Too die for !

[Boaz]

I'm going to buy some new die's in 380 acp , 32 acp and 9mm Mak . What brand of die is the best ? Seems Dillon is the highest priced and Lee is the lowest priced with the other makers in between . In your experience witch does the best job and lasts the longest ? Thanks

[wch]

In a word: Redding.

[myg30]

I have purchased many sets of used dies of the RCBS brand over the years. 79',82' and newer. They are not carbide but still have another few life times left in them.
Lee carbide dies are hard to beat for the price. If you want to spend more money and buy another brand go for it. Anything you take care of will last.
Good used dies for sale on here all the time, take your pick. Chevy, GMC, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Kia , ...Lexus, Lotus,BMW. Take your pick.


Just me $.02 worth.

[MTtimberline]

Redding is first choice. RCBS usually does well. I consider the RCBS Cowboy dies to be closer to Redding. Lyman M dies are used a lot. I have been mixing dies to complete a set to meet my own needs or expected results. It all just comes down to personal preference.

[MTtimberline]

I think single stage vs. progressive can also influence the choice of dies.

[Boaz]

I'm a first time loader and am trying to do it right and buy what will do the job right and last . Always hated junk tools and half way doing a job , I'm willing to take the time to gather the proper tooling to do it right the first time (money prevailing . LOL) .

[Wayne Smith]

Right now my priority choices are Hornaday, Lyman (if I'll need an M die) and RCBS.

[enfieldphile]

+ 1 on Redding!
I do like Lee Dies (except for the factory carbide crimp die).

In rifle dies, Redding first, then Forster. The Lee collet die is the best neck size system.

[Walter Laich]

my Dillon SDB kinda requires Dillon dies and I've found nothing to complain about

[Randy C]

Sorry I cant help I have a little of everything listed and they all work perfect. If your going to buy a progressive press some day I would buy the same as the press you want.

[dragonrider]

I have mostly RCBS, I don't think you can go wrong with them. Also have some Lee's, no complaints. A couple of Lyman's that I don't use and I think two or three sets of Hollywoods. All perform as well as any others. Don't abuse them and any of them will last your lifetime.

[CastingFool]

I have mostly RCBS, a couple of Pacifics, one Lyman. If you're gonna reload pistol ammo, definitely go with carbide sizers.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Any brand of dies are good. What's more important than the dies is the press you're going to be operating them in (progressive or single stage, for instance) and what you want to accomplish with the cartridges you are going to make.

The calibers you list are all pistol cartridges. They are also small caliber, so their cases are small and so are their bullets. But their size suggests you may be loading smaller quantities, so possibly a single stage or turret press. On the other hand, you could be loading lead boolits on a progressive.

My advice is to take a look at what you are reloading on, what type of cartridge you are making, what bullet you are going to be loading before you think about dies. Once you do that, take a look at what each company offers in features and ask a few questions of those reloading that cartridge already. You may be best served mixing brands of dies for a specific cartridge.

For example: The 9MM Makarov cartridge in the past (Don't know about now, haven't owned one in a while.) has suffered from a lack of bullet selection, so making your own was mandatory. This involved casting a boolit for the cartridge. Any full length sizing die works for this caliber, but you'll want a good case mouth expansion (maybe a Lyman M-die or perhaps a custom made powder through expansion for your powder measure so as to not overwork the brass on the smaller cartridge and to prevent shaving your lead boolit. Then you'll want to seat and crimp the case without swaging the bullet, so perhaps separate seating and crimping dies to ease adjustment of the dies and better control of the overall process?

These are things you want to look at. In all honesty, there are no "best" brand of dies. What there is are the best dies for the cartridge you are wanting to make. That's going to take more research on your part, perusing manufacturer websites descriptions of their dies and asking some questions related to reloading the cartridge you want to reload, what quirks, etc.

Hope this helps,

[dudel]

How much longer than a lifetime do you need? I can't think of a die maker that doesn't offer a lifetime warranty on their dies. It comes down to features (and availability).

My first choice is Hornady, followed by RCBS, Dillon, and Lyman in no particular order. I'm certain that Redding and Forrester dies are equally good.

That said, it's possible, with enough determination, to ruin any die.

[square butte]

Tale a look at the write up for Hornady. I like them for straight wall cases because of the titanium nitride coating on the sizing ring. Seems like it's a generation ahead of carbide. Also quality is high.

[USAFrox]

Are you only going to reload pistol cartridges? If so, Lee carbide dies can't be beat for the money. And really, straightwall pistol cases are extremely uncomplicated, so there's not really enough difference between the different makers of dies to make a difference. Where the difference really comes in is when you start loading rifle cartridges for accuracy. For all of my straightwall handgun cartridges, I use Lees and RCBS. They do everything I need, and I've never had a problem with them. For my rifles, though, I use Forster Benchrest dies. They're the best I've tried (although I've admittedly never tried a bushing die, and I hear those are the ultimate - they're also the ultimate in price as well, though, which is why I haven't tried them). With rifle, you also start getting into things like Full Length vs. Small Base dies, and Neck sizing vs. either one of those. That depends on your rifle (semi-auto, bolt, etc). With just the straightwall pistol cases you mentioned, though, you can't go wrong with the inexpensive but rugged Lee carbide dies.

[bhn22]

Hornady, then Redding & RCBS tied for second place. Lee? get back on the porch.

[w5pv]

I used Herters for years then the looters found them and a reloading table that they took them.I replaced them with lee and haven't looked back,I see nothing wrong with them and they are cheap enough if you mess one replace it and still have less tied up in the two than you would in a single of the other brands.

[bedbugbilly]

I'm far from being an expert but I'm using Lee dies for my 9mm (I cast all of my boolits) and they do a terrific job. (As do my Lee 38/357 dies). I only load pistol and am using a Lee 4 place turret press. I'm adding .380 and probably .32 ACP to the line up as well and I plan on getting Lee dies for those as well. I have absolutely no complaints on them. Very reasonably priced and do the job just fine. I'm not against any other brand - I have some RCBS and Hornady and they sit on the shelf - I'll probably bring them out here to my house in AZ to get set up for reloading out here - if I didn't have 'em, I'd go with Lee.

As mentioned though - it all depends on what your plans are down the road and what brand of press you may end up with? If I was going to load something other than pistol, then I might consider other brands - don't know as I've never loaded rifle nor used Lee rifle dies. I'm pretty frugal . . . just because something costs more doesn't mean it will be better or do more . . . kind of like "do I buy a Mercedes or a Chevy? . . . . in the end, they both will get you to where you're going.

[mdi]

FWIW; Any modern die manufactured by a major mfg. today will produce good, safe, accurate ammo, for a lifetime, if the operator does his part. And on the other hand if the user is sloppy, can't concentrate, or in a hurry, no die will make good ammo. People badmouth Lee dies, but some have been very good for me for the last 30 years. But, I also have Pacific, Hornady, Herters, and Redding dies. On some the finish is better, mebbe a bit "finer". I'd suggest you study the minor differences (some is just advertising hype) of each die and make your purchases from that. You can't go wrong with a $30.00 set from Lee or an $80.00 set from Redding. Besides, nuttin' wrong with duplicate sets....

[429421Cowboy]

They all work, and they all last if taken care of, and I am willing to bet that most brands of dies wouldn't produce better or worse enough ammo for most of us to tell the difference with. Personally, I don't care for Lee lock rings, but the dies are hard to beat on price. Only slightly better lockrings on the RCBS, which tend to strip out even with the shot under them. On the other hand, I always try and buy RCBS used dies since I know for a fact that they will send me brand new parts no matter how much it was my fault that something went wrong.

[Boaz]

DANG! I'v gotten a lot of good advice and opinion on the subject of dies from many who have years of experience . I have not been a member here long but have lurked here for years . There are many good people here , people that enjoy sharing and helping each other and I really enjoy seeing that in the world we live in today . I thank you for your indulgence with my questions and hope to be able to repay you by helping someone else in the future with the response you give to me .
Thank You
Boaz

[mrk_86]

I like my hornady dies .. and have a few lees that work good as well

[MtGun44]

Hornady. Their TiN sizing ring POLISHES the brass and they have a floating boolit
seater sleeve, even in the handgun sets which seats the boolit very straight.
Superior design. No others use the floating sleeve in pistols that I know of and
all other floating sleeve rifle dies are "benchrest dies" for twice the cost from
other makers.

Bill

[DRNurse1]

I'm a first time loader and am trying to do it right and buy what will do the job right and last . Always hated junk tools and half way doing a job , I'm willing to take the time to gather the proper tooling to do it right the first time (money prevailing . LOL) .

Boaz: That is probably the most insightful comment I have read here, and it is repeated numerous times in the stickies and forums. My dad said, "measure twice, cut once" but it boils down to do the job right the first time.

You did not list your parameters: single stage versus progressive and rifle versus pistol is helpful information.

If you are trying to do it all with one press, carbide sizing dies are probably going to be the most forgiving of the learning curve. If you are trying to build competition boolits, the redding micro adjusting seater dies are top notch. I like the Dillon crimp and seating dies because you can remove the internals without affecting the die position. The dies need cleaning periodically from the loob buildup.

I make a lot of bullseye competition rounds on a progressive press with Dillon dies, but use the Redding seating die for long line rounds. I do not reload rifle rounds (yet) so I picked a automatic progressive press versus the manual one's.

There are a whole bunch of additional steps in the rifle realm, and cleaning is an important first step in my pistol reloading.

[orbitalair]

The Lee 4 die set for 9mmMAK works fine. I use it alot.

9mmMAK still suffers from 1 commercially available mold, the Lee 95gr. Then I had to wait over a year til Lee opened up custom work to get a 0.366 bullet sizer. Nobody but seaco makes a 0.366 lead bullet sizer, and they been out of stock for ages. Luckily Berrys makes a 9mmMAK plated round nose, again in 95gr

Then theres brass, cheapest route is to cut down 9mmLuger and fire form cases.

Good luck in the MAK arena.

[Boaz]

MTGun44 You gave me info I had not heard before 'floating seater sleeve' info worthy of checking into if for no reason than my own curiosity!
DRNurse1 I purposely listed the pistols I will load for not to taint opinion on the dies for the same . I will most likely go with a progressive press but that's fodder for a new topic , LOL . I will be loading rifle also . WOW ! Did not know the internals could be removed from the Dillon dies without readjustment , assumed any die would have to be reinstalled and readjusted after each installation . I thank you for compliment on my being willing to take my time and try and do things right , there was a time that that would not have been a priority with me , LOL . I have no idea how I'v evaded reloading this long , being involved in hunting and shooting my whole life . In the by gone days of yester year I simply wanted to 'fire' a gun and although interested in reloading it seemed boring and tedious when you could just snag a few boxes of factory ammo and hit the range or woods .
Growing older has given me time to realize that reloading is actually 'separate ' from shooting , a whole new hobby . Although I shoot regularly I am lucky to hit the backboard now where at one time I was pretty competitive , always liked black powder shoots . Too old , too shaky , too far sighted , ...........I compete with myself now and you know what ? I AINT TOO HARD TO BEAT , LOL ! So I'm still doing good ! God bless you guy's ! It just get's better as you go along .

[Randy C]

You will like the videos here he has a lot of the presses and same with dies you can see them in action, I think your price range will help guide you, Lee press and dies are the most affordable some of the presses have there quirks but the dies will last you forever, Dillon is one of the favorite's there Dies cost a little more but they have there advantages and the 550 or 650 press is a good up grade from lee but you pay for it, RCBS Redding and Hornady are like Dillon They cost more, You get what you pay for. There is some quality videos on YouTube and a lot of bubba's as on there to.

http://ultimatereloader.com/

[gunoil]

redding

[kaskillo]

Go with Dillon carbide. Nice and smooth!