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Thread: LEE RGB die set versus HOR American die set

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    LEE RGB die set versus HOR American die set

    Since there is, on average, $6.00 or so price difference between the two, is there any advantage of one over the other?
    When it's time to fight, you fight like you are the third monkey on the ramp to Noah's Ark.... and brother, it's STARTING TO RAIN!!

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    Boolit Master Pee Wee's Avatar
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    I prefer Lee Dies, have 2 sets of RCBS for 2 rifles But 11 sets of Lee for pistols and AR 223 & 300 AAC Blackout, They are all good Dies, But the Lees are best for cost.
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    The RGB dies do not come with a shellholder. The seater does not crimp. The Hornandy dies include a shellholder and the seaters crimp. I have not used these budget Hornandy dies so can't comment on their serviceability.
    "It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees" Looking for an RCBS Ammomaster and H&R shotgun barrels regardless of condition

  4. #4
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    I wouldn't mess with it, cheap dies that don't crimp are a waste of money, for my money Redding and Forster dies are tops!

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by troyboy View Post
    The RGB dies do not come with a shellholder. The seater does not crimp. The Hornandy dies include a shellholder and the seaters crimp. I have not used these budget Hornandy dies so can't comment on their serviceability.
    I believe this to be incorrect - Lee RGB seater dies do crimp.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by MT Chambers View Post
    I wouldn't mess with it, cheap dies that don't crimp are a waste of money, for my money Redding and Forster dies are tops!
    If we're talking RGB dies, I don't think he's in the same price point as Redding.

    Take 308 - the Lee RGB is $19 on Midway, compared to $49 for Redding.

    Look at something like 6.5 Grendel and it's worst. Redding FL set is $103 vs. $34 for full set of Lee (Midway). The Lee includes a factory crimp die (Additional $44 for Redding) and shell holder (Additional $11) (so the Redding equivalent to the Lee $34 is $148, and thats the plain die set - no bushings, no micrometer seating, etc.)

    I find the Lee dies to be a great value and good quality.

  7. #7
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    They all work just fine. If you're going to load a few boxes of 30-30s to hunt with buy the Lees. If you have a bughole shooting 1000 yard rifle that you will wear out 10 barrels on, if you spend $500 on dies, it's well worth it.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by bkbville View Post
    If we're talking RGB dies, I don't think he's in the same price point as Redding.

    Take 308 - the Lee RGB is $19 on Midway, compared to $49 for Redding.

    Look at something like 6.5 Grendel and it's worst. Redding FL set is $103 vs. $34 for full set of Lee (Midway). The Lee includes a factory crimp die (Additional $44 for Redding) and shell holder (Additional $11) (so the Redding equivalent to the Lee $34 is $148, and thats the plain die set - no bushings, no micrometer seating, etc.)

    I find the Lee dies to be a great value and good quality.
    Lifes too short to worry about the cost of a set of dies, junk for $19 or proper dies for $49....it's up to you.

  9. #9
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    Just so no one gets their panties all in a twist, I couldn't care less what brand of equipment one uses or why.

    However, I hear all the time about how much better one brand is than another, especially if there is a large price difference. Therefore, would you folks that promote the high dollar brands specifically list the advantages of those brands. I have virtually every commonly available brand, from LEE to REDDING and FORESTER, (and probably some most have never heard of) in 40+ calibers, from 17 Mach IV through 458 WIN and I have not been able to notice a startling, or even a not so startling, difference except that I felt gouged for paying 3X the price in some instances. In fact the only die I have had to return in 50+ years of reloading because of faulty manufacture was a FORESTER 270 WIN size die that was so large in the neck it would not size the case enough to hold a bullet.

    So, please enumerate the advantages of a $60 REDDING (or any other high dollar brand) versus a $20 LEE.

    Please understand I'm not denigrating the REDDING or promoting the LEE, just trying to understand why one is perceived "better" than another.
    When it's time to fight, you fight like you are the third monkey on the ramp to Noah's Ark.... and brother, it's STARTING TO RAIN!!

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by roysha View Post
    Just so no one gets their panties all in a twist, I couldn't care less what brand of equipment one uses or why.

    However, I hear all the time about how much better one brand is than another, especially if there is a large price difference. Therefore, would you folks that promote the high dollar brands specifically list the advantages of those brands. I have virtually every commonly available brand, from LEE to REDDING and FORESTER, (and probably some most have never heard of) in 40+ calibers, from 17 Mach IV through 458 WIN and I have not been able to notice a startling, or even a not so startling, difference except that I felt gouged for paying 3X the price in some instances. In fact the only die I have had to return in 50+ years of reloading because of faulty manufacture was a FORESTER 270 WIN size die that was so large in the neck it would not size the case enough to hold a bullet.

    So, please enumerate the advantages of a $60 REDDING (or any other high dollar brand) versus a $20 LEE.

    Please understand I'm not denigrating the REDDING or promoting the LEE, just trying to understand why one is perceived "better" than another.
    AMEN! To some it's cool to degrade Lee products. If I loaded 20 rounds of any cartridge, 10 with Lee dies and 10 with Redding, Forster, etc. and handed them to one of the "tool snobs" I really doubt if they could tell which round was loaded with which dies...
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  11. #11
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    roysha, mdi.............and I agree. I was 'loading' before there were LEE dies, and have preferentially bought LEEs ever since, having found NO difference in the final product of many brands.
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  12. #12
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    I use dies from RCBS, Hornady/Pacific/Lyman and the Lee RGB's....I like the RGBs best as they use an "o" ring to maintain the seater stem..so much easier to adjust. All the ones that I have also will crimp.

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    I think when you spend so much more on vendor A, you don't want to own up that you may have wasted a lot of money, so you feel compelled to bash vendor B in order to justify the waste.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by MT Chambers View Post
    Lifes too short to worry about the cost of a set of dies, junk for $19 or proper dies for $49....it's up to you.
    High End Tool Guy strikes again!

    HETG always recommends the most expensive option he's aware of.

    Like the guy that wants to buy a homeowner duty chainsaw and asks what to buy. He had a tree fall over on his property, called the people that remove trees and they want $1000 for 3 hours work. Tool rental store wants $100 for an 8 hour rental, because the renters usually destroy the chain and it's $40 to replace it.

    All he needs is a $200 Echo or Husky from Home Depot, but HETG recommends an $800 Stihl!

    If most of us had near unlimited funds, we could buy the most expensive of everything. But we don't, so we have to concentrate on best value, bang for the buck, whatever you call it. And that works for the vast majority of us. YMMV; which it's obvious does vary!

    It's why Lee is the biggest manufacturer of reloading equipment; they concentrated on the bang for the buck part of the market. Leave the HETG market to Redding, Forester, Sinclair, and the rest....works for me

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Blue View Post
    It's why Lee is the biggest manufacturer of reloading equipment; they concentrated on the bang for the buck part of the market. Leave the HETG market to Redding, Forester, Sinclair, and the rest....works for me
    I would like to see sale numbers to confirm this, rather than internet chatter. Can you name the only company that makes dies from 12 caliber to 25mm?

    I don't own hardly any Lee dies and really don't see the value of their rgb dies compared to the set that includes a collet die. It's not fun when you see your press top bushing swallow a Lee die or even the 550. I don't know if they fixed that issue. They appear to work fine in a LNL bushing. I don't see the value of the Hornady American dies compared to their regular line. I don't care for the zip spindle but love Hornady's bullet seaters. I have a ton of Hornady, Redding, Forster, RCBS and CH4D. If you buy a couple of full length sizers, and send three fired cases in to Forster and finally what neck tension you want, they will send you back a sizer at your requested spec and one .001" tighter. I have them for an 30-06 and they work beautiful.

    NoBlue where I work I get to pass some high end precision tools. I've have seen a lawsuit where the plating came off and I had the distinct pleasure of writing an incident report. I have seen my share of dull instruments and clamps where the tips don't lineup and do it's job properly. I seen surgeon's actually buy as well as design their own tools. You WANT the best if you were the client! It's no fun when you are in the room and instruments fail or they lack the needed precision of delicate work with neurons or vessels. It's not a good place to be. If you worked in the field I do and travel the country to various hospitals, you hope that every tool or instrument is top of the line, first class. Some places I cringe and count the days till that contract ends. BTW, Echo makes some great chainsaws that cost what Stihl does but they don't make as large of saws as Stihl does. I wouldn't give two cents for Husky. I have two Stihl's a smallish 260 series and an old one equivalent to the 880 Magnum.

    Back to the OP. I don't see the value of either die set. Both companies make sets in their regular line. For Lee go to Titan. For Hornady, go to any web retailer. I like Hornady's seater and lock rings. I hate their zip spindle. I use LNL bushings in single stage presses, a turret and in one of my progressives. Hornady's die box is the largest around and one box I have 5 dies with bushing's installed. The Lee full length sizer you can drive a stuck case out with the decapping rod. I hate their lock rings. No matter what company's die sets I buy, they go into Hornady boxes with an exception to some custom dies I own.

    Take care

    r1kk1

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    Come on r1kk1, comparing surgical instruments in a nearly "cost no object" environment to some guy, spending his own money, wanting to reload some fired brass; at least TRY to compare apples to apples. Instead of apples to watermelons...straw man argument much???

    And you don't need an $800 Stihl if all you're cutting is a 16" thick tree. I've gone thru 30" trunks with a 16" bar on a Poulan; we were clearing trails in the National Forest and had to get this big mother out of the way. Took an hour, but I did it. 36" bar would have been nice, but that wasn't going to easily fit on my dirt bike; the Poulan did.

  17. #17
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    I would turn this around and ask anyone to produce facts and figures that shows one manufacturer that sells more than Lee... In the late '60s I machined parts to +/- .0005". For their use there was a need for that tight tolerance, but that cannot be compared to reloading dies...
    My Anchor is holding fast!

  18. #18
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    The old lee rifle seater dies crimp the new ones do not. Really Good Buy dies just dont include a dipper,shellholder or load data.
    "It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees" Looking for an RCBS Ammomaster and H&R shotgun barrels regardless of condition

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by troyboy View Post
    The old lee rifle seater dies crimp the new ones do not. Really Good Buy dies just dont include a dipper,shellholder or load data.
    I don't think so.

    The current "rifle die instructions" http://leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/RM3508.pdf state the seater die crimp.

    Also my most current die sets/calibers 6.5 Grendel and 458 Socom seaters both crimp. The only RGB sets I have are 303 and 308, and though both sets are several years old, the seaters crimp.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by bkbville View Post
    I don't think so.

    The current "rifle die instructions" http://leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/RM3508.pdf state the seater die crimp.

    Also my most current die sets/calibers 6.5 Grendel and 458 Socom seaters both crimp. The only RGB sets I have are 303 and 308, and though both sets are several years old, the seaters crimp.
    I stand corrected - I asked Lee support this question - here is the reply:

    No, the Dead Length Bullet Seating Die is not capable of crimping the cases at all. Only the Bullet Seating/Crimping Die, included in some RGB and Pacesetter 2-Die Sets, are capable of performing a crimp.

    The Dead Length Bullet Seating Die is included in most die sets, including all of the Ultimate and Collet Die Sets, and most of the Pacesetter 3-Die Sets.


    General rule of thumb is if a die set does not include a Factory Crimp Die or we don't manufacture a Crimp Die for the caliber, the set would include a Bullet Seating/Crimping Die.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check