In your experience do you find the premium rifle die sets worth the price? My definition of the premium sets include the Redding Competition Die Set. How important is it to have the option of changing neck sizing bushings?

Thank you.

I'm really liking my lee collet die and when necessary to bring the dimensions back I use a redding body die. I just loaded up some experimental 168 tsx's for my 300 wby tonight. I did 10 rounds and not a one has over .002" loaded runnout and the neck tension was wonderfully consistant during seating. My weatherby factory rifle most likely couldn't appreciate any better loads than this.
I guess all the fancy stuff is good if you are benchresting or trying a very experienced hand at long range hunting.....but in my book 98% off the accuracy in a normal rifle comes from the "liking" of powder and bullet.

Strangely enough I'm now buying only Lee dies...

They do as well as any I had and better than some..

To answer your question.....ABSOLUTELY NOT

No. I became Distinguished with cheap .223 and 308 Lee sizing dies. I measured the runout, cases often were .001, most under .003 runnout. That is as good as it gets.

However I really like competition seating dies. They have a dial micrometer system that allows a measured way to change seating depth.

People try to compensate by poor shooting skills by buying exotic reloading equipment. Shill gunwriters promote this practice. Spend the money on lots of ammo and go shoot the stuff. Once you are up to your butt in brass, you'll be pretty good.

quote:

Originally posted by kraky:
I'm really liking my lee collet die and when necessary to bring the dimensions back I use a redding body die. I just loaded up some experimental 168 tsx's for my 300 wby tonight. I did 10 rounds and not a one has over .002" loaded runnout and the neck tension was wonderfully consistant during seating. My weatherby factory rifle most likely couldn't appreciate any better loads than this.
I guess all the fancy stuff is good if you are benchresting or trying a very experienced hand at long range hunting.....but in my book 98% off the accuracy in a normal rifle comes from the "liking" of powder and bullet.

DITTO

I do like the expensive RCBS Competition Seating Die though. It's so much easier to insert the bullet in the side and adjust the micrometer dial at the top.

I like forster, redding and lee dies in that order. Can't stand RCBS, lyman, hornady, etc. Forster, Lee, and to a lesser extent Redding are worth the money.

I have all Redding dies. Just the regular ones none of the fancy expensive stuff. They are damn good dies and I like the adjusting knob on the top.

I never realized how much extra sizing happens in a standard die until I got a Redding Bushing S Die. It just has to make the brass last longer but not sizing to extremes and then forcing back with the expander.

I also have a set of Forster dies that I got for a bargain and they really work nice.
Are they worth the extra money? Depends on the guy buying them I guess. I was happy with the standard dies for a long time from RCBS.

I use a RCBS FL sizing die and bump the shoulder .002, no expander ball, Lee Coller die for the necks, and a Forster Micrometer seater which I got cheap for 30.00 at a fun show, my runout is <.002, so for me the super expensive dies are worth it.

Brian

Lee collets rock. I do have redding, rcbs, hornady, lee flr and others. No difference at all.

quote:

Originally posted by POP:
Lee collets rock. I do have redding, rcbs, hornady, lee flr and others. No difference at all.

I disagree. First of all Lee reloading equipment is usually very well designed but poorly made. Lee dies and reloading tools are the only ones I've worn out so far, usually from poor materials and or heat treating. This includes their collet dies. If you use the collet dies enough they well wear out, they are a great design but are made from cheaper materials.
Saying that all dies are the same is like saying that all cars are the same. A Yugo will get you there but it's nowhere near as enjoyable as a Mercedes. Lee dies will load good concentric ammo but they suck when they wear out or won't hold settings because they don't have lock rings that stay put.
Redding dies are nicer finished but don't have relief holes in the shoulders and will dent shoulders quicker than dies that do in thier standard dies. They have more varients of high end dies than anyone else. Their different bushing dies are excellent.
C&H dies are roughly finished.
Forster dies are OK but aren't as nicely finished as Reddings, they also cost twice what most other dies do.
RCBS usually work pretty well and are about the middle of the road as far as fit/finish go. Great warrantee though.
Lee dies are the cheapest that will load good ammo but are often made poorly and can wear out. They don't retain setting like other dies will.
Dillon dies are made for progressive presses and are the way to go if you use a progressive press.
Hornady dies have some nice features like elliptical expanders but can be poorly made, I had one set that absolutely were incapable of loading a round of ammo. The decapping rods are difficult to set.

Different die designs have different advantages/disadvantages. If you are an average shooter average dies will work just fine. If you are loading a bunch of one load dies that aren't as easy to adjust are not a big disadvantage. But if you like to do a lot of experimentation the Micrometer adjustable dies and the varients of neck sizing dies allow you to experiment in ways that you just can't with regular dies.
So whether the high-end dies are worth it or not depends on what type of reloading you plan to do........................DJ

I'll go along with kraky...Lee collet dies and Redding body dies to push back the shoulder a bit when cases get too tight in the chamber. I wouldn't spring for high priced dies unless shooting competitively. The Lee factory crimp die doesn't seem to hurt anything either. One of my .308 loads has an incredibly small average velocity spread using these components. I believe that factors other than dies(albeit properly set up) have a much greater effect on reloaded ammo performance.

quote:

Originally posted by SlamFire:
No. I became Distinguished with cheap .223 and 308 Lee sizing dies. I measured the runout, cases often were .001, most under .003 runnout. That is as good as it gets.

However I really like competition seating dies. They have a dial micrometer system that allows a measured way to change seating depth.

People try to compensate by poor shooting skills by buying exotic reloading equipment. Shill gunwriters promote this practice. Spend the money on lots of ammo and go shoot the stuff. Once you are up to your butt in brass, you'll be pretty good.

There was another Slamfire [on an optical forum], who has a bad Lee 223 sizer die with marked orientation that he uses to bend bent necks straight.

I own all types of dies, from Lee to RCBS to Forster and Redding bushing dies. I believe that they are all worth the money if you are trying to get the last degree of accuracy from your rifle.

One thing that I believe is overlooked is that the dies are no better than the press they are used in. A premium set of dies in a sprung, junk, or worn out press will not give you the precision results that the die manufacturers designed into their dies, and we paid for.

I like the Lee dies for most things. For my .223, I went with a Redding Full length sizer die after I managed to really bugger up my old Lee die one afternoon (a non lubed case got stuck in it, and I broke a case remover kit trying to get it out!). The Redding was on sale at the gun store, and I needed to finish up some brass before a varmit hunt.

I do buy lock rings for the Lee dies though.

You have to be just a teensy bit anal about reloading to get your $$$ worth out of expensive dies. I say this from having spent several years in benchrest and Schuetzen and a little CBA competition. Take a rifle, say the Savage 12BVSS that currently OWNS all the Cast Bullet Assn factory class records. Say the rifle shoots just 1" five-shot groups with any decent cast bullet load.

Get a mould that casts less than .001" out of round bullets, and they come out of the mould about .001" over throat diameter.

Segregate brass by 1/2gr increments and trim to a uniform length...worth 1/8" reduction in groups size.

Turn casenecks to less than .001" variance in case neck thickness and index throughout the loading process...
another 1/8" reduction.

Adjust sizer die to just necksize just the top half of the case neck...another 1/8" reduction.

Put an index mark in the mould cavity and orient throughout sizing/lubing GC-seating process. cull bullets ruthlessly to .1gr lots and size in die that is .0005" over bullet diameter...another 1/8"- 3/16ths " reduction.

Experiment with seating depth to find an oal that is just a teensy bit of a crush fit in the chamber/throat.
Another 1/8" reduction.

You now have about 45 seconds per round additional work invested in a cast bullet load about 2150fps in a .308 chambering that will go to the range and shoot consistent five shot groups that measure between .375"-.500" at one hundred yards in competition.

Yeah, it's a little anal, but which load do you want to shoot...?

That's what I learned shooting benchrest, etc over the years.

Some things, like the wind and mirage; you can only make an educated guess as far as hold off and then squeeeeeeeeeze the trigger.

You can make the effort to eliminate as many variables as possible.

Whether it's worth the effort is your call.

Rich
DRSS

still.....

just call sinclair and buy the wilson dies and sinclair press.you will then not have to think about dies ever again.

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
just call sinclair and buy the wilson dies and sinclair press.you will then not have to think about dies ever again.

Until you find out your factory chamber is so huge the case sticks in the Wilson die.