I finally got all the stuff set up at my house, I had been using my father in laws reloading set up at his house, he has pretty much all RCBS stuff, I decided to save a few bucks and go with lee dies. The biggest thing I hate about lee dies, is there is no jamb nut to set the die in the same place, so evertime you remove it from the press it must be readjusted.

all the seater dies seem to have something that shakes inside like its loose, I know its the part that the bullet makes contact with. does this ever cause any kind of problem?? how does the die make sure and seat the bullet exactly strait??

Hmmmmm.....and I thought Lee had the best lock nut system with the rubber O-ring that is made to keep the lock nut tight. From the Lee website

quote:

The o-ring in the lock ring provides a friction fit between the lock ring and the die. Once you have the die adjusted to your satisfaction, hold the die with one hand and turn the lock ring down against the press frame (turret, tool head, etc.) finger tight. This will be enough to hold the adjustment during the reloading process. If you have to remove the die, loosen it by the lock ring. When re-installing the die, tighten in down by the lock ring finger tight, and it will be in the same place as when it was removed.

I do use a wrench to tighten them, not finger tight, but I'm probably doing it wrong.

I have had more trouble with the allen head set screws in other types, although I hear if you put a #8 lead shot under it then it will hold better.

Some people turn the lock ring upside down so you might get more "consistant contact" (Using the side opposite the o-ring) than with the o-ring. Maybe once you get it set the way you like it you could take a sharpie marker and make an alignment mark on the lock ring and the die??
Re the seater die. I have some collet die sets. I'm not that crazy about the runnout I get with them. It's not horrible but certainly not as accurate as my forester bench rest dies.
(I guess you get what you pay for....but I do love the collet die....now I just buy the collet die by itself and not the set with the seater.)

also I notice the lee dies leave an ever so slight ring on the nose of the bullet, The RCBS dies don't do this. It prolly will not effect anything but its still there nonetheless

I have never had a problem with lee dies. as a matter of fact I have gone to using all lee die. There is not one other brand in the house. I have used them all RCBS, Lyman, Redding and Hornady. Never used Forester. I am not crazy enough to spend that kind of money on dies. I dont benchrest shoot either. But I dont think they would make that big of a difference. I get .35" groups from an out of the box 7mm-08 in a remington 700 SPS using lee dies. hmmmmm.

To answer your question. The rattling you hear is the floating seater stem. Its perfectly normal.

Here's a direct experience I had with Lee, RCBS, and Hornady seating dies for 7.62 tok (used 7.63 mauser seater from RCBS, 30 lugar seater from hornady):

My CZ52 has a slightly off center bore/chamber, such that some S&B 7.62x25 ammo is seated just crooked enough to cause extreme pressure spikes if the cartridge is chambered with just the right orientation. So, I bought a Lee 7.62x25 die set to use to straighten the S&B bullet in the case. The Lee seater was seldom helpful in straightening the bullet. The RCBS seater, with less play in the seating plug, was better, but still not good enough, occasionally failing to straighten the bullet properly. Finally, I tried a Hornady New Dimension seater die in 30 lugar (virtually identical upper dimensions), and it works perfectly every time.

This may not be entirely representative of a normal reloading process, but I figure that if the bullet is not set straight on top of the cartidge prior to seating, the Lee die does not have the ability to straighten it up while seating it. The Hornady does.

YMMV,

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cummins cowboy:
The biggest thing I hate about lee dies, is there is no jamb nut to set the die in the same place, so evertime you remove it from the press it must be readjusted.
[QUOTE]

I don't need to do it, but I read the trick is to use a spanner (wrench) to loosen the lock nut, and then screw the die out by the top.
The lock ring should stay held in place by the O ring.

RUSS--Your experience with that 7-08 may actually reinforce what I have come to believe after about 10 years of reloading......that 98% of the accuracy comes from the quality of the gun and how much it likes a particular bullet and powder charge. My guess is you have a phenominal rifle and it's probably not the lee dies giving you .35" groups....but I sure understand your point of why would you spend $50 for dies when $20 dies===.35" groups!!

Kraky the thing is I have never noticed a difference in accuracy from one brand of die to the next. I have never measure for off center bullets. All I do is make sure they are the same length with the stoney point oal guage. You're probably familiar with it, it measures off the ogive of the bullet. As for the 7mm-08 I tested h4350, re19, h414, h380, and ramshot big game. It absolutely loves big game and so does my 22-250(also a rem 700) The best group I got with the other powders wasjust over half an inch, around .6, .7. I just sold a set of redding dies on ebay. When I load the same identical load with the lee dies for the same caliber, group size does not change. .270 win shoots consistent .5 inch 3 shot groups with h4350. Im gonna try ramshot hunter in it though see how it likes it.

Ok I am gonna eat my words. I ordered rcbs dies for my 22-250 and 7mm-08 to try again. Group sizes dropped enough that I am gonna replace all my dies with rcbs. Plus rcbs has a LIFETIME guarantee. I still wont pay forsters prices though.