What's your favorite brand of reloading dies & why?

[iMigraine]

Tried searching so see of anyone asked this question.

Well, I started out about four years ago with Lee classic cast turret and dies for:
9mm
.357/38
.223 Rem (haven't used them yet)
30/30 Win
.45ACP
7.62x39mm (haven't used them yet)

They seem to work ok but I have no experience with any other brands. I'm thinking down the road if I find a good deal on a used Dillon 550 I'll snatch it up for my pistols.

So with all the brands available:
Hornady
Dillon
Lee
Lyman
Redding
RCBS

What's your favorite to use and why?

[Hickory]

1) Redding
2) RCBS
3) Hornady
In that order.
Judged by quality and performance.

[salpal48]

#1 CH4D VG quality and Personal service
# 2 Lyman Good warrantee
#3 Rcbs good Warrantee

[atr]

RCBS...
excellent dies and GREAT customer support

[44magLeo]

Most of us have preferences in brand and are willing to express these opinions. I doubt any one on here has used every die set of one caliber from every maker, and done an unbiased appraisal. It would be nice if some one could afford to do that and print the results.
My self I have used Redding, Lyman, RCBS, Lee.
I like them all for different reasons. The Redding are very good dies. The 44 mag dies I had are very high quality. Do they work better than others, not really. Some of the most accurate 44 mag loads I have shot were done with an and old set of Lyman 310 dies and handles.
The Lyman are good also and have had good customer service from them. I stuck a 270 case in the die and tried several ways to remove it myself. Had to send it back to Lyman for repair and they just sent me a new die.
RCBS are almost as nice as the Redding. I have several sets of their dies. They all work well. Their Rock Chucker press is hard to beat at their price point.
I use mostly Lee equipment now. Their Challenger press is almost on a par with the Rock Chucker but cost much less. Their dies might not have the hand polish some other brands display on the out side, but on the inside are just fine. A bit coarse bit not a real issue for me.
I have no hands on experience on other brands but have read positive as well as negative reports on most all the brands.
My best advice is to read all you can and make a decision based on what you feel is the most affordable option to you.
A progressive press has advantages for volume loading but has it's disadvantages for small batch loading.
If you want to excel in various forms of target shooting you may find you want top quality equipment designed to maximize accuracy and most average equipment can't always give you that quality of accuracy.
If we are honest with ourselves we can shoot just fine with most any brand of equipment.
Leo

[OS OK]

^...I like this response & feel the same way...BUT...one thing I'd like to mention about RCBS, In the 70's when I bought my dies I was not casting or stuffing brass with lead. Years later after I did cast, I needed larger diameter expanders. I called RCBS to see if they were available. They said sure and ask for a list of calibers I wanted to use...they sent me all those expander screw-in plugs for free.
This year the tab broke off my scale tray, again bought in the 70's...I called to purchase a replacement and again they sent it for free...

Outstanding guarantees...they go a long way to keep me as a loyal customer.

[Shawlerbrook]

RCBS because of customer service and price, Redding, cannot beat the quality and Lee because the FCD makes loading for my leverguns easy .

[Minerat]

Dies are tools for me as long as they do their job. I have all but Dillon but If given only one choice RCBS. The last set was for a Hornady 17 HH because of their seating stem.

[wch]

I like Forster; I think they're the most under rated dies on the market.

[375supermag]

Hi...
I have been quite pleased with both RCBS and Redding dies.
Hornady dies in my LNL haven't met my expectations thus far...still working with them, so no final judgement yet.
Don't care much for Lee dies...do not trust the O-ring, in my experience they are not secure. The dies themselves seem to work fine but replacing the O-ring locking rings with rings with a locking screw pretty much negates the cost savings over a set of RCBS dies.
No experience with Lyman or Dillon...yet.

[OS OK]

Something I forgot to mention is that some of the mfgrs. make their dies with a wider tapered opening on their bottoms to accommodate the progressive presses so the 'wiggling cases' don't have head-on crashes as they go into the dies.
This might be standard fodder by now but I remember it being an advertising highlight years ago...

[AZ Pete]

For a single stage press:
Forster
RCBS
Redding
Hornady

That said, I have had equal results with those, Dillon Lyman and Pacific.

The edge goes to Forester for accuracy, but all have been more than satisfactory. When there has been a problem, each manufacturer has been very responsive, however Forster actually asked for samples of brass and the die back to evaluate...which they did and
agreed that run out was out of spec. They then tested a new die, with my brass and returned my brass with the new die and their measurements. Others just send a new die, with no analysis.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[jdfoxinc]

The first generation Lee collet neck sizing dies for .223 would close up and crush cases. So for .223 I switched to RCBS. Other than that I'll use those two and Lyman. If I'm going to "mass produce" pistol ammo on my 650 I'll just buy Dillon. Because of case mouth expansion taking place in the powder drop die you have to buy a different die to use Dillon on any other press.

[earlmck]

Lee is the best way to go. a) widely available in many cartridges (unlike Dillon). b) you never break a decapping pin with Lee. c) the decapping/expanding plug is nicely tapered so you can expand case necks from something smaller (as in making 32 spcl out of 30/30's for example) without producing lopsided necks (unlike RCBS, Hornady, Redding). And d) if you stick a case in a Lee you just unscrew the plug that holds the expander rod, get a bite on the rim with your case holder, and use gentle down pressure along with gentle tapping of the expander rod to remove case. No need to ever send a Lee die back to the maker -- they never fail.

[smokepolehall]

Just personal use n i have Redding, RCBS, Lyman & Lee. I have nothing bad to say about these, they just work decently for me.

[44magLeo]

On the Lee collet dies, as you use it the collet slides up into the body. The collet can stick. The case pulls out but the collet stays up. The next case in will crush as it tries to enter the collet.
I have found that if you remove the collet and lube the collet and die body with a thin coat of a light grease the collet won't stick. I guess you could polish the parts to help but the lube works.
Leo

[JBinMN]

RCBS & Hornady are the ones I use. Approx. half of each kind. I have no experience with any others, but the ones I have work fine for about 11 calibers I reload. Cast or factory. I really have no "favorite", but like them both so far. I have used RCBS the longest, both steel & carbide types. The hornady are all titm./carbide types. I lube most times anyway, so that difference would not be an issue anyway, but might matter to some.

Interesting topic.

[largom]

I have dies from just about every manufacture. Which I like the best depends on what I am loading and what it will be used for.
For serious bench shooting with jacketed bullets I use Redding Type S Match dies. Also use these for hunting with jacketed bullets.
If I am going to crimp the loaded rounds I use the LEE factory crimp die.
For cast boolits I use Lyman, RCBS, Hornady, or Lee for case sizing then inside neck debur with a 6 degree tapered reamer [K&M]. for cast boolit seating I use ONLY
Hornady seating dies with their sliding sleeve. I make my own sliding sleeve for the specific caliber and a seating stem to fit the diameter and nose shape of my cast boolit. This gives me perfect alignment of boolit and case neck without a bell on the case neck.
A lot of work but I load for precision not speed.

Larry

[Reddirt62]

Dillon because I mainly run Dillon presses and they are designed to work very well together.

Redding because they are well made and very precise.

Forster for thier micrometer seat dies.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[RGrosz]

I have mostly Lee dies. Bought used. Most of my dies were bought used. Have some RCBS, Pacific, Lyman, C&H, and Herters. I think that is pry all. Use them all. They do all work good, except don't use the Herters dies too much. Don't like them and the guns they go to I ether have other dies for them or don't shoot the guns much. All of them have their little quarks and all do the job. Like the Lees 'cause they've treated me right on parts and customer service any time I've had to deal with them. Have to take other peoples word for other company's CS.
That's my 2 cents worth of opinion worth about what you paid for it.
Have what ever kind of day you'd like.
Rob