Hey guys, newbie here and have a quick question for the seasoned reloaders. I'm looking at picking up some dies for loading 357 magnum, 9mm and 45acp.

I am looking at either buying the Lee 4 die set or the Hornady 3 die set but wanted to know which you would go with?

What press are you using? I've loaded the same calibers and one or two others. I've used both dies in question when I used my Rock Chucker. Single stage was too slow for handgun ammo. I bought the Lee Loadmaster so most of my pistol dies are Lee now, but I still have some Hornady and RCBS. The factory crimp dies from Lee work great instead of seating and crimping in one step.

The cover hasn't been off of my press for a while but looking at Midway the price on Lee 4 die sets looks good. The only complaint I had was about setting up the press and getting powder flow right. There were times I wish I'd bought a Dillon 650 (couldn't afford it at the time) but in hindsight the Lee has done everything I've needed and still does.

The lee dies work very well for pistol. But you do need to keep them oiled to prevent external rust in humid climates. I tend to buy Hornady for rifle.

I own Lee 38/357 and 45 dies and they are set up very nicely for a progressive press or the Lee auto turret presses.

Right now I have a Lee single stage press which has been great, I'm not concerned about speed right now as this is a good way to pass the cold winter days and get ready for some summer shooting.

I may upgrade to a progressive press when I get more aquainted with reloading. I guess my main concern is if I'm gonna have to buy a extra crimping die for the Hornady set or will it work as well as the Lee 4 die set?

With only a couple of exceptions, and those for rifles, dies are dies so the brand means nothing for the quality of finished ammo.

Lyman and Redding make a slightly better expander for handgun than the others but the difference isn't massive.

Many of us prefer to crimp in a seperate step and Lee's four die sets include a Factory Crimp Die which does that nicely.

That's part of why I mentioned my past "buyers remorse". I wanted a Dillon and went for a lower price but after I got my press set up and running I had a few hiccups and after that it everything was good. It took me awhile to think "if my press makes good ammo what's the problem?"

If you think you are going to go progressive in the future dies are fairly interchangable. The Lee seating die has a conical cut to it for the Lee bullet feeder. I have an older set of their dies in one caliber that doesn't, so one of these years I'll either send it in to recut or buy a new set. On the other hand I now have other dies (old RCBS and Hornady) that I use to work up my hand loads then set my Lee dies for the press.

As far as dies go Lee dies are great for handgun calibers. I haven't used them for rifle so I cna't speak for them their except to say I'd try them. I did buy a set but have never used them in 7.62x39. Sorry for the long replies if they are tedious.

I use Lees for all my reloading, pistol and rifle. I have used Hornady's, but I get better loads with Lee.

I have not used lee dies for cylinder wall handgun rounds.....But I've used Hornady's and they are IMO top shelf!

I'm not at all sold on their bottle necked rifle dies....but the handgun dies...

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
I have not used lee dies for cylinder wall handgun rounds.....But I've used Hornady's and they are IMO top shelf!

I'm not at all sold on their bottle necked rifle dies....but the handgun dies...

INteresting... I have only tried Hornady dies for bottlenecks, and was not at all convinced that the seating die is aligning with the cartridge properly.

I never tried their pistol/straight wall case dies. What makes them so desirable?

Normaly I like Hornady or RCBS. But for pistol Lee is a good choice and will work fine.

The only issue I have with the Lee dies is the collet grip on the seater button as opposed to threaded. Otherwise they are good dies IMO. That should be no issue whatsoever with pistol cases.

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:
Normaly I like Hornady or RCBS. But for pistol Lee is a good choice and will work fine.

The only issue I have with the Lee dies is the collet grip on the seater button as opposed to threaded. Otherwise they are good dies IMO. That should be no issue whatsoever with pistol cases.

I agree with you - Lee is fine in pistol calibers, but RCBS, Lyman and Redding got the upperhand with accuracy in rifle calibers.

Unless you can afford forster dies, the rest are kind of the same in terms of repeatability. I use a lot of lee dies and some redding dies. have never used hornady.

Thanks for the replies fellas, looks like either company will do a fine job.

I have a few Lee dies that I use, but I will say that everything else being equal Hornady lock rings are an improvement over any other manufacturers.

That said, I once bought a dozen of the lock rings and swapped them out for most of the others I had, Lee lock rings especially.

quote:

Originally posted by Mark:
I have a few Lee dies that I use, but I will say that everything else being equal Hornady lock rings are an improvement over any other manufacturers.

That said, I once bought a dozen of the lock rings and swapped them out for most of the others I had, Lee lock rings especially.

Totally agree!!

On your 357 i wouldn't use Lee's FCD factory crimp die. It resizes the case and bullet to a too samall spec. It makes the bullet a bit to small for accuracy. Just use the regular crimp die.

Are you thinking single stage or progressive? Dillon is tops for progressives pistol.

The only reason to buy Lee dies, or most of their gear for tha matter, is cost. Their QC is terrible. I have sent more Lee stuff back than any othe rbrand so I no longer buy it. Hornady all day, everyday over Lee. The LFCD is a solution to a non existent problem. Buy good dies, set them up right & no one needs a LFCD.

With the exception of a few specialty dies, I prefer Hornady to Lee.

The aforementioned lock rings is one reason.

The expander die is another. Lee's are poorly finished on the inside, where it counts, and I don't use their PM, so the powder through expander feature is worthless to me.

The Lee carbide sizing dies are fine, but then so are anybody's.

The seating die is where Hornady takes the cake, especially over Lee. Lee uses one seating stem for a variety of bullet diameters, with erratic results. Hornady includes two caliber-specific seating plugs with each set. Lee's design "free floats" the ill-fitting plug, but it won't coax a bullet back to straight when it's a little tilted sitting on top of the case. Hornady uses a sliding alignment sleeve that aligns the bullet, seating plug and case prior to inserting the bullet into the case mouth. The Hornady also has an optional micrometer seating depth adjustment, for quickly dialing in a previously recorded setting. The Hornady seater also disassembles easily, without tools, while still on the press, for cleaning or swapping the seater plug. And it reassembles without affecting settings for either crimp or OAL. This is really useful if you reload a lot of lead bullets, since the bullet lube will gunk up a seating die in short order, causing inconsistent seating depths. There are better seating dies for rifle cartridges, but Hornady is where it's at for handgun seating dies.

However, for crimping a bottleneck pistol (or rifle) cartridge, there is none better than the collet-type Factory Crimp Die from Lee. I have to polish the collet/closer interface for optimum smoothness and consistency, and of course replace the Lee lock rings, but once that is done, they're the best choice available.

I have tried the Lee Carbide FCD for straight wall pistol cartridges, and it (45 colt, roll crimp) did not work well at all. The crimp was incomplete and rough on the outside of the case mouth. Taper crimp CFCDs may work better, but I have tried them. Standard taper crimp dies from any manufacturer (including Lee) seem to work just fine. I roll crimp while seating revolver cartridges using the Hornady, and it works great, saving a step to boot (single stage). Taper crimping is a little touchy to set up while seating, so I taper crimp auto-pistol rounds separately from seating.

Andy

I use Lee carbide pistol dies and love their ease of use in conjunction with the double disk pro powder measure...if you are contemplating upgrading to any type of multi-stage or turret press (or of course progressive) I'd think you would be happy with the Lee dies.

Cheers,

Dan

I like the Lee factory crimp die for 45/70, 44 mag etc. But any of the standard dies took polishing and fiddling with. I cured one set that I couldnt stop the de-capper from sliding on no matter how tight I cranked it, I put a tack weld on it!
For less money then Lee dies I can buy used Redding or RCBS at gunshows, shops and such. I have well over 100 sets of dies, most bought for $10-15.

I have the 4 die set from Lee and I have found it to work very well. Yes it means an extra step but I found this simplifies setup. If you're only concerned with seating depth and not trying to get an acceptable crimp at the same time it is just plain easier.

I went with the Hornady dies and so far so good. I've shot some 357 and 45 ACP reloads with no problems and I'm cleaning 9mm brass as I type this. I'll put some 9mm rounds together and step outside and see how they function tonight.

go with rcbs or redding.