Lee dies vs. the world...

[canopis]

"Only thing I don't like about lee dies is the fixed decapping pin"

Mine are held in with a collet and will slip instead of bend or break.

Same here, just don't over-tighten the collet and the pin will slide up if it hits an obstruction.

Now, I know that because I did tighten mine too far, mistakenly popped a piece of Berdan-primed brass in the press, and broke the pin. I took a picture of the broken pin, emailed it to Lee, and they sent me out a new pin the next business day, no questions asked.

I understand that the pistol decapping pins are universal across most calibers, so I just used the pin from another set of dies until the replacement arrived.

No issues (so far) with my Lee equipment.

[damndave]

I really like the Lee 4 die set, but once I got a set of Dillon dies I realized how much easier the Dillons are to clean. The Dillons seem to have a little more chamfer on the inside to help if the brass is canted in any way going in. (a problem I had when using a Hornady LNL AP)

I have owned a LCT and various Lee die sets and all have worked flawlessly.

[noplay6978]

If you have 2 lee presses, and you almost have to use their dies, unless you want to order the specific powder thru expanding die for each caliber you reload.
My pet peeve with the dies is that you cannot lock the seating and crimping settings. I will say lee does stand behind their merchandise. The press lever on my single stage cracked at the base (I use for depriming and resizing). I sent them an email and a photo and a new lever is on the way from lee, pretty painless, I must admit. I'm making 400+ rnds a month on my little LCT and I'm pretty happy with its performace so far.

[stilly]

I wish the bodies of the lee dies were longer. Went to use a lfc did on my lnl press when loading 445 supermag and I couldn't get enough adjusent on the die to crimp.
I like my hornady dies, they work well on progresive. I use a hornady tapped crimp on auto rounds and lfc on revolver stuff.

I heard you should put the lock underneath the die plate instead of on top...

[firebert]

If Harbor Freight carried dies they would be Lee. Just saying.

That's a bit harsh. Lee dies are made in the USA while everything from HF is made in China.

[ivanimal]

Lee makes nice dies and I love their crimp dies.

[3006mv]

Ok, I am a die snob. Yes I prefer Snap On Tools over Craftsman too. But go ahead and slap me. Last weekend I bought two sets of Lee dies. Just don't make me use them. If Harbor Freight carried dies they would be Lee. Just saying.

wrong they would be SmartReloader not Lee Precision

[milotrain]

I like lee products in general, the perfect powder measure is a champ at a lightweight price. However I don't love their dies. I like Dillon's decapping pin that bounces instead of slipping, and I like having more bullet seating options than the "round nose fits all" that the lee ships with. I also hate their boxes, pain to open, pain to close no good labeling on the side. The Lee factory crimp die is worth it's weight in gold and the Lee universal decapper could only be made better by showing up from the factory with a black oxide coating.

I'll use Dillon or RCBS. I'm not a snob per say, I hate the forster dies and lyman dies more than anything.

[knucklehead0202]

so far I haven't experienced any "die box" difficulty with my lee dies, and I write on the side with a sharpie to label them, sounds crazy, but it seems to work. I can't imagine someone having trouble with lee dies, or the boxes which contain them, but considers using RCBS dies preferable. in my experience lee dies are the easiest to use, adjust, etc. I do have one set of hornady dies, mostly because they were the only ones available for that caliber at the time(.308) but I didn't have any trouble with them, although i'd still prefer to have the lee factory crimp die and may indeed order one for it. only loaded 100 rds with that set so far though so i'll reserve my praise for down the road I think.

[Nessal]

I will say that I first started loading 6 years ago and I started on a Lee single stage with Lee dies. I have a set of Lee .223 dies which I loaded THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of rounds out of and it wasn't until 2 weeks ago that the decapping pin broke. Great dies for the price.

[Scout2Diesel]

To RL Berdan you cut the pin off. Get an extra and/or get a universal decapper if you want to do both.

[klewan]

To RL Berdan you cut the pin off. Get an extra and/or get a universal decapper if you want to do both.

I couldn't find the "sweet spot" where the pin would push out the primer and yet slide up on a berdan or off center primer hole. Sooo, I do all the .223 range pickup with the manual depriming tool. Fish thu the case mouth and find the flash hole and hammer it out.

[mif_slim]

I have Hornady, Lee, RCBS dies... I would take Lee over Hornady anytime of day.