Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles if starting over, which reloading dies?

I started with RCBS as a beginner. The dies worked fine however lots of reading always leads to curiosity and so of course I had to try different dies and different methods. Grin! My next dies were Redding Bushing Dies and them is expensive but I had only bought for one cartridge so I still had some money. After a year of experimenting with the new Reddings that nearly broke the bank someone explained that there was a die that only cost $20 and it made ammo straight as an arrow. Hell, I could afford that so why not try the lee collet neck die for one of my RCBS cartridges so I ordered one in 270 Winchester. It were only about a year into that program and I was likeing the fact that case lube was only a rare occasion. I also quite turning the necks because the lee neck die sized down to the inside of the neck not the out side like the Redding Bushing Die. In my opinion I was getting Redding bushing Die quality in terms of Run out only with far less work involved. At some point into that program I decided to get Redding body die to bump the shoulder without inducing Run out to the neck of the brass as I'd seen with my RCBS dies with expander ball. I finished off with Forster Benchrest Seater dies

Eventually I sold most my other dies and replaced everything with...........

Lee Collet Neck Die
Redding Body Die
Forster Benchrest Seater Die

I also have one Redding Competition Seater Die but prefer the Forsters

If I ever found a rifle that much prefered PFLS every time I think I'd go with a two die set of Forsters that Mathman mentioned and have the neck portion of the FL sizer honed to match my brass

I would also add that as another poster already mentioned I found positive results when I eventually upgraded from my Rock Chucker to the Forster co-ax press as far as Run out is concerned and I considered it a real bonus that I could swap dies in matter of seconds literally. It certainly fit my don't want to lube, turn necks, take forever to change a die mentality and I find loading up a batch of 50 rounds takes part of an evening instead of several. Life Is Good!!!


Trystan

I would buy and use the Lee collet die set.
I’d add a Redding body die for use every few loads, assuming I didn’t want to buy new brass.

If there was some reason (not at all likely) that I couldn’t make myself use anything but an all-in-one FL sizer in a 2-die set, I’d buy and use Forster.

I have several brands but Redding is my favorite. Probably 9 out of ten dies sets I own are Redding.