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What dies to buy........

Herd Thinner

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 11, 2013
243
2
Pittsburgh PA
I am new to reloading, a year and I currently have LEE 308 and 300 win mag dies. I was told by some hard core re-loaders that I will want to up my game to competition or better quality dies down the road. My question is what is the difference between say lee dies and say Redding competition dies? If I was to start looking to upgrade what is everyone using. Thanks thought I would pick your brains.....always good information here
 
RCBS seaters have way too much runout and they will not work in a Dillon press.

Forster would be my 1st choice due to their hardened seating stems, Redding would be my 2nd choice due to their softer seating stem. Both load very straight ammo.
 
How much runout do RCBS seaters induce over the Redding? Because I've been using both for many years and haven't noticed a difference, except the RCBS is easier to use.

RCBS recently redesigned the Competition dies to work with standard shell holders. This was a downgrade, in my opinion.
 
I have been reloading for 5 years. For Rifle I finally went with a Forster CO-AX press and Redding Comp Dies. Works Great. Fixed my runout issues and its portable. I put a In-Line Fabrication stand on it and take it to the range for load development.

308

Good luck,

Matt
 
I was averaging around .008 runout with the RCBS die. I swapped to the Redding and average below .003. All I did was swap dies.

Then because I hadn't known about the soft seater stem issue, with the compressed charges, the seating stem swelled to the point that it wasn't floating where-by i started seeing runout again. When I called Redding, they advised me of the problem.

I checked around about the problem, called Forster and they advised me that I wouldn't have that problem with their die, the stem is hardened. Purchased the Forster and I haven't looked back.
 
I was averaging around .008 runout with the RCBS die. I swapped to the Redding and average below .003. All I did was swap dies.

Then because I hadn't known about the soft seater stem issue, with the compressed charges, the seating stem swelled to the point that it wasn't floating where-by i started seeing runout again. When I called Redding, they advised me of the problem.

I checked around about the problem, called Forster and they advised me that I wouldn't have that problem with their die, the stem is hardened. Purchased the Forster and I haven't looked back.

+1 on this, The Forster seating dies have treated me so well that I hardly ever check for runout anymore. The Redding website even states not to use theirs on compressed loads. In today's age of limited options for powders, that is a deal breaker for me as making some compromises on preferred powder is nearly a norm these days.

I personally really like Redding's sizing dies (bushing neck die and seperate body die) and use the Forster micrometer seating dies. Makes for a great combination for me. Haven't had the chance to try Forster bushing sizing dies yet as availability is hit and miss, and mostly miss for the calibers I'm playing with these days.

If I'm buying dies for precision rifles, I don't even look at RCBS or Hornady anymore, I just go straight to the above combo. For pistol and blaster ammo, I normally just buy Dillon dies for the 650 for the separate seating and crimping dies. I've got a couple sets of Hornady, one RCBS set for a pistol that I load single stage, and the rest are Dillon, Forster, and Redding.

That said their are a lot of guys getting REALLY good results from LEE mandral dies for precision work. It's all in your preferences IMO and how you like to prep your brass and handle neck sizing/turning/reaming duties.
 
Glad to help, I had just got some WSM dies from Bullets.com 2 weeks ago and noticed how many hard to find dies they had in stock so i figured I'd give it a look when you mentioned you were waiting for some.

The Forster mic seater is a tougher one to find for sure, I had to look high and low to find mine for my 260 a couple months ago.
 
I was averaging around .008 runout with the RCBS die. I swapped to the Redding and average below .003. All I did was swap dies.

Then because I hadn't known about the soft seater stem issue, with the compressed charges, the seating stem swelled to the point that it wasn't floating where-by i started seeing runout again. When I called Redding, they advised me of the problem.

I checked around about the problem, called Forster and they advised me that I wouldn't have that problem with their die, the stem is hardened. Purchased the Forster and I haven't looked back.

How does the softer or harder stem affect reloading.
 
It doesn't matter what type die you have if you do not have good quality brass with uniform case wall and neck thickness.

The leading cause of neck runout is bad brass and locking the ball expander down off center and pulling the necks off center.

neckcenter_zps94286f86.jpg


Having a neck thickness gauge and a runout gauge will tell you a great deal when sizing cases, bottom line you can't make a silk purse from a sow ear, meaning you need good brass.

With good brass and a cheap Lee die you can load very good ammunition with a standard factory rifle, if you have a custom made rifle then higher quality or custom made dies may serve you better.

reddingneckgaugex250_zps88727434.jpg


Below in the background is a Hornady concentricity gauge, sometime you need to "bend" your "average" brass to make it straight, no matter what brand of die you have.

runout003_zpsd19b7cc3.jpg


As a side note I have three five gallon buckets of .223/5.56 once fired brass that I got after our local police and swat teams had a practice. It is made up of Remington, Federal and Lake City brass, this ammunition was the cheaper grade practice ammunition sold to police departments. The majority of this brass would be considered "seconds" meaning lower quality brass not normally sold with higher priced ammunition. This brass had uneven neck thickness and the runout was excessive on over half the brass. On a impulse I saw some, Nosler custom brass and bought a box, the difference in quality and uniformity was amazing. So again good quality brass makes more difference than the brand of die you use, and you need gauges to find your bad brass.

None of the dies below can make bad brass better and with good brass and my Lee dies not pictured you can make very concentric ammunition. With any of the full length dies I have with the expander button removed and then using a expander die to expand the necks, runout will be greatly reduced. Meaning it is not the body of the full length die causing the runout.

dies003_zpsf9af9a52.jpg
 
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