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

[Handloader109]

I've Lee which is what I started with, Dillon which came with my 650xl, and one set of Hornady which I don't like. Buy Dillon if you want to get one of their presses much easier to work with.

[1browski]

Not sure if I have a favorite all around brand. I normally use RCBS dies for most reloading probably because they are a little less than Hornady. I have tried a Hornady neck sizer for 22-250 which the spindle got bent on so never used it again. For neck sizing I stick to the Lee collet dies and use them for bolt guns in 223, 308, 7mmRM, 300WM, and have a custom from Lee in 50BMG.

[Ziptar]

Lyman mostly, a couple of RCBS Cowboy sets, and a Lee universal depriming die.

[David2011]

Agreed, Dillon dies are exceptional for progressive presses of any brand. The spring loaded decapping pins and easily cleaned seating dies make them highly desirable for progressives and cast boolit shooters.

Other dies in my inventory include RCBS, Lee, Redding, Pacific and older Lyman. There are none that make me say, "Oh, no, I don't want to use that one." All load good ammo.

[oldhenry]

Lyman All Americans were my 1st. 2 dies. (.244 Rem. & 38-40) back in either '59 or '60. I had a Lyman Comet press then (great press except the shell holders).
As I added calibers I went to RCBS & then switched to Hornady (I have RCBS & Hornady for same calibers as a result. When I was shooting XTC with my space gun the Hornady sizing die did a better job of reducing base of the brass than RCBS small base die.
For my tight neck guns I used Redding bushing dies and Wilson (with an arbor press). Redding makes good stuff, but the only die problem I ever had was with Redding.
1. 7X57 when I went to seat bullet it fell down into the powder (Redding says most 7X57 reloaders use military brass.....thicker). Returned to them (my dime) & when they returned it I experienced the same thing (I think they sent the same die back). Returned 2nd. time (my dime) & finally got a die that worked.
2. Their "Competition" .38 spec/.357 die set for progressive presses (I think now discontinued). The seating die (separate from the crimp die) removed the bell. Returned (my dime) & they call & questioned why I wanted the dia. of seating die enlarged........they enlarged it with a disclaimer.(?)
For my Dillon 550 I've slowly changed over to Dillon dies for everything......they can't be beat for a progressive.
At age 78, I'm strictly a left eye pistol shooter since eye surgery to right shooting eye & the 550 gets everything done.

I didn't mean to ramble.

Henry
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A real sport involves either gasoline or gun powder.......all others are just games

[fstreed]

I have and use several brands. I guess my favorites are Redding. Usually after I've been reloading a caliber for a few years I end up with one brand of sizer, another brand for seater (I like Hornady for seaters but am not too particular), a Lyman "M" die, maybe a Lee collet die, various shell holders, for bottle neck cases a Lee case length gauge and shellholder set, extra seating stems for different bullets, maybe a home made "M" die expander plug or two of slightly different diameters, all stuffed in a Hornady die box because they are the only ones big enough to hold it all.

I haven't used Dillon dies, or Dillon anything actually. No particular reason, just haven't got around to it.

Edit: Forgot to mention something about the Lee dies that gets cussed about quite a bit. That is the lock rings with the o-rings. Most people hate them. I didn't much like them myself until someone pointed out a feature about them I had never noticed. They allow the die to deflect and self align. I have watched them do this. You can see it sometimes when resizing, the die will tip a slight amount, maybe a few thousandths of an inch. I don't know if there is an advantage to this or not but it's possible. I have always made it a practice to run a case up into a die before tightening the lock ring on any brand but some types of misalignment won't be affected by that. And I'm not going to get in any big hurry to replace my Redding and Hornady dies with Lees, just saying.

[RED BEAR]

Maybe its just me but don't see much difference in them. Never used redding so can't say.