What are your favorite reloading dies, and why?

[mgdhunter]

I am looking for some new relaoding dies, and would like opinions on what is the best and why.

Thanks in advance.

gun)

 

[johnnyk]

My favorite are the Hornady Custom Grade New Dimension dies. The are realtively inexpensive, very consistent and produce accurate ammo for me. Plus, for $4.95 (S&H) I get a box of bullets. JohnnyK.

 

[Aldon]

I like the Lee Universal Decapper, Lee Neck sizing die, Redding Full Length resizer and Forster Competion die. I like to Decap then clean and trim etc, then prime and load. Full size is rarely necessary for me unless forming new brass. I necksize fired brass. I did modify the neck sizing die by cutting off the deprimer and then polished the mandrel to get a little tighter sizing of the necks.

This set up works excellent for accuracy without the huge price tag of the redding full blown bushing set up and it could be argued that my set up is a less than ideal, my results would be hard pressed to improve upon.

I use the Forster Co-Ax press, so that may be part of my success as well.

So in a nut shell, I like quality at bargain prices whether it is dies or projectiles or firearms.

 

[Winchester 69]

What are your current dies, where are they failing you, and what do you wish to achieve?

 

[MagnumManiac]

For my hunting rifles, I prefer Redding Deluxe sets. Reason is because the expander button is long and straight, unlike RCBS buttons that don't 'guide' themselves as they go through the neck. I still have some RCBS dies that I use, but without the expander, and only their neck dies, for all my rifles/cartridges I use Redding body dies for 'bumping' shoulders.
For my F-class rifles, I also use Redding dies, but they are Comp dies with bushings.

 

[Broz]

I like the Redding "S" type bushing FULL COMPETITION 3 die set. Most of the time I am only sizing the neck and with the titanium nitrried bushing no lube is required. I also like the fact that a seperate ( the third die) body die is used when you need to bump the shoulder back and I feel this is aids in concentricity. With this system you are only sizing the neck a few thousands and the expander ball has little or no work to do or can even be removed. I feel all of this will greatly extend case life. That will leave the rest of the case to a nice fireformed fit to your chamber. Another great feature of these dies is that they have a retractable sleeve that captures and squares the case to the die before any sizing in done to the neck. Again, great concentricity. I maintain a total runout of .001" or most of the time less.

These dies are a bit pricey, but I feel they are frutal in my attempt to build the most consistant ammo I can. I also feel that helps me at ranges of 1000 yards and over. At those distances I will do anything I can to gain even the smallest amount of consistancy. gun)

Jeff

 

[mgdhunter]

I have been using RCBS standard dies, and I have had problems with some of my reloads. gun)

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I like the Redding "S" type bushing FULL COMPETITION 3 die set. Most of the time I am only sizing the neck and with the titanium nitrried bushing no lube is required. I also like the fact that a seperate ( the third die) body die is used when you need to bump the shoulder back and I feel this is aids in concentricity. With this system you are only sizing the neck a few thousands and the expander ball has little or no work to do or can even be removed. I feel all of this will greatly extend case life. That will leave the rest of the case to a nice fireformed fit to your chamber. Another great feature of these dies is that they have a retractable sleeve that captures and squares the case to the die before any sizing in done to the neck. Again, great concentricity. I maintain a total runout of .001" or most of the time less.

These dies are a bit pricey, but I feel they are frutal in my attempt to build the most consistant ammo I can. I also feel that helps me at ranges of 1000 yards and over. At those distances I will do anything I can to gain even the smallest amount of consistancy. gun)
Jeff

I basically agrre with Jeff... However, I think I am leaning to the Type S FL Bushing die because you can set it to just barely bump the shoulder and size the body while partial neck sizing the neck. This gives a little more consistancy because you use the same process each time you size. Also, I talked with one of the Redding technisions and if I understood him right The only advantage that the Type S competiton bushing dies have over the regular Type S bushing dies is the micrometer adjustment. Other than that they basically do the same job. Now the competition seating die is a much better die than the standard. It does a much better job of aligning and seating the bullet.

That being said, the absolute best dies wouls be custom bushing dies that are made to your fire formed brass. I have heard from some that Neil Jones' seating die is better than the Redding competiton seater and he is quite adamant about that opinion as well. Custom dies are FL that size your brass to fit your chamber perfectly every time. One process, as opposed to body sizing then neck sizing.

If and when it's in my budget, I'll be getting some Neil Jones dies and selling my Redding dies.

-MR

 

[Highpower]

I've been using RCBS for over thirty years and the few problems I've had with them were my fault but RCBS has stood behind their product and repaired the issues anyway. That's the reason they continue to get my business.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I've been using RCBS for over thirty years and the few problems I've had with them were my fault but RCBS has stood behind their product and repaired the issues anyway. That's the reason they continue to get my business.

Have you checked the runout of your necks and bullets?

I used to use RCBS too. They are good dies. I like Redding better. JMO

 

[Broz]

., I talked with one of the Redding technisions and if I understood him right The only advantage that the Type S competiton bushing dies have over the regular Type S bushing dies is the micrometer adjustment. Other than that they basically do the same job..-MR

MT, look into this further. The standard "S" type sizing die does not capture the case in a sleeve and align it before it starts sizing. The competition neck die does. Also on my Lapua, even though the shoulder location is fine, when you full length size you are always doin quite a bit of sizing at the lower part of the case. I feel this being an area we do not anneal resizing it when not needed will lead to case failure in this area. I had a very lengthy conversation with Robin at redding about all this and the proper way to set up these dies in the Redding T-7 press. Ribin was a great help to my reloading.

One more thing, if you already have the standard die, just purchase the comp neck die. Then remove all the moving parts and the bushing from the standard sizer and it will become the die to use for body and shoulder sizing when needed.

Just food for thought.

Jeff

 

[Moosetracker]

I've tired just about everything on the market from standard FL dies to Redding Competition sets. Here's what I use now:

Lee Collet die - when properly ajusted, there's less run-out then any other sizer I've tried
Redding body die - needed every 4-5 loads or so to bumps shoulder .002"
Forster Benchrest seater - as good as any other competition seater but less expensive

 

[boomtube]

Moosetracker's favorite choices duplicate mine.

Meaning, no one makes the "best" die set, that requires a mix of the best specific dies from each of the available brands/types. RCBS, Hornady, etc are okay but they aren't even in the running for "best" of anything.

 

[Leathel]

Forrester bench rest set...ultra if you want the micrometre set....Just good value for money

Do like the Lee Collet dies for fast no fuss loading and they seam to get accurate loads to