Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters pistol die question ??

Am needing to buy a set of dies for my 40 S&W. Are the lee or Lymans any good.... for the money ?? One better than the other ?? Taper crimp and carbide.... right ?? I see 3 and 4 die sets.... which do I need ?? Thanks guys !!

I've never used Lyman, but I've loaded plenty of good, accurate ammo with Lee dies.

Lyman dies are probably steel, while the Lee will have more aluminum in them.

Dillon dies, in a Dillon press of course. Get what you'll eventually wind up with. Cheaper in the long run.

I use a Lee carbide 3 die set for my .45 acp. It works fine. I'm not a fan of the powder through expander die concept and the expander die drags a little too much coming out of the case. So I put an RCBS expander ball in the Lee die. Now it works great. I haven't needed the taper crimp die for my .45's but it may be different for the 40 S&W.

I have used both Lyman and Lee dies and while I have a slight preferance for the Lyman or RCBS for that matter the Lee are very capable. I just don't like the nonlocking rings or the collet retention on the depriming rod on the lees quite as much as the others. More importantly to me than the brand I would highly endorse the carbide dies even at the higher costs. $ well spent.

In what firearm will you fire the .40S&W? This matters most if fired in a Glock or another firearm with special needs. Supported chambers are a big issue and so is bullet design. That is unsupported chambers and lead bullets each have an inpact on choice of dies.

Lee and Lyman are each good. Shockingly capitalism works and anything that survives in the market place for as long as Lee and Lyman have been around is likely to be more than adequate for some users. Lee makes some specialty dies and aftermarket some Lee dies are modified to make what is called a small base die. These are good for what some call guppy brass - brass that has expanded closer to the base - typically after being fired in an unsupported (meaning less supported obviously) chamber.

Conventional three die sets seat and crimp in one die and usually in one step. It is possible to seat in that die adjusted one way and subsequently crimp in the same die adjusted another way but most people and I'm one will seat and crimp in separate operations with different dies.

Then too there are three die sets from frex Redding optimized for use in progressive. These dies will be used with a powder through and expander die - usually from the press maker - and so will contain a different mix of dies than a 3 die set for a single stage classic press.

FREX I have a little 4 position turret Harrell's bench rest load at the range press set up next to my keyboard. In the turret I have a Redding double ring of carbide and a carbide push through die for the .40 S&W and I process cases pretty mindlessly while I read (notice this strictly a first stage ONLY process including decapping before tumbling and further processing decapping is a check on the process and no powder et.al. involved). This works much better than a conventional setup for my cases which indeed have been fired in pistols with oblong firing pins and unsupported chambers. YMMV

I've used both Lee and Lyman; both work, but of the 2, I prefer Lyman. Given a choice, I prefer Redding (more expensive) and Hornady.

Lyman and Lee are both good dies and work as well as the more expensive brands

All pistol sizing dies these days are carbide, meaning they have narrow rings of carbide that do the actual sizing. Seater dies come in taper crimp for semi-auto rounds (like the 40 S&W) or roll crimp for revolver rounds.

While you may prefer some features of one brand over another, all major brands are of decent quality. If you find a problem, customer support at all reloading companies is fabulous.

If you are worried about Glock smilies (and you should be) Redding makes a pass-through die that squeezes the base of the case back down and EGW sells a modified version of the Lee die that supposedly does the same thing as you load.

Lee also sells an item called the Bulge Buster for use in conjunction with their sizing die which irons out the "smiles" quite nicely. Much less expensive than the Redding.

My son gave me a Sig 250 2sum. I have never reloaded for pistols and really do not want to spend alot of money on this deal but was not wanting to spend money on junk either. In my rifle dies, I usually buy Redding but reloading for the 40 is just for fun as I would be using factory loads for smoking crooks and bad guys. Still trying to get a "FEEL" for this pistol reloading. Thanks guys

I have loaded thousands of rounds of 40 S&W in 3 different newer Glocks using an RCBS Die set. I recently bought 500 once fired brass and most of it was shot through Glocks. I have never had an issue with my RCBS die removing the bulge as confirmed with a Dillon case guage.

Do most dies not remove this bulge so you need to use a pass through die?

For me, when I buy dies, I typically buy them off ebay used. My preference is this;

Redding>Hornady/Dillon>RCBS>Lyman>Lee