I have been hand loading for about a year or so, and have used redding in .264, hornady in 9mm, and RCBS in 280 Rem. I am starting to move into reloading a few more calibers, mainly handgun, and want people's opinion about dies in 40 S&W and 45 ACP.
Recommend your favorite dies and why.

I have no complaints with Lee. Use them in 9mm, .40 and .45.

They all will do the job,my favorite of all the brands I have are the Hornady,for the reason they have a floating bullet guide that lines the bullet up as you are seating it.
Lee 's are ok but you sometimes need to polish the sizing die.
RCBS on pistol dies have scratched on me before and here we go with the polishing.
Simple to do,I split a small dowel rod,put a twist of 800 grit sand paper in the split and chuck in drill press,add a little lite oil and polish it. Give it a hot soapy bath and its ready to go.

I have a mish-mash of whatever I can find.
Mostly Lee though.
Any that need a polishing I take to 45CAL and he cleans them right up.

i have lee,dillon,RCBS i like them all

I have a selection cadefully chosen by two methods,

1.Whatever I can find.

2. "Oh look, there's a set of dies I need."

About the only preference I have is for the Lee Factory Crimp Die when possible.

quote:

Originally posted by countrygun:
I have a selection cadefully chosen by two methods,

1.Whatever I can find.

2. "Oh look, there's a set of dies I need."

About the only preference I have is for the Lee Factory Crimp Die when possible.

So true! I load for I think 22 diff calibers right now & have dies from RCBS, Redding, Hornady, Lee & Dillon. For the 550B, I like Dillon dies, they are setup for the Dillon presses & work quite well. Nothing wrong w/ any of the others. I find the Redding to be the best finish quality & look th them first for rifle calibers. I would use whatever you can afford & find though.

I have a mixed set of dies. But the Hornady are the best, followed with Redding, RCBS with Lee bring up the rear. The Hornady Ti coated dies just require less force to resize when compaired to the std carbide. I was wanting he drop down tub that hornady uses for the bullet seater and elected to buy a new set. It was a welcome surprise.

They all work but not with all presses. Some require a longer body.

Funny story about dies and garage sales.

I have a 6.5 Carcano that has been in the family since WWII. My dad said they used to shoot it but lack of ammo and clips (yes it uses a "Clip" not a detachable mag), rendered it a closet queen, so to speak. Six months ago my wife comes from a garage sale with a box of Misc "gun stuff". In it are a dozen Carcano clips. The next time i went to a local gunshop the owners was cleaning out old stock and gave me a box of ammo. Two weeks later I was at a garage sale my self and there was a bunch of reloading gear. I picked up a set of carbide M-1 Carbine dies. There was also a fairly old Lyman 310 "Tong Tool" With box papers accessories and original ".22 Jet" dies. I wanted just to display in my reloading room. It was only a few bucks, as I brought it up to the table the seller reached under the table and said. "Here there go with it." , extra dies-6.5 Carcano.
I know what is going to happen. I'll fire the factory ammo, borrow some appropriate bullets from my 6.5 Swede stash, fiddle with the tong tool 'till I make some shootable reloads, discover a "magic combination", and have to buy a full set of dies in 6.5 Carcano.

I have only Dillon, RCBS and Lee dies....so far. I have not been too happy with the Lee Dies, as the expander bell was too large, and had to be turned down. Also the sizing die was rough on the inside, and had to be polished to correct the scarring of the brass. I believe that I am up to 17 or 18 calibers that I load for to date(when will this craziness end?)

I have RCBS and Dillon dies. Both are excellent, but if I had to choose one, it would be the Dillon dies for their design. I load mostly cast bullets, and the bullet lube can start to build up in the seating and taper crimp dies. You can clean the dies by removing the clip and sliding the interior out, without removing the die body from the press. Then, once it's clean, clip it back together, and continue loading without changing the die position. I really like that feature.

Most of my Dies are Lyman with 3 sets of RCBS. And then a couple Lee. The only thing I will say . If loading the 40S&W. I would go with the Lee. They seem to work better with this round. I bought Lyman Dies in 40. And ended up Getting the Redding G-RX Base Die to smooth the Glock bulge out. And most guys that use the Lee don’t seem to have a problem.

quote:

Originally posted by hornady:
Most of my Dies are Lyman with 3 sets of RCBS. And then a couple Lee. The only thing I will say . If loading the 40S&W. I would go with the Lee. They seem to work better with this round. I bought Lyman Dies in 40. And ended up Getting the Redding G-RX Base Die to smooth the Glock bulge out. And most guys that use the Lee don’t seem to have a problem.

With a name like Hornady and You use other brand of dies,what were you thinking

.OH don’t worry Hornady has gotten a pile of My money. With the LNL and then I load nothing but Hornady rifle Bullets. They seem to be a decent bullet for the money.

Ive got RCBS,Dillon,Lyman,Redding. Rcbs has a good policy if something screws up and its their fault. Theyll just send you a new one dont have to mail em the old one. I had a Redding mess up and they said I had to mail in the old one. Dillon has a good warranty too.

I have RCBS, Lyman, Pacific, CH and Lee dies. The last few years I have bought nothing but Lee dies and they work just as good as the others, I have never broken a primer pin unlike the others and you can't beat the price.

I use LEE carbide dies for .45 ACP,the FCD is great! They fit perfectly in my LNL AP! +1 on Hornady bullets.

Thanks for the responses. I bought a set of 223's from Midway that were Lee, and tonight I picked up a set of Lee 45 ACP. Now if I can only find some large pistol primers, I can start reloading the 45!

Lee dies in .45LC 45acp 40 38 380 9mm 7.62x39
223 never had a problem with them on a dillon 550

I started out with Lee and RCBS and have replaced all with Hornady Die sets.
+1 on the Lee crimp dies though!!