ORIGINAL: Briman
I've actually had all of the problems you described with a RCBS FL die- sometimes you just get a bad die, doesn't matter what color of box they come in-unless its a redding.
I have several dies sets from RCBS and Lee and I've had problems with Lees too- especially the collet dies.
I have the opinion that RCBS equipment is overrated- I have a case trimmer that doesn't cut straight, a set of 7.5x55 swiss dies that are cut too tight for for the rifles I reload for, and an expensivepowder measure that's a real PITA to use with extruded powderswhere a $20 Lee measure does the job perfectly. I've compared RCBS presses with Redding presses side by side in stores, for the same price the Redding is far better made, the lee is about as well made as the RCBS for 1/2 the price.
I've recenty discovered Redding dies as well, those will be the dies I mostly buy in the future.
Yea, your right. If I would have gotten my troubled RCBS dies right from the get go, I would have been kinda salty on them, but over the 20 or so die sets I have for RCBS, I have gotten 2 or three, that I had to send in. Or they didn't ask questions, and shipped me a new one.
One thing I did once was buy like 3 sets of RCBS dies. I took careful measurements of what I wanted, and compared them, and kept the one that fit my criteria the best. That worked out nice. Even RCBS overworks the neck. Not sure why they do that.
I do have a STW FL Redding die, that had a bent decapper and would pull the neck way out too. You can roll it and watch it wobble.
But who wants to spend 100 dollars on a set of Redding comp dies. They are very nice however.