Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Which die?

Between these, which is your preferred FL 2 die set....

RCBS
Redding
Hornady
Lee

BTW, I never see Lyman hardly ever mentioned. Are the junk?

I have gravitated towards a Redding body die used with a Lee collet neck sizing die whenever possible.

I think they're all good, but prefer RCBS. Redding is great, but on one set I couldn't avoid shoulder dents. Please don't educate me on case lubing. But other Reddings have been great, and I do like their obvious quality. But I keep going back to RCBS.

I like a collet clamped button rod best simply from an engineering stand point of view. It's much easier to align than to hope for exact threads . Certainly at any price point we can afford for dies. The collet on my Hornady dies took some medications but the Lee worked from the factory. With the threaded rod dies I put a O-ring under the nut to allow for self alignment. No sense pulling that neck out after you so carefully resized it. . The interior finish is better on my Lee die than my RCBS die of my two 30.06 resizing. A stuck case taught me that, another story. The homely short lee is the best FL. The best looking is easily the Redding . I have RCBS dies, only because I buy back up ones at gun shows and they are the most common.

None of the above.
Forster.

Forster

If your gonna pay for the so called " Competition dies" go Whidden

Redding
Hornady

Nothing wrong with RCBS but a little pedestrian for some. I prefer RCBS over Redding simply because they have a vent hole so I don't end up with oil dents on the shoulders. I would choose RCBS first with Forster a close second. If you prefer a highly finished/polished die go for the Redding - they sure are the nicest looking die. No experience with Hornady. Honestly, don't overthink this one. They all do the same thing.

I don't own a Forester, but I do have a Bonanza, their earlier name. . The FL is just a run of the mill, threaded rod die .Nice button, though. However the seater die is a very slick sleeve designed die. Hornady has a similar design, but it's tolerance is looser and I had to modify it. Repairing and modifying machinery was how I made my wages. When I miced the cases from the RCBS and the Lee FL dies, they were both excellent and the same.

Forster with a Lee Collet mostly. Some Redding dies too. Have other Lee & RCBS and they all work. The Lee and RCBS dies got honed to fit my rifle.

RCBS. Top tier company: if you ever have any issues, they are one of the best in terms of customer service... Keep it simple.

The only cases I have stuck in a die, I was using Lyman dies. I didn’t lube the case on the first one, rookie mistake, second one, case was lubed. I looked at my 2 sets of Lyman dies compared to my RCBS and Hornady dies, lots of tooling marks. I polished both resizing dies and have not had anymore issues. I also haven’t bought any more Lyman dies.

Redding
RCBS

When I finish my morning coffee, I'm going to resize some 260 with a RCBS die.

When I started reloading, it was for practice rounds of 30-06 for my two sons, so I was doing a large number. Through my stupidity I screwed up the decapping pin on my Lee die. So still needing more practice rounds, I went and bought a new RCBS FL. BTW, I now try to have a spare set of each caliber now. Learning to set up, I used dummy rounds. With the Lee die I was able to rely on the Lee lube residue in the die for the single. I tried that with the RCBS. I got a stuck case. I made a stuck case remover at work the next day. So the finish on the interior of the RCBS wasn't as good as the Lee.

The one die I sent back for polish was a Redding, so it just goes to show.

In theory the Hornady dies should be the best of both worlds. . You have collet clamping for the rod, this is going to center better than any threads will and a sleeve bullet aligner. The collet from the factory didn't hold, I had to add a couple of more slots with my Dremel . The seater would hang up with vacuum. I had to drill a small hole near the top.

I either replace with a Hornady clamp nut, or double nut Lee dies.

If you are making 338-06 from 30-06, the best FL money can buy is the Lee because of the shape of the rod !!

I really like looking at my Redding dies but truth be known they don't do anything my other dies don't do except cost a lot more. Have a lot of RCBS dies. Priced well and even more importantly, easy to find! Got a new set of Lyman dies a year or so ago and really nice finish on them, maybe just that set? Have a number of old Lyman handgun dies, lot's of RCBS, few Redding, Lee and several very old Herter's dies. They all have one thing in common They do what they were designed to do, reload ammo!

A funny side note, With my millwright/machinist training I was saying about the advantages of a collet clamp for a few years on the net before Lee picked it up and put it their catalogue.. I don't think that was their intension when they designed the rod assembly.

BC3, my first set of Redding dies came during the 2012 shortage; they were all I could find for my new varmint rifle. 'They worked so well I upgraded to Redding for my deer rifle. I just could not avoid shoulder dents with that second set of Reddings. I used an absolute minimum of lube, only on the case body. I cleaned those dies multiple times. Still got dents. I wonder if they were actually trapping air in the die and that's why I couldn't avoid denting. I finally went back to RCBS and have never dented a case with those. Redding says the vent hole isn't needed, I'm not so sure.

My one complaint concerning Redding dies is the absence of a vent hole.........

Over the years I've used most brands but prefer Hornady, in particular the sliding seater which is very handy, especially in a cartridge like .17 Remington.