LEE equipment and dies, perhaps the kindest thing that can be said is that they're economical and will permit potential new budget-conscious reloaders to get into the game. Many guys who buy LEE stuff quite often end up upgrading later.
 
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