New to reloading: Die Selection help

[Frapiscide]

I recently found out the one of my friends has reloading equipment and said that all I need are the dies (and obviously the bullets themselves). I checked Midway and see a multitude of dies there. I'm mainly looking towards RCBS for their quality I've heard about.
Which one would you guys recommend?

 

[roggom]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

What are your goals, just putting some rounds together for hunting and steel, or more precision? RCBS dies are good to go, but there are also competition dies, bushing dies and so on.

 

[Hairball]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

All of my reloading dies are RCBS except my .408 die that is made by CH4D. I have never had an issue with any of my RCBS dies and when I did need some additional decapping pins, they sent them to me for free. As you will quickly find out, there is much more to reloading than coming up with a few dies. Hopefully, the friend you mention is meticulous when he reloads and will teach the proper way of reloading. The more experience you have, the more techniques you will learn to speed the process along. I only load on a single stage press (rock chucker supreme and .50 BMG press) as I mainly reload rifle. I do load .44 mag and .500 smith but I would not want to load these progressively either. With the way the world is today, reloading supplies are just as short in supply as ammo. As my fellow Chief has mentioned, there are number of different dies and the price range can go from 20 -200 or more depending upon what you plan on loading.

 

[darkarcher]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

Most of my dies are RCBS or Hornady. They work, but I now that I am really into it, I wish I would have bought Reddings. Cry once and just get them, they are not that much more, and you can add the comp seaters later.

 

[Sgt. 0811]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

All my dies are RCBS and my ammo is better than the majority of factory I've fired. Have no hesitation with RCBS.

 

[PSYOPS]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

Redding!

 

[hewlett260]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

Redding full length sizers and competition seaters are the best way to go.

 

[SquarePizza]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

I have Lee, RCBS, and redding dies. Honestly, I do not see too much difference between my RCBS and redding dies. Lees are cheap, and I like that they come with a shell holder (others sell it separately), but I HATE the "locking" collars on the lee dies. They use an o-ring instead of a setscrew.

 

[jbell]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

I have tried them all Lee, Lyman, RCBS, Forrester/Bonanza, Redding, Wilson, and one or two custom. Honestly I have been able to get very good results with any of them. If I am just playing around with a caliber I may get a $20 set of Lee for a "nonprecision rifle", or if the rifle may be a shooter and I dont want a large investment in dies then Forrester are VERY hard to beat for the money! But when I am serious about a caliber then its Redding Competition with no exceptions.

 

[BullzeyeNJ]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

I like Redding or Forster if I had to choose. All the dies out there work. Buy what works for your budget.

 

[dbateman]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

Redding full length sizers and competition is me for most things.

I have a couple of RCBS dies as well and they work well.

But I really like my Redding bushing dies.

 

[aviumvenator]

Re: New to reloading: Die Selection help

I use RCBS, Redding, and Forster dies for rifle. Regardless of the brand I would recommend the micrometer seating die. For me it makes adjusting seating depth between different bullets a simple task.