Reloading Die Brand?

[Hunter2678]

Forster BR dies here...Neck sizer and Ultra seater, specifically...love em!

 

[Trickymissfit]

I have all but the Redding dies and in my opinion the Forster dies are the best, but dang! are they high. The Lee dies are really good too and the least expensive. I buy Lee dies for all the hunting loads I make for my friends. The Hornady equipment is terrible! Not just the dies , the trimmer and the scale I have are junk! The trimmer will not stay adjusted and the scale will not measure 46.0 gr. it will show 45.9 or 46.1 no matter how may times I try ( I'm using a trickler not a powder measure ). The Hornady die steel rusts as soon as you clean them up , Poor polishing = rough sizing and easy rusting. Hornady just sucks!

* if the dies are rusting that fast, try washing your hands with hot soapy water, and then use a good skin loation. They make some stuff to counter act the acids in your skin, but who does I'm not sure. I have a generic can of it, and it does work well.

* if you think Forster's dies are high priced then price Redding dies. Now that's a seriously over priced die.

* look for a Wilson case trimmer. Simply the best

* Can't help you with the scale. I use a Pact electronic scale and an RCBS trickeler. I throw powder with either a Lyman #55 or a Harrell, but still have to trickel with long grained powders
gary

 

[Hunter2678]

Agree with Tricky...Reddings are overpriced IMO..esp since they copied Forsters dies in the 1st place.

 

[WildRose]

Which Reloading Die Brand Do You Use?

You may choose more than one.

I have and use all of the above except forster.

 

[barnesuser28]

i use forster for everything except for 338 Lapua, for the Lapua i use the redding body die, redding collet neck sizer, and redding micrometer seating die. the forster produce runout less then .003 every single time.

 

[diderr]

Love forster, but only have a 300 wsm bench rest seater die. everything else is RCBS.

 

[TXshooter]

Started out with rcbs then tried a hornady and quickly sold it for a redding and now I have found forster and will be replacing all others for the Forster dies. They are awesome.

 

[KansasCowboy]

Started off with Lee. Seemed to get inconsistent performance. Now use RCBS. Haven't had any problems.

 

[martyj]

Use alot of Lee dies.
Think its a pretty good company when you can send them fired brass and will build you a custom neck sizing die for your rifle.

 

[gator1954]

Rcbs.

 

[huntnjim]

I have a Forester on my left and RCBS on my right, like them both but beleive the forester to be of better quality by a fraction.

 

[Trickymissfit]

I have a Forester on my left and RCBS on my right, like them both but beleive the forester to be of better quality by a fraction.

I form a certain 30 caliber wildcat by simply running cases thru a die. I have three or more die sets in that cartridge, and you can see with your eyes that the case run thru a Forster die is much better around the shoulders and neck. But after fire forming they all look pretty much the same of course. I do like the sizer stem setup on the forster full length die better than most, as they seem to come out slightly more concentric. Their seater is the best in a threaded die you can buy off the shelf. I still like the old Lyman dies for strait called cases and cast bullets.
gary

 

[CB11WYO]

Redding Comp then RCBS

 

[Mark Kozak]

I used RCBS since the mid 1970's with good results and did not try other manufactures dies until around 2000. I then bought several sets of Hornady and really like them. I thought I could do better with Redding regular dies since I read so many good things. I bought multiple sets but do not like how they size the cases smaller than others and did not provide any advantage over the regular dies by RCBS, Hornady or Lee. They just cost slightly more.

However I bought sets of RCBS 22-250 and 270 WBY dies about three years ago and have been disappointed in the case neck runout after sizing and bullet runout after seating. The 270 WBY dies would take a case with almost no runout and totally ruin it. This was the worst set I have ever had.

After years of looking at the Forester dies I final ordered a set of Forester dies for the 270 WBY, WOW! I was imediately impressed with the smoothness and quality. The 270 WBY is a custom barrel by Holland and when I was done sizing the cases the neck runout is almost zero and seated runout is well under 0.002.

As funds allow I am slowly replacing all of my main hunting rifle dies sets with Forester. They all seem to work great but after using about 5 different Forester dies sets now I truly would recommend them over all the other off the shelf brands. I am just to cheap to try the Redding Comp because they Forester is so outstanding.