hornady is #1 on my list. you will never break the decapper, the seating die centers the bullet before seating and adjustment of the seating depth is easy.

Reddings are the nicest.
RCBS are inexpensive and reliable.
Hornady's elliptical expander is very nice but won't work in some calibers in my CO-AX press.
Lee's are cheap and often cheaply made but make surprisingly good ammo.
C&H are adequate but the set I have is not very finely machined.
Bonanza dies are expensive, have some nice features but I've had problems with some of them (I.E. 7 thousandsth + Runout on virgin brass the same case ran through a hornady die gave 1 thousanth).

My preference is for Redding dies when possible but use a lot of RCBS because they are more available and often much less expensive..........DJ

PeaShooter,

Welcome to the forums! I have used some from each brand you listed above and all are of good quality. In order of my personal preference:

Redding
RCBS
CH
Hornady.

The Hornadys are the least expensive and the Reddings & RCBS's are the most expensive. The CH's are priced right in some of the more exotic chamberings. Pay your $, take your choice!

I have just started to get interested in reloading. There are several manufactures of reloading dies in widely different price ranges. Including; RCBS, Hornady,C-H Tool and Die, Redding etc. I'm will be loading for .338 Win Mag and .458 Win Mag. I would like your opinions on the quality of these products, and your recomendations.

Savage99,

Wow! That's the first time I've heard anything bad about Redding dies. I just ordered $300 worth of their dies. I hope I don't get crappy ones.

Kory

The conventional Redding FL dies are missing a feature that causes air and lubricant dents in bottlenecked cartridges. Also the quality of inside finish in the recent four sets of FL dies that I have bought in the last two years has been very poor.

Thus cases stick in the dies unless they are polished and the dent the sides of the brass, in some situations, due to the lack of an air vent hole.

This makes Redding dies unaccepable.

Look at this picture of 270 WSM brass FL sized in a Redding die. The ink has circled the dents.



New RCBS dies came in last week and they are very smooth inside and the dents have not appeared again.

I have polished out the other rough Redding dies. I have not seen the denting problem with the Redding "S" FL dies.

I`ve got RCBS, Redding, Forster, Lyman, and Hornady dies and have no real problems with any of them. The RCBS are easier to find around here and probably "best bang for the buck" and make up the majority of them. I prefer the Forster though if I have a choice.

I like Forster & Redding about equally, followed by RCBS. Some Lyman specialty dies, like the M-dies, used for expanding case necks for cast bullet seating, are not produced by anyone else. The Lee factory-crimp dies are also unique. I have never used Hornady dies, nor any of the more recent C & H dies.

My personal choice:

RCBS Match grade dies ( .308, .223, 6.5x55 Swede )
Hornady Custom Grade ( handgun calibers and rifle ) best bang for bucks
CH the widest available choice of calibers I know.
quality is now OK since there's a new owner and I got great service from them when searching dies for my 9.8x58.2 R Schutzenboomer

HTH

Just to add my $.02 worth.

I use Redding,RCBS, and Lee dies in different calibers. My Lee dies were the right price ( FREE) so although I have several I've yet to buy one. When purchasing I pick the RCBS or Reddings. The last was the Type S bushing dies from Redding for my 7mm Rem mag. I like them a lot and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them again.

I too have heard praises of Hornady dies and might try them next. In fact I may start selling off the Lee dies as I replace them with other brands.

I want to know which crimping die is actually the best. I've put a light crimp on the 7mm and .338 only because the groove is there and I thought it will help ensure there is no OAL change due to impact in the magazine. Not sure this has ever been a problem before though.