Lee Die ?s

[deadly0311]

I have searched this on both search engines and struck out. My question is:

From time to time i see that most dont think to highly of Lee Dies, whats wrong with them and why arent they thought to highly of?

 

[Niles Coyote]

Re: Lee Die ?s

They appear to be quickly and cheaply made and I think that has a lot to do with it, there appearance. I have not had any problems with the ones I have used. I am not a fan of any of there rifle bullet seaters, but then I have just been spoiled by a redding comp seater.

 

[JRose]

Re: Lee Die ?s

Just get some Forster dies and be done. Good price and performance.

 

[hershey]

Re: Lee Die ?s

they are fine for most things, their collet dies are extremely good in my opinion. allot of the shooters here are not content w/ fine, and are chasing bugholes instead of 1/2 moa groups, and that is a whole different level of reloading than lee's.... reloading is like everything else, i thought i was doing some "advanced" reloading until i realized that the real serious stuff get done on arbor press's, and don't even use threaded dies......

 

[Smallmouth Crazy]

Re: Lee Die ?s

I have a friend of mine that uses them with no issues.

 

[918v]

Re: Lee Die ?s

They are rough, hence they are less expensive, but they can and do produce high quality ammo.

 

[5R Milspec]

Re: Lee Die ?s

wouldn't trade mine for the world.just the other day shot a .111 group with a load that was loaded with lee dies.but just like some have said they seem to be a little rough looking.and with the collet die one needs to polish the mateing surface of the collet and part that closes the collet.really helps when neck sizeing.keeps the collet from sticking so it want mess up the case.all so put a little grease on the two parts and you'll be fine.that is if you get Lee dies.but hey JMO so you do what your pocket/heart tells ya.

 

[summitsitter]

Re: Lee Die ?s

I think really the only think wrong with them is they are not the most expensive dies you can buy. I mean it's a die it's meant to resize and seat. really hard to mess that up.

 

[jwn8552]

Re: Lee Die ?s

I have used them for years. Always worked for me. They are not the first choice if you are trying to tweek the last little .1" out. Lee designs their dies for the average size chamber, works the brass less so you have to keep that in mind.

 

[Fuzzball]

Re: Lee Die ?s

"From time to time i see that most dont think to highly of Lee Dies,"

I think "most" honest AND knowledgeable reloaders agree Lee's dies are fine. The "most" of which you speak are, mostly, ill informed equipment/price snobs who are loudly repeating what they belive is the "insiders" point of view.

Lees dies are no-frills work men, not the Paris Hilton type at all. Some of us, for reasons of our own, enjoy prtty things so we are willing to pay more for the external appearnace but our ammo is made inside. Lee's are as pretty inside (well made) as any of their near competitors. Forster/Redding dies are "better" in design than Lee and "better" than RCBS, Hormady, Lyman too!

As a long time owner and user of all brands of dies, including quite a few no longer in business, I can assure you that we have two grades of dies. Tied for first place are Forster/Redding. Tied for second place are all of the others. There are indeed some USER FEATURE differences that some of us prefer and that makes for honest individual favorite brands, but that's NOT a "quality" thing, per se, is it!

Buy what brand of dies you want for any reason you want. On average, they all do a very good job and all of them produce mistakes from time to time. If a die IS defective - rare - they will make it good if we give them a chance.

 

[summitsitter]

Re: Lee Die ?s

+1

 

[GSPKurt]

Re: Lee Die ?s

I am very happy with Lee dies for most of my handloading.

 

[918v]

Re: Lee Die ?s

I'm not happy.

Their carbide dies are rough.

Their pistol FCD resizes bullets inside the case and ruins neck tension.

I do like their collet neck dies alot.

 

[Shady_Jay]

Re: Lee Die ?s

They're fine for knocking out bulk ammo. Redding for everything else.

 

[5R Milspec]

Re: Lee Die ?s

well said Fuzzball

 

[nashlaw]

Re: Lee Die ?s

I have used Lee collet dies for years. Won some varmint rifle matches with ammo loaded on them. I have a set of their .308 collet dies and shoot the same little groups with ammo loaded on them as I do with RCBS/Redding.

Maybe my lousy shooting has something to do with the results, but there it is.

 

[Winchester 69]

Re: Lee Die ?s

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 918v</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'm not happy.

Their carbide dies are rough.

Their pistol FCD resizes bullets inside the case and ruins neck tension.

I do like their collet neck dies a lot. </div></div>
A high level of variation in their products. They're cheaply made, not allowing better.

 

[Hunt]

Re: Lee Die ?s

Any die is only as good as what you put into learning how to use it. Lee dies can build quality ammo. I have Lee, Redding and Forster and mainly prefer the latter based on features (seating barrel).

 

[bdh308]

Re: Lee Die ?s

Or just buy a FL bushing sizer die and get the best of both worlds. You can only neck size for so long before you have to stick it in FL die. I for one love the Lee Collet die and believe it does exactly what it set out to do but your brass will last longer IMHO if you use the FL bushing die by setting it up to your chamber dimensions.

 

[magyarbetyar]

Re: Lee Die ?s

Lee's are easy to set up, very simple and dirt cheap (price wise). They are perfectly capable of loading 1/2 MOA ammo as long and you use quality components. It does not have all the bells and whistles and micro settings and all that other stuff but it works plain and simple.