Lee .500 S&W die, Bad?--UPDATE--problem identified, die is bad POST# 25

[Spawn-Inc]

You are correct Malice all products have there issues. I may be wrong here but I seem to recall reading more posts about problems with Lee products then any other ones. There has to a reason why they are so much cheaper then the others are.

Graydog

That is true but it's also very likely that for every rcbs die that gets sold 2 or 3 Lee's get sold. I'd be curious to the percentages of failures for each company.

Lee dies are cheap for a reason but they work and can work great if you make the effort to "tune/refine" them. Just like Norinco guns they work but are roughly finished. Take some time and smooth them out and they are amazing.


Without Lee I bet half the people who reload wouldn't, or would take longer to get into reloading.

 

[Andy]

I just went through a similar problem with a four die set of Lee 9mm pistol dies, I was having problems with seating depth with Remington 115 grain FMJ bullets. I got angry and stopped thinking and went out and bought a Hornady die set and had the same problem with their bowl shaped seater plug.

The problem after I went back into the "thinking" mode was the inconstant ogive shaped curve of these cheaper bullets. The Hornady dies came with two seater plugs, one cup shaped and one flat blunt seater plug. The flat faced Hornady seater plug fit the Lee die perfectly and the seating depth and non-thinking problem went away.

This is a good idea that I've applied on a few seating dies, for which the seating stems's profile was not suited to my chosen bullet's profile.

In my cases, the bullets are cast FN with fairly wide meplats. The seating stems were designed for RN bullets, and when seating the FN, the face of the seating stem only contacted the nose of the bullet around its edge. The solution was easy - shorten the length of the seating stem's face and create a flat profile where where before it had been rounded. The contact points are now flat-against-flat, and the centre portion of the seating stem maintains a rounded portion, albeit less than before.

 

[.Ben]

I just went through a similar problem with a four die set of Lee 9mm pistol dies, I was having problems with seating depth with Remington 115 grain FMJ bullets. I got angry and stopped thinking and went out and bought a Hornady die set and had the same problem with their bowl shaped seater plug.

The problem after I went back into the "thinking" mode was the inconstant ogive shaped curve of these cheaper bullets. The Hornady dies came with two seater plugs, one cup shaped and one flat blunt seater plug. The flat faced Hornady seater plug fit the Lee die perfectly and the seating depth and non-thinking problem went away.

I spent half my working career in Quality Control as an Inspector on aircraft and here is the first thing they taught us in school.

97% of all errors are human errors and only 3% are mechanical failures.

I have Redding dies, Forster dies, RCBS dies and Lee dies, they all work and they all have their little quirks.
The majority of these little problems can be solved by reading the die instructions and staying in the.......... "thinking mode".

Bottom line, for the cost of what you pay the Lee dies can not be beat and are the best buy.

P.S. If I want to kill something with a oversized hand cannon, I do it in the back yard with less heat and noise.

Thanks for the info, however I still think I have a die issue as if I remove the die from the press and hold it in the upright position and try to push the seating plug into the die with a screwdriver I cant get it to move up and down through the die body smoothly it keeps binding against the threads and it binds in different places every time. as I said if I release pressure while seating a bullet and tap on the side of the die I can get the plug to un-bind and continue moving to where its supposed too.

my Lee 9mm die the plug is a tight machined fit inside the die and moves freely up and down without binding up.

I am going to try FP bullets however as I did notice the plastic tip getting squished I only bought these bullets since they were the only box I could find and projectles are hard to find right now.

its just I don't think this is the only issue since there is an obvious difference from my 9mm pistol dies in the way they work.

Nice BBQ, but im shooting an H&R Handi Rifle not a hand cannon

 

[supernova]

I just checked a .500 S&W pacesetter set that I bought for a friend and the seating die has the same issues. The major diameter is thin and deflects easily causing it to bind on the threads. I think its a design flaw too. I haven't loaded with them yet cos he hasn't brought me any components but I'd say they will most likely have the same issue you're having.

 

[.Ben]

Well I just looked at the die again and compared it to my 9mm LEE seating die, the problem/difference is the seating stem on my 9mm die is .355 diameter with the bore in the die body being only a slight bit larger than that.

the seating stem on the problem die is .475 diameter well the hole in the die body is .510 this play causes the seating stem to fit very poorly in the die body causing it to tilt and the top binds into the threds. binding occurs at the very bottom of the seating stems travel so its not a matter of the stem traveling to far.

as the size of the seating stem seems relevant to the bullet diameter being seated/crimped I cant help but wonder if LEE simply used seating stems from a .475 diameter caliber like .480 Ruger thinking a bit of play would not cause an issue.


since another poster mentioned there LEE set appears to have the same problem, does anyone know of where I can get a Non-LEE seating/crimp die on its own? or will I need to order a whole new set?

thanks for all the help in this thread!

 

[Spawn-Inc]

Well I just looked at the die again and compared it to my 9mm LEE seating die, the problem/difference is the seating stem on my 9mm die is .355 diameter with the bore in the die body being only a slight bit larger than that.

the seating stem on the problem die is .475 diameter well the hole in the die body is .510 this play causes the seating stem to fit very poorly in the die body causing it to tilt and the top binds into the threds. binding occurs at the very bottom of the seating stems travel so its not a matter of the stem traveling to far.

as the size of the seating stem seems relevant to the bullet diameter being seated/crimped I cant help but wonder if LEE simply used seating stems from a .475 diameter caliber like .480 Ruger thinking a bit of play would not cause an issue.


since another poster mentioned there LEE set appears to have the same problem, does anyone know of where I can get a Non-LEE seating/crimp die on its own? or will I need to order a whole new set?

thanks for all the help in this thread!

email, with pictures lee or call and they will send out a new one. you can still use another one just make lee also send you one.