Eagle brand dies?

[richhodg66]

Went to Wichita to visit Dad today, we stopped at an LGS that usually has some older reloading tools. There was a set of dies in a clear plastic box marked Eagle in .303 British. I don't think I ever heard of them and while I know some companies have sold other makers dies under their name, these did not look like RCBS, C&H, Lee, Pacific, etc. Seem to be high quality and were priced pretty low so I picked them up.

Anybody have experience with these?

[jim147]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?247915-Eagle

[Dom]

I have a st of Eagle brand dies in 243. I have been using them since about 1969. They still work great & turn out accurate ammo.

[richhodg66]

Interesting. It seems Begandi makes fence wire now.

Well, guess I'll give them a try and see. They do look nice and this set has certainly not been used much.

[15meter]

I've had several sets of Eagle dies. They came from a bunch of stuff from an estate. I used them just to try them out. I sold them because the were duplicates of dies I already had. Worked well, they reminded me of Herters dies I've had in the past.

If they had been in a caliber that I wanted to reload for and I didn't have the dies, I would have kept them.

[Dom]

My 243 Eagle dies286652

[salpal48]

years ago there were many Loading Companies That did not make anything. Eagle was one of them. Most Were made By CH or Lachmiller to there specs

[richhodg66]

Not C&H and not Lachmillers. Also not Pacific, Bear, Lyman, RCBS, Hollywood as I have some of each and these don't look like any of them.

[ReloaderFred]

I have a couple of sets of Eagle dies and they're of good quality. I doubt you'll be disappointed in them.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[pworley1]

I have a few sets and I have never had a problem with any of them.

[Pressman]

Eagle is related to one of the iterations that was Texan, somehow. Texan likely produced a lot of their equipment.

[Bent Ramrod]

There were a lot of upstart loading tool companies in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Most had their own line of reloading dies; whether made in-house or OEM. RCBS, C-H, Armory/C-H, Eagle, Echo, Herter’s, Harper, Lachmiller, Lifetyme, MSS, Pauly, Perfection, SAECO, Texan... Of the prewar operations, B&M was at an evolutionary dead-end, Lyman seemed to be headed the same way, Hollywood was strictly for the carriage trade, and Pacific was holding their own, at least for the time being.

All were fighting for a share of the reloading market that was expanding post WWII. Whether they succeeded or failed was not often a function of their quality, it was more related to how much advertising they could pay for and how many jobbers they could round up with the discounts they could offer. Some burgeoned, some managed to sustain themselves, some were sold again and again until they stabilized (or not), some were merged with successful companies, some went defunct.

There was a guy with the handle Dr. Eagle who used to post a lot of Eagle info on the ARTCA website. If I had to have a hand powder trickler, I think I’d hold out for an Eagle. It looked like a cobra snake with the powder tube as its tongue and a little can on top of its head. Cute. There was also an Eagle Cobra loading press, made of aluminum, and pretty expensive.

[samari46]

First set of dies I bought when getting into reloading was Eagle dies for 30-06 and an aluminum Texan press. When I bought the Rockchucker gave the press to a buddy who wanted to start reloading for 357 magnum. Still have the dies somewhere. Frank