Lee vs hornady dies
- Thread starter TSPIRI
- Start date
Seater is the big difference, and shell holders... Hornady seater is very good and handles different cartridges of the same caliber...ie 308 seater is identical between 30/30, 7.5x55, and a few others. They are a better seater then the Lee set up, and wayyy better then the standard RCBS seater. Benchrest quality almost...in my experience anyway. I've had quite a few off center Lee shell holders, enough that I don't trust them at all anymore. Probably why they include them free... Hornady I've had no issues.
I still like Lee FL dies better then Hornady, the expander is always centered in those, and the Hornady set up takes a lot of patience to get centered. Now, you have the option to set the expander high in the Hornady dies to mimic Forster (neck still mostly in the sizing section while being expanded on the downstroke) which is supposed to increase concentricity. It does require decapping separately if you do that. The Hornady neck size dies also do several different cartridges of the same caliber, they are basically a hollowed out FL die and require some fine tuning to size the neck of various cartridges, not just screw down to shell holder and size set up.
Hornady dies are finished better, and when I've had both sets for the same cartridge, I found Hornady FL size a little less then Lee's do.
The Lee collet neck size dies are quite good though as well. Same with the factory crimp if you need to crimp, everything else sucks in comparison for crimping lol.
My own preferences are all over the place though, but Hornady or Redding shell holders only.
For hunting applications, or semi-auto plinking, Lee is all I need.
For a bit more accuracy in bolt guns I upgrade the seater to Hornady ($25US from Brownells) and get a Redding neck die ($30-35US Brownells).
If I want to wring everything I can out of a bolt gun, Forster neck dies ($35US Brownells) and their bench rest seater ($50US Brownells).
I still like Lee FL dies better then Hornady, the expander is always centered in those, and the Hornady set up takes a lot of patience to get centered. Now, you have the option to set the expander high in the Hornady dies to mimic Forster (neck still mostly in the sizing section while being expanded on the downstroke) which is supposed to increase concentricity. It does require decapping separately if you do that. The Hornady neck size dies also do several different cartridges of the same caliber, they are basically a hollowed out FL die and require some fine tuning to size the neck of various cartridges, not just screw down to shell holder and size set up.
Hornady dies are finished better, and when I've had both sets for the same cartridge, I found Hornady FL size a little less then Lee's do.
The Lee collet neck size dies are quite good though as well. Same with the factory crimp if you need to crimp, everything else sucks in comparison for crimping lol.
My own preferences are all over the place though, but Hornady or Redding shell holders only.
For hunting applications, or semi-auto plinking, Lee is all I need.
For a bit more accuracy in bolt guns I upgrade the seater to Hornady ($25US from Brownells) and get a Redding neck die ($30-35US Brownells).
If I want to wring everything I can out of a bolt gun, Forster neck dies ($35US Brownells) and their bench rest seater ($50US Brownells).
For real??!! I have never heard that before. Now I'm going to spend the rest of my evening researching this!!!!!!! Lol!
SOme of the dies in the Lee pistol die sets for for 9mm and 45 do not seem long enough to work in my lock n load ap. Maybe due to the bushing height that is used on the press? Not sure but I was not able to adjust them properly.
SInce I bought the Lock n load progressive I switched to hornady dies with the exception of the FCDies which seem to work.
SInce I bought the Lock n load progressive I switched to hornady dies with the exception of the FCDies which seem to work.
Stevo94, have faith, there are more cheap bastards in the world than you think..............................And there is nothing wrong with being thrifty as long as it gets the job done.
And Lee dies have a reputation of being closer to minimum SAAMI dimensions than other dies.
Example I have a Lee .223 full length die that sizes the case smaller in diameter and will push the shoulder back further than my RCBS small base die at press cam over.
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- Calgary, AB
I pretty much use Lee dies exclusively now. Never had any issues. Have a number of Hornady dies and also very good.
