Differences between Die brands

Suther

Suther

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I know there are lots of posts about peoples favorite die brands, but I find it is hard to figure out what the actual differences between the different brands are, so I figured I'd ask.

I am not asking what people prefer or anything (although you can explain why you prefer one die to another if it is related to how it is different from others), I just want an objective list of features that vary from one to the next.

So what are the differences between RCBS, Hornady, Lee, and Lyman dies?
 
My experience has been mostly on Dillon dies, and I love them. However, for 9mm, .40, .223 and .308 I have a Lee Factory Crimp die in the final station of my 650.

I also use RCBS small base dies on my .308 and .223 tool head.

I find they're all basically the same, with some minor differences. For example, you can "fine tune" the Lee dies for seating depth a little better, given they have an adjustment for that, whereas with Dillon you have to loosen the ring itself, turn, lock, measure, then repeat if necessary. I also use a Redding competition die seater, which has an even finer adjustment than the Lee.

The only ones I ever heard anything negative about were the Hornady, but I can't remember what exactly.

Dillon also has a no BS warranty on their products. They replaced a .223 resizing die for me no questions asked when I screwed it up. I think RCBS has a similar policy, but I'm not sure.
 
^^^ Melnibonean is right but if you have a press in mind sometimes there are advantages in getting the dies from the same manufacturer.. as an example my Lee dies don't fit in my Dillon XL650 all that well but the Dillon dies do and you can take the die apart for cleaning while still in the press by removing a spring clip etc. and they adjust easier.

That kind of thing.. for rifles I use the best dies I can afford and other than the mounting rings they fit fine in my single Stage Forster press.
 
Silverfox..........is it the rings on the lee that are giving you issues on the 650? They were on mine until I just replaced them with Dillon rings. Now no issues and what's more, I can use the Dillon wrench to adjust them
 
silverfoxdj said:
^^^ Melnibonean is right but if you have a press in mind sometimes there are advantages in getting the dies from the same manufacturer.. as an example my Lee dies don't fit in my Dillon XL650 all that well but the Dillon dies do and you can take the die apart for cleaning while still in the press by removing a spring clip etc. and they adjust easier.

That kind of thing.. for rifles I use the best dies I can afford and other than the mounting rings they fit fine in my single Stage Forster press.
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I have a lee hand press otw, and eventually will be getting another press, probably Lee due to cost.

The problem with best I can afford is the Lee, RCBS and Lyman dies all cost about $50, and there are people who would recommend each type over the others. Due to this, I am trying to figure out the objective differences so I can choose which features I want...

So, differences in seating dies? Differences in lock rings? Differences in decapping pins, expander balls, or...???
 
not noticed too many differences myself. my lee dies seem as good or better than my hornady and lyman dies. not tried any dillon
 
Depriming rods. Attached to those are the neck expanding button.

Best rod IMO is the Lee. They will replace it for life.

Neck expanding button is the Redding carbide upgrades. Worth every penny if you're full lenght sizing. Standard dies need case lube AND neck lube. Not so with carbide expanders.

I prefer the Hornady seating die because you can upgrade to a micrometer seater for 20 bucks. The all basically work the same no matter what propaganda you read. Some are just easier to adjust.

Body dies. Only Redding makes them in large amounts of calibers so....

Neck dies. 2 main players. Redding uses bushings to squeeze the neck in causing doughnuts and some consentricity issues if you don't know what you're doing and/or neck turn. Lee uses a rod and clamps a form around it so there is no "slide" down the neck. These dies are exceptional.

There are several locking nut configurations. Lee has o-rings. Some clamp together with a set screw. Some use a set screw to lock into the threads (don't buy these).

Everything else is pretty much the same.
 
my 2 cents I love anything with locking nuts example RCBS & Lyman, most accurate. I use lee but I find if you reload in mass the dies move a little bit so sometimes I load 500ish, 9mm or 38 and the lees moves. Once I seated about 1000 9mm, and from start to finish there was a .007 difference. Which probably would have made not difference but really p*** me off, OCD problems here. Some like the ease of no tools with the Lee dies but, how hard is it to have a crescent wrench on your table. Lastly the price of lee dies are way cheaper but really how much did you just spend on the firearm, and take care of your dies and they are good forever.
 
geotndtwine said:
my 2 cents I love anything with locking nuts example RCBS & Lyman, most accurate. I use lee but I find if you reload in mass the dies move a little bit so sometimes I load 500ish, 9mm or 38 and the lees moves. Once I seated about 1000 9mm, and from start to finish there was a .007 difference. Which probably would have made not difference but really p*** me off, OCD problems here. Some like the ease of no tools with the Lee dies but, how hard is it to have a crescent wrench on your table. Lastly the price of lee dies are way cheaper but really how much did you just spend on the firearm, and take care of your dies and they are good forever.
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Can you elaborate on the two bolded parts? Do mean the rings on the die bodies? I was gonna buy some lock ring eliminator breech lock bushings (thats a mouthful) http://leeprecision.com/lock-ring-eliminator.html

And what part or aspect of the die do you need tools to adjust?
 
Suther said:
Can you elaborate on the two bolded parts? Do mean the rings on the die bodies? I was gonna buy some lock ring eliminator breech lock bushings (thats a mouthful) http://leeprecision.com/lock-ring-eliminator.html

And what part or aspect of the die do you need tools to adjust?
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I hope you realize you need a breach lock press for those.

Lee dies come with an o-ring that is squashed between the nut and the top of the press.

leelockring-e1277241846590.jpg
 
I am a fan of both Redding and oddly enough the cheapest Lee dies have always worked great for me.

Don't like RCBS for some reason and found I was forever crushing cases with the seating dies from Hornady.
 
frigpig said:
I hope you realize you need a breach lock press for those.

Lee dies come with an o-ring that is squashed between the nut and the top of the press.

leelockring-e1277241846590.jpg
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Every Lee hand press I've seen was breech lock. I've got a used one otw, so I'm not certain that it is, but I am currently unaware of them making a non-breech lock hand press.
 
PitBull1973 said:
I don't know if people realize that RCBS and I believe Hornady dies are made in China.

Redding , lee , Forster are made in the US
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I don't really care where something was made. Unless it's made in Canada. China pumps out plenty of quality products, and the US pumps out plenty of crap.
 
What I meant was RCBS locking rings has a set screw so if you are not changing up your bullets and sizes a lot the locking nut can be set in place with a set screw. So example you load up some 9mm and want to change to 38special just plop the die back in the press and your good to go since you set the looking nut to the depth you want with the set screw. Others like the lee because setting is all done by hand, but that rubber O-ring does not lock it in place so eventually the movement of the press will slowly move the die. As I said before after 1000 shell the OAL had changed by .007 as the first was at the OAL I wanted and the last was .007 longer.
 
Depends on what you are doing, I personally cast my own bullets so when I reload I try to reload as many at one sitting as I can. As for the lee I have one for 7.5swiss and works like a charm, because I maybe reload 50 in a set. As well Lee set was near $25 and the RCBS was $180, so I go for the cheaper on the odd calibers. But when using the lee for bullet depth you have to set slowly to find your OAL and use calipers so your set up time can be 5-10min with RCB set up can be 10-15 seconds because of the locking screw. Lastly if you have more time then money the Lee locking rings can be tapped for a locking screw, but time is not always on my side.
 
So by looking at pictures online, it looks like the $50 RCBC and Lyman dies both have the set screw that goes into the die threading to lock them... So who makes the other kind of lock ring, where the ring clamps around the die body to hold it in place? I think I've seen these for sale by themselves, but does anyone make affordable dies that come with them?
 
Melnibonean said:
Silverfox..........is it the rings on the lee that are giving you issues on the 650? They were on mine until I just replaced them with Dillon rings. Now no issues and what's more, I can use the Dillon wrench to adjust them
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I got my press from another CGner who had most of the Dillon dies included in the package.

But I did try to use the Lee ones with their original rings because I liked them and was used to using them, so that may be one of the issues..

I liked the Dillons easy clean dies more and they were just easier to setup for me as well so I relgated my Lee dies to rifle and decapping duties etc.
 
If you are talking about the locking rings that are like kind of C shaped with the locking screw connecting the two end of the C. That would be lyman, but they have discontinued that style and gone for the nut with the set screw. The C style is the old kind from many years ago, I have some but I believe the change was made for cost saving measure, and they have aligned with RCBS.
 
Suther said:
So by looking at pictures online, it looks like the $50 RCBC and Lyman dies both have the set screw that goes into the die threading to lock them... So who makes the other kind of lock ring, where the ring clamps around the die body to hold it in place? I think I've seen these for sale by themselves, but does anyone make affordable dies that come with them?
Click to expand...

All forster dies come with those rings. You can buy just the rings from them too.
 
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