Howdy
Have been using Lyman and RCBS dies since 1969. Have successfully used Lee Deluxe 4-die pistol sets on Dillon machines since about 2005.
I purchased Lee 3-die sets (AS SPARES) for my Rockchucker in .38, .44, .45 Colt and .45 acp recently.
Yesterday, I used the .45 Colt set with new resized brass. The Sliding Expander thing inside of the expander die stuck (to the shell) on each Down Stroke to the point of killing my hand and my reloading bench!!!
Stuff was falling off the shelves I built to sit on the back of the very heavy wooden bench. I had to "bang" the lever on the up-stroke so hard 2 or 3 times to release the shell from the sliding expander...............that it made my hand hurt.
Lightly lubed a few shells only on the inside of the case mouth.............no problem, very smooth! BUT, I don't have to do this with RCBS or Lyman dies.
Switched to a RCBS expander die for a dozen shells and all was smooth.
So, what is it with these Lee expanders? I tossed the .45 Colt expander in the trash and purchased a used .45 Colt RCBS expander to go with this set. Am I going to have to do this for the other 3 (spare) sets of Lee dies? This ain't going to be cheap.
Bummer, I like Lee products, but................. Anyone else have this problem?
Y'all take care, Bo in western NC