vtpoolman

well like the title says i'm new to reloading. went to a friends house one night and i loaded 150 rounds of 357mag. used 13 grains of 2400 powder with a cci 550 primer and 158 grain jsp. the kick was not as much as the amarican eagle rounds. an older manual said 12.5g was the high limit and onther manual said 14.5g why such of a diference? i just bought anothers person reloading setup. think i got a good deal. am looking at diferent dies. the guy that touht me to reload does not like lee dies. he has mostly rcbs. and he said if he had the money he would have all reading dies. i want to be able to reload all my guns. thats 5 rifle and 3 pistols. the reloading set up came with 9mm and 357/38 lyman carbide dies. what make on die better then another? i have another friend that has lee dies and he likes them. lee is the least expensive and the set comes with a shell holder. are the other dies better? or should i go with lee? now i'm just waiting for components to show up. seems most stuff is all on backorder/ out of stock everyweres.

docd007

I have lee carbide dies for 38/357 and 44 mag. I like'm, they work just fine. I use them in a dillon 550b.

The differences in load data are sometimes due to different gun they test in(barrel length ect.) and over all bullet length may vary slightly.

I always search until i find 2 manuals that agree and start in the mid range for that load.

Happy loading!

Iowegan

vtpoolman, "what make on die better then another?" In a word ... quality. The major die makers such as RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, Dillon, etc are very precision and quite competitive. Not only do the dies do a good job, they last forever. Lee dies are the "economy" class dies. Yes, they too work OK and last a long time but are just not made to the precision quality standards of the top brands. Personally, I won't use Lee dies but many reloaders do and get excellent results.

I agree with your friend, Redding rifle dies are the best but they are pretty expensive. I have several sets of Reddings .... mostly for the cartridges I load in large quantities ... 223 Rem, 308 Win, and 30-'06. The rest of my rifle dies are RCBS and work just fine. In pistol dies, I have replaced all of them with Dillon dies. They work exceptionally well in my Dillon RL550 and can be taken apart for cleaning without disturbing the adjustments. I like that feature.

If you think "brand loyalty" is a big deal with guns, you should see it with reloading equipment. Reloaders get all bent out of shape if you say something negative about their equipment. The real issue is producing good quality ammo. If you are happy with your end result, I guess it really doesn't matter what brand is stamped on the dies or press. For me personally, I'd rather spend a few more bucks and go with top-of-the-line equipment. I figure for the amount of ammo I have produced over the years, the cost per box difference between cheap dies and expensive dies is minuscule.

Do yourself a favor and buy an up-to-date reloading manual. Speer #14 is my favorite with the Hornady 7th Edition close behind. Yes, you will see variations in powder charges but as mentioned above, that's because the bullets, primers, seating depths, and test guns may be different. In the past few years, lab testing has gone through some radical technology changes. Many powder loads have been reduced because the old "crusher method" of testing chamber pressure was little more than an educated guess. Now with the new electronic piezo transducers, the pressures can be measured very accurately and often reveal over pressure conditions with loads tested under the old method. Most of the loads in the new Speer and Hornady manuals were retested with piezo transducers so it is not unusual to see quite a change from other published media.

bigjim

Most die sets will do a good job and you will find some that like redding, RCBS, Dillion and yes Lee. As to quality I have tried both RCBS and Lee dies. A 3 die set from Lee is about 29.95 a two die set from RCBS runs about $50.00 and the others are a lot, lot more. Lee dies are easy to use and are absolutly accurate, they are guarantteed for two years. I have 12 sets of their dies both in rifle and handgun. It would have cost me 3 to 4 times the money if I had followed other peoples choices.

Make you own choice - buy one set of Lee dies and see for yourself. If you feel you need to spend more money for the same thing you can do so later, but try them first and decide for yourself.

Jim

thebiggiantkevin

I agree with Jim. I admittedly have limited reloading experience. I've only used Lee equipment and I only reload for my .308 rifle. I worked up a load with the Lee equipment that consistently shoots under 0.5 inches (5 round groups) at 100 yds. Based on my experience Lee equipment can produce very accurate and consistent ammo. Paying more for anything else is a waste of money.
Kevin

vtpoolman

thanks for the info and opinions. i ordered a 3 die set of lee for the 243win. has both full length sizing die and neck sizing die. i wanted to experiment and see if there is a diference with neck sizing and full length resizing. i also ordered a set of lee dies in 300wsm. i have some older books siera, honady, and lyman. i was going to order another new lyman book. is the abc book have more info then the lyman book? just got my bench made this past weekend and mounted the press. i am waiting for a dial caliper and deburing tool to show up and then i can start reloading the 357mag. untill the rest of the components show up. it seems everything everywere is back ordered. hope the components come in soon. but it sounds like it maybe a few months. whatis a good stout load for the 357 mag? i tried 13grains 2400 last time i think i am going to bump it up to 14 grains. i am just usung them for plinking. but i wanted a good stought load. the 13 grains seems less stought then the amarican eagle factory load.

MrPhil

Most of my loading is with Dillon's Square Deal B progressive presses. They use non standard dies, supplied only by Dillon. Kind of spoiled I guess.

Recently, I started loading 223 and 308 using RCBS Rockchucker single stage presses. I purchased RCBS dies. They worked OK, although, I was sticking quite a few 223 cases. Then I remembered I had traded for a NIB set of Dillon 223 Carbide rifle dies. I had put them away and forgotten about them. What a huge difference. You still need to lube, but the handle effort is a small fraction of the steel dies. About the same as 357. And zero stuck cases. Downside is the cost. Currently about $136 from Dillon. Frankly, they are worth it.

ajmorell

If you are on a budget check ebay. I got a used RCBS 4 die 38/357 carbide set for $40 shipped. It was also convenient since most dies are sold out pretty much everywhere.

LS-208

Iowegan, What's your take on the Hornady New Dimention dies?

Tork

Here is alink to the Alliant Powder web site. They have some load data for 158 grain bullets and 2400. They list a max load of 14.8 grains using CCI 500 primers. 2400 doesn't need mag primers so if you are using mag primers I would work up to that max load with caution.
http://www.alliantpowder.com/default.aspx
Cary

Iowegan

LS-208, Pacific dies were a benchmark for the reloading industry. When Hornady bought out Pacific, they maintained the quality and have since expanded their product line. The Hornady New Dimension rifle dies are second only to Redding and that's debatable because the New Dimension dies have features not available with Redding, especially the bullet seater. Top notch rifle dies in my opinion.