Lee pistol dies vs Rcbs

[MrApathy]

I used lee dies for sizing and FCD on auto's they did the job well for most things.
For 9mm seating I got Hornady which use a collet to straighten out bullets. 9mm with lee I had to do seating in 2 stages so it wouldnt come out canted or not straight.

I also used Hornady for belling and dispense powder at same time. had to take a grinder to the hornady belling collet in 9mm and 40sw. no one makes perfect dies but for the money I go with Lee and Hornady.

having access to a lathe you can make stuff for your dies like seating stem,belling or seating collet.

What I really miss is my Lee single stage hand press and Lee all in one dies. the all in one dies were handy for when out on the range.

 

[ChimpMunk20]

IMO, the RCBS dies are better. Higher quality. I have had trouble w/ the Lee seating die (inconsistent OAL).

You can also consider the Hornady offerings, which is where I tend to spend my die money.

 

[kilotanker22]

I prefer RCBS dies as I feel they are higher quality. This is for the sizing, expanding and seating die. For straight wall cartridges, I use the factory crimp die from Lee almost exclusively.

 

[akinswi]

BillyBoy,

If your using a 3 station press like a Lee Pro 1000, crimping and seating save an extra station. You may have stated what press you were using, if I miss that I apologize

If your using a 4 station like Dillion 550 or a Lee Loadmaster you have an extra station you can crimp at the end and gives you the advantage of using what crimp you like or prefer or mostly which crimp is better for a specific cartridge, you wont use the same crimp for a 38 spl as you would for a 9mm, “Typically.”

Lees new lock rings are complete garabage now, I swaped all my lee lock rings out using Forster rings or dillions lock rings, I like dillions they are small enough to get a crescent wrench without hitting other dies on a tool head

If single stage loading. I would in separate stage crimpyour ammo it will be more uniform

 

[gwpercle]

RCBS dies do have a better finish and probably better tolerances and they are nicer looking .
Lee dies are made to sell at a price point well below RCBS ... they don't look as good the tolerances may not be as critical but you can reload ammo with them .
It is always better to seat and crimp in two seperate operations and having two dies makes it easier ...but you can buy a extra RCBS die to seat and crimp in two steps .

Buy the best you can afford ... If Lee is what you can afford ...buy Lee ...
My first set of dies were Lyman then RCBS then CH4D and Herter's but after that Lee Dies became easily available and just about every set since then has been Lee ...
The Lee Carbide sizing dies were actually affordable at a time when RCBS , Lyman and Redding charged an arm , a leg and your first born male child for one ...you would have thought carbide was costlier than Gold !
Gary

 

[rclark]

I am normally an RCBS user, but in .32 H&R Magnum, I use Lee. The expander plug (in my case) worked better for me than RCBS. Buy both, not that expensive to try as see what you think.

 

[jetinteriorguy]

IMO, the RCBS dies are better. Higher quality. I have had trouble w/ the Lee seating die (inconsistent OAL).

You can also consider the Hornady offerings, which is where I tend to spend my die money.

I have dies of all types and brands and I’ve yet to see a seating die that gives ‘consistent’ OAL. Consistent base to a datum point on a bullets ogive yes, but OAL no.

 

[Unclenick]

That's because the seaters mainly seat by pressing on the ogive of the bullet somewhere close to where the Hornady inserts touch them. But tooling variation means the ogives aren't all perfectly identical, so that point on the ogive isn't the exact same distance from the tip when the bullets are either off different tooling or are match hollow points, the forming of which never seems to be perfectly uniform.

 

[Hanshi]

I have loading dies by RCBS, Lyman, Hornady and Lee and have been satisfied with them all. I even have a couple + of Lee dies for just crimping, and a few other single Lee dies.

 

[jetinteriorguy]

That's because the seaters mainly seat by pressing on the ogive of the bullet somewhere close to where the Hornady inserts touch them. But tooling variation means the ogives aren't all perfectly identical, so that point on the ogive isn't the exact same distance from the tip when the bullets are either off different tooling or are match hollow points, the forming of which never seems to be perfectly uniform.

Zackly.