dies are usually quite closely machined, more so than are chambers, bet every so often you get a lemon. Mine was years ago. I had a 264 that I had gotten some herters dies for. I couldn't get over 2 loads without the necks cracking. Finally I pulled the expander and ran a case into the die. It was sizing the necks down to .248 and then bringing them backout to 263

Worst dies I ever had was from Hornady...non threaded spindle kept pulling out.....I finally locked it down with a pipewrench and a crescent wrench.....it was the last Hornady die I ever bought.

Butchloc...The company I worked for in 1970-1973 made dies for Herters and I designed them. I can assure you that the dies you refer to didn't fome from Fridley MN...they came from the previous supplier in Glenwood.....and that's another long story of the infamous Herter's company.

Hornady new dimension.have older Durochromes that work well.Do not see why they redesigned
the seating die,It was more aggrivating that it
was worth.Got rid of it and got ahold of a Redding set.Better quality.

Hornady in 7mm Rem Mag.

No matter what I do, whatever I resize will not fit in my rifle.

Let's see I had the Lee .500S&W dies that the carbride cracked and fell out of before I could load 10 rounds. The hornady .45-70 dies that simply were apparently missing a piece and would not seat at all. And the old RCBS .223 dies that are apparently reamed for some other cartridge and try to size the body down WAY too far. Out of those the lee ones were probably the most annoying.

I've had the carbide insert pull out while stuck on a case in a 9mm Luger sizing die.

I fixed it myself with some Loctite RC-680.
on the inside of the die body and outside of the carbide insert.

and left it in my press "cammed over-center" overnight... case came right out and I'm still using that die.

I also had a Redding sizer where the Neck wasn't concentric to the die body.

AllanD

The last two sets of Redding dies for the 270 WSM and 7mm WSM dent the brass just below the shoulder as they are too cheap to put in vent holes in their FL dies.

Then both sets and also a 260 Rem. "S" type bushing die were so rough inside that they had to be polished. I called Redding about these things and got an argument. I am buying RCBS again.

The worst I have had (or seen) Wells similar to Ruhr/American (Herters). A 243 sizer was a straight bored hole. The case stuck with any lube available. When called they wouldn't admit it was a POS.
Good luck!

Lyman small base 30-06 fL dies with a set of Lee 9mm carbide bide close behind. Both were junk. Not particularly fond of Hornady dies that require the primer punch stem to be tightened with large tools just to get it to stay in one spot

I'm with SKB on this, for me it was a 7mm Mag Lee dies and a set of Lyman 357 Mag/Max Carbide dies.

Steve E........

Lyman .44 Magnum 4-die carbide set.

vapodog - was long before you did them - I think it was in the 62-63 range. Remember when you had herters catalogs laying around like firewood? The other day I actually bought one at a gun show, Never never though I'd ever pay money for a herters catalog, but for $4 I got enough humor out of to last for another 20 years.

Worst set I ever had was a set of Redding 6BR dies. I measured the neck runout of brand new Lapua cases and found them all to be .001 or less. After a trip through the Redding dies they measured .006 neck runout. I pulled the expander out to make sure it wasn't pulling the neck off and presto .006 neck runout!!! GRRRRR That set was pure junk, I have other Redding dies that load good ammo. After talking on the phone with Redding about one of their products I decided to never buy their products again unless I got something really cheap or they were the only ones that make some particular item. They told me to buy an aftermarket product cause there was nothing they could or would do to correct the problem I was having. Really great customer service there, NOT!!
Joe

Hornady's......followed by Forrester's

I wish the duracrome dies were still around. I never had any trouble out of them. The hornady dies that are made now are the worst ones on the market. IMHO

Larry

Lee collet dies, have been worst that I have had.

CH4D 10.75x68
RCBS 6mmRem

The ugliest dies I've owned were recent production from CH-4D. THey were new but came with dings, markings and the knurls flattened. But the insides were PERFECT.

Some of my favorite dies that I'll never part with are the old Pacific Durachrome dies. Smooth as silk and with tight tolerances, they continue to load ammo that meets or exceeds my expectations.

But the honor of worst overall dies goes to Hornady. Some are OK, but a few sets I've had were absolutely horrendous.

ANd if there's a category for biggest (and most worthless) gimmick in the die business, it would have to go to RCBS for their "X" die. Overall, I like RCBS dies, but the X die...well, that's another story altogether.

Yep

Hornady and those non threaded spindles.

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
Worst dies I ever had was from Hornady...non threaded spindle kept pulling out.....I finally locked it down with a pipewrench and a crescent wrench.....it was the last Hornady die I ever bought.

Butchloc...The company I worked for in 1970-1973 made dies for Herters and I designed them. I can assure you that the dies you refer to didn't fome from Fridley MN...they came from the previous supplier in Glenwood.....and that's another long story of the infamous Herter's company.

RCBS = Really Crappy Bohunkus Stuff

It's good they have such good customer service...they need it.

CH4D 297/230
Bored to completely the wrong dimensions. Neck expander too large and neck of the die too small causing the case to jam. On top of that, the shoulder was set about a 1/4 inch too far forward, ( if you saw how small a 297/230 case is, you'd know how bad that was ).

They were finally fixed by the SUPPLIER, the manufacturer didn't want to know. Still can't use the expander spindle, I just decap and size without the expander, flaring the mouth slightly to take the bullet. Junk. Stick with RCBS.

Redding in 270 Win.

Size die WITHOUT expander introduced .005 runout into fireformed brass that was less than .0005 before their run through the size die.

That die is for sale cheap by the way........

I second the comments on no vent hole--why not you cheapskates?, and crappy customer service.


What custoemer service???!!! Rude bastards!

I see several brands names repeated several times. Lyman dies are only listed once or twice. Hmmm...maybe I need to try a set. I dont know any local guys that use lyman dies. Dont know how well they sell. They still make em so they have to be doing something right.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Brumbelow:
I see several brands names repeated several times. Lyman dies are only listed once or twice. Hmmm...maybe I need to try a set. I dont know any local guys that use lyman dies. Dont know how well they sell. They still make em so they have to be doing something right.

I have several old Lyman dies they are all crap just haven’t gotten around to throwing them away.

Next is some crappy Hornady New Dimension rifle dies that make the shells 30 up to thousandths to short.

I had a Lee that would undersize 38/357 brass a lot. I wrote Lee a letter about it under sizing so bad they said they never made a die that was not made correctly. I tossed the letter along with the 38/357 die in the trash.

I also had a Dillon 357 die that did the same thing. I called Dillon they said to send it back I also sent several screwed up 38/357 shells and the specs the Hornady reloading manual said they should be. They sent me a new sizing that had been reground to the proper specs.

I bought a new Redding 300 Win Mag deluxe die set at the gun show the sizing button was the wrong size I emailed Redding they sent me a new one the correct size for free.

My best luck has been with Wilson bench rest dies I have two sets one in 22-250 and the other in .223 they are both perfect (as far as I know)

Good luck on buying a good set of screw in dies.
You may get 5 that work right and the next one may be a lemmon. It must be something to do with no quality control.

Well keeping with my upbeat personality and optimistic outlook on life I will have to state I have had WONDERFUL performance from ALL of the Redding dies I have bought in the last 12+ years!
The munitions I produce from these dies are first rate, accurate and have very little run-out according to my NECO concentricity gauge!
I have never had a dented shoulder while using any of my Redding dies. I wonder what the difference is in my loading "style" and the poster above who is obviously getting a lot of shoulder (body?) dented cases? Maybe Savage99 is using to much sizing lube? Or maybe the condition he encounters is somehow due to the shape of those WSM's? I do not have any of those calibers. No excuse for his rough die but again I have never noticed any kind of roughness in any of my Redding products.
And I do have among the approximately 30 sets of Redding dies I have bought recently a set of 260 Remington dies. Again complete satisfaction!
I just went down to the loading room and checked my loading die locker. I counted 35 Redding die boxes!
No problems with any of them - so far - knock on wood!
Recently (in the last year and a half) I had occassion to buy 3 new Rifles in caliber 204 Ruger. I also bought 3 new die sets - one for each Rifle.
Two of the sets were Redding but the first set I bought was RCBS. The RCBS line had been on my "shit list" for about 12 years due to poor concentricity issues of my handloads made with these dies prior to that time. Well during these past 12 years I have personally gone with the Redding dies exclusively for myself. Now last year when I got my first 204 Ruger the only thing available in 204 dies was the RCBS set. I bought them, they worked wonderfully and made very straight (concentric) bullets. For my next two 204's the Reddings were available and I paid the few extra bucks they cost (over the RCBS dies) and I went with the Reddings. Very excellent and very similar performance from the Redding dies as compared to that set of RCBS 204 dies.
I had been getting the impression that RCBS was producing an improved product during the time they were on my "do not go to list". These impressions came from handloaders I know and trust and their observations about the dies being problem free and the concentricity of the finished rounds they produced was impressive.
That is bad news the folks at Redding's customer service department not being helpful, responsible or respectful to their customers. I have never had to deal with them myself.
Take the hint Redding don't "dis" your customers! For Petes sake!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I don't have any dies that don't produce acceptable ammo and I have every brand mentioned here except Pacific. I have a set of CH4D dies in .404 Jeffrey that are butt ugly on the outside but do a great job of sizing and seating. In fact, I can reform .375 RUM cases in one pass through them without a problem.

quote:

Varmint guy
Well keeping with my upbeat personality and optimistic outlook on life I will have to state I have had WONDERFUL performance from ALL of the Redding dies I have bought in the last 12+ years!

OK..thanks for that post....now please get back to your marketing job at Redding. You have several more forums to post on today.

I also had a set of Redding dies that produced the shoulder dents. NOT LUBE DENTS. In this case the dents were produced by trapped air between the body and the neck above the shoulder. As the case approached full stroke into the die, the pressure increased until the dents formed. It was directly due to the lack of a vent in the die.

The die was a full length sizer from a 7BR set and it may be more of an issue with the straighter walled type cases. Redding replaced the die with another that did exactly the same thing. They said it worked fine for them. I was able to get the die to work by going "slow" so the pressure could bleed off. Great, I can size 60 cases in an hour with no dents if I go sloooooow. I got rid of the Redding set and have shot a great many perfect scores with my RCBS set.
Just my experience.
Joe

I've sent back 2 RCBS FL dies that had the neck so large on one set that the bullet slipped into the case and the other set had the neck offset to the body on a set of custom dies.

No problems with Redding or Hornady.

I've had exceptional luck over the years with Dies (36 sets); all RCBS & Lee with one lonesome Hornady Die Set (I do however put them all neatly packed & marked into RCBS "Green Boxes" - O.K. I'm anal.) I also replace all the useless Lee Die Lock Rings with RCBS rings. Originally, when I was young, enrgetic and finacially challenged I drilled, tapped and put a brass set screw in them. Now I can afford the $7.99 for a package of five!

The biggest Die issue I've had was in the early 1970's bought a set of RCBS .243 Dies marked Full-Length Die Set on the box but it actually had a Small Base Resizer Die in the Set. Wow! I do not envy folks who require a Small Base Die Set. As I wasn't a particularly expereinced reloader at the time eventually learned what the Die markings were (Duh?) and remarkably found .243's with the correct F/L Die were alot easier to reload for my Remington 788 chamber slop with a F/L die. Thought I'd break the Press or the Loading Bench trying to get those enlarged cases squeezed down into a Small Base Die - Whew!

Over the years one of the learning curves has been that I now always polish the expander Ball/Rod on every new set I purchase, not to reduce Ball/Rod size and increase neck tension but simply to smooth; has helped every time.

quote:

I was able to get the die to work by going "slow" so the pressure could bleed off.

Well I did think of going slow but you did it first. The only die I have now that dents bodies is the Redding 7mm WSM FL die. I am not certain that I will keep that rifle or buy another 7mm WSM so I have been slow to replace the die.

No matter what I did lube wise it still dents cases. It's the trapped air.

On Redding service I called them on what size bushing to order and got into a rapid fire go around over subtracting this dimension from that dimension with a wise guy from Redding that not only had the data in front of him but had gone over this before. Now I can do math in my head but this experiance was just another expample of a person taking advantage of another to be the top dog. I was hoping to enjoy the conversation about gun stuff but instead was left with a very bad feeling that I have still not got over.

Obviously every maker occasionally turns out a product they wish hadn't left the shop. But, as the Tars say, "ship happens".

In over 50 years of buying dies, I have had zero problems with RCBS, Lyman, Pacific, Wilson, Jones, Lachmiller, Saeco, Bonanza, CH-4D, Herter's (!) and several others. Probably just luck, but that's the way it is.

I've had one or two problems, which were corrected without undue hassle, from a couple of makers.

The only two ompanies which have given me a hard time and refused to fix their very obvious die errors in all those years are Hornady and Redding. You can judge for yourself why the number of their products on my shelves are limited. (With Redding, their dies which didn't have obvious flaws were/are uniformly excellent for the price.)

Hornady 300 WSM dies.

I own rifle and handgun dies by Redding, lee, and RCBS. Only the redding have given me any problems. I incountered a problem with the neck sizing only die from my three die set in 7mmSTW. I discovered after a close inspection, that the Redding was failing to compleatly resize the case neck, and was leaving a portion of the neck unsized that for lack of a better description, was in the shape of an inverted, back wards shark fin. I returned it to Redding along with several resized shells with the shark fin oddity along with a letter of explanation. Thay returned to me a new die in less than a week. The CS rep I spoke to was although not great, he was helpfull and polite. He did have a great deel of trouble understanding what i was trying to tell him though, but that may have been my fault..
I also have the carbide resizing buttons Redding makes that i bought as an after market item for all my Redding rifle dies. for what ever reasion none worked all that well in that thay were EXTREAMLY rough in resizing the case necks, and thats with both being well lubed with One Shot. My friend bought a set of redding Dies in .300wm that came with a too large for caliber resizing button. When he spoke to Redding thay insisted he send it back to them BEFORE thay would send a replaicement to him, and refused to pay the shipping to do so.

All my dies including the Reddings have produced consistantly superbly accurate ammunition and I would buy Redding again. Although I have heard so much good about RCBS rifle X-Dies I will give them a try in the future.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
Obviously every maker occasionally turns out a product they wish hadn't left the shop.

Die quality has varied for all makers from time to time. For this reason, it's difficult to say which maker is 'best' or 'worst' without specifying the time frame. I prefer RCBS for consistent high quality and superb customer service over several decades, particularly the mid '60s to mid '80s. When the Huntingtons were still in charge, RCBS would make virtually anything, and at a price that was affordable by almost anyone.

But even RCBS has had problems. In particular, dies made in the 1950s vary considerably in both internal and external finish. Consider for example the following '06 case. It was sized in an 06 die made in the early 1950s, but in unused/new condition (in the original packaging!) when received by me late last year. The pictured case was almost certainly the first sized in it since leaving RCBS. The die is a full-length sizer, but not so marked.





Note the prominent, heavy scratch at the shoulder. This was caused by a burr on the edge of the vent hole. Remember, this die had been untouched since packaging at RCBS about 1953. This die - and the seater too - are nicely finished in other respects, without the signs of worn reamers and chatter marks sometimes found in dies made later in the 1950s.

I have RCBS for my 300 WSM and have experienced no difficulties whatsoever. The external finish is rather cheesy compared with earlier years, but they seem to be ok in other respects. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has experienced air dents in the WSM, SAUM and similar short-fat cases when sized in RCBS dies.

Vapodog: I am retired and have been for 9 years now (since I was 49).
I have never worked for any sporting goods manufacturer.
I have had nothing but the best of performance from my 35 sets of Redding dies!
Never a dent of any kind!
Never a failure!
Always acceptably concentric ammo manufactured from them!
In addition I have also installed several of Reddings carbide sizer buttons in some of my small caliber Redding dies and have never had anything but splendid results from those additions as well!
I am a little puzzled as to why a few folks have had this "trapped air" trouble with their Redding dies.
I am trying to visualize the engineers at Redding allowing this condition to exist in their product - if in fact it does?
I use Imperial Sizing Wax for my lubricant and to contradict what another Redding detractor posted I can resize my brass at the rate of 20 in about 7 or 8 minutes taking no special measures or precautions - what so ever.
I ran off a 20 round batch just this morning with a set of Redding dies in 204 Ruger!
My "largest" calibered dies by Redding are 270 Winchester, 280 Remington, 30/06 and 7mm Remington Magnum. Most of my Redding dies are in various 17, 20, 22 and 24 calibered cartridges.
Strange this difference in experience with the Redding dies isn't it?
I would say though that my current sample of Redding die sets 35 (thirty five) is a significant sampling to quote from and again they are all making me very consistent (low run-out) and accurate ammo with nary a problem.
I think I will have to stick with my happiness and buying the Redding products based on the significant amount of experiences I have with them!
I actually got away from other brands of die sets at the recommendation of a high power and Bench Rest shooter who recommended them to me many years back. He did not use them in his BR Rifles but did use them in his high power competition Rifles as well as his Big Game and Varmint Hunting Rifles.
I think I will take this occassion to thank him and pass along his recommendation regarding the Redding dies.
I have quite a significant cadre of shooting friends and acquaintances who also enjoy Redding loading dies and I have as yet heard nary a one of them complain of this "air denting" phenomenon being inherent in their dies, either!
I again think someone is using either to much or the wrong type lubricant on their cases!
I use such a small amount of the Imperial and have done so for so long that I can't remember the last stuck case I got while using it - maybe never, since I switched to it?
I highly recommend the Imperial product as well!
Vapodog, have you had any "dentings" or other bad experiences with Redding dies?
I reviewed the thread and it doesn't seem like you have?
Are you just making smart assed comments because you can?
Or do you have something to say regarding the Redding products?
Inquiring minds (more mature minds?) want to know!
Long live Redding!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I really like the old Pacific Durachrome dies. I have a 223 FL set that I broke the decapping pin assembly in.

Does anyone know if the current Hornady decapping pin assemblies will fit the old Pacific dies?

All the dies I bought then built a rifle around just becasue I had the dies LOL. I had a bad experience with Redding Customer Serive. Minor problem and they could have saved the day. I ate almost the price of the dies in shipping. I fixed them myself, the world is now good

Hornady Dies have been the most troublesome for me.

I use only Lee, and I am completely satisfied.... so far!!!

Many years ago I only had RCBS. Never had any trouble with them, but I haven't bought any for about 28 years.

Hornady FL need two more and longer cuts on the collet,or the new "Zip Spindle Kit".

Hornady seater dies ,when used with the mike,need an air vent and a chamfer on the bullet seater.

Lee dies need two of their lock-nuts,one as a jam nut.Also,they need instuction on the need to clean all oil from the collet

RCBS dies need bags of decapping pins.

Redding need a mailer to send back for polishing.