I have one set of Lee Dies, and they will be my last. Good luck.

Lee is good stuff for the most part. They do have occasional glitches- Their bullet moulds most often need some tinkering with to make work right, their progressive presses aren't made for people who aren't mechanically inclined, and their collet dies sometimes need some tweaking. I buy lee equipment for things that I don't reload as much and have no reason to spend top dollar on and RCBS for everything else. Lee equipment will reload good ammunition, but if you want to do things easier and eliminate glitches, RCBS or Redding is much better if you are willing to pay the premium for their equipment.

For presses, the classic cast is just about impossible to beat in value.

One good thing Lee does is it keeps the more expensive boys honest. If Lee didn't sell workable die sets for under $20 for many years, RCBS dies would probably cost you $75 or more today.

I purchased the Lee turret press 7 or 8 years ago. I also purchased Lee dies for 45acp and 9mm. I have probably loaded over 5000 rounds of both with this press before I got into rifle reloading. I was only loading for my 257roberts and was not going to buy a new press for one cartridge. I got a set of RCBS dies and have sinces reloaded a lot of 257roberts and 308win with the turret press. I would say that there are better presses out there, but for my money, I will buy another Lee press in a heartbeat.

Mark

Ted, I have a few Lee reloading products;

Classic Cast O-frame press. Solid, excellent value for money and replaced my old Lee Challenger press.

Collet Dies for the 223 and 30-06. The best dies I have ever used and YES my rifle groups are smaller.


Carbide Dies for 38/357 &a Crimp Die on my Dillon 550B progressive press.


3-Die Set for the 38-40 and 45-70.

Lee Priming Tool.

All my other reloading gear is RCBS.

One thing that might make a difference, if you DO have trouble with your Lee, their warranty kinda sucks, youhave to pay half the price of a new whatever, for them to fix it. Dillon, RCBS, Hornady,and others, just fix or replace it, no charge. It's called customer service. I've had enough Lee stuff break, that I don't buy much any more. Their pistol dies are excellent, though, and I have several sets, and have used several different rifle sets, too, with less satisfaction.

I reload 30-06 and 243 with the anniversary kit, It works fine for the average dude. The scale could be better, but it loads well enough to keep a deviance of merely 30 fps on the chrono. EJ

I got started using Lee many years ago and have gone from their reloading kits that don't even use a press (anyone remember those?) to a Challenger press to a Loadmaster. I think you get good value for the money. I've probably reloaded 5,000 shells, mostly 9mm and .223on the Loadmaster with no major problem. I broke one part and replaced it pretty easily. In general, all the parts in the Loadmaster fit pretty loosely. It looks like the fit is too sloppy to work, but it does.

If you buy one of their powder measures, keep a close eye on the weight it throws if you reload a lot. The nylon chambers inside that actually do the measuring are prone to wear over time.

At the time I bought the Lee equipment it allowed me to get into reloading at a price I could afford. Think of it as the Ford ****** of reloading; it works as advertised but no one will ever mistake it for a Cadillac.

Quality of Lee stuff varies depending on what the item is. However, it will all perform the task it was made for if you use it according to Lee's directions.

Their dies are adequate if you are not loading large volumes of ammo, and if you are not loading benchrest competition ammo!

I like Lee bullet moulds. They cast good bullets, and cost a lot less thanother makes.

I have a Lee turret press, but am not wild about it. I also haveRCBS Jr. andRockChuker presses, which I like a lot better! For one thing,you don't have to handle each primer individually when using the RCBS presses for priming. If you get a Lee press, you still are better off priming with the Lee priming tool that has the primer magazine attached.

As far as dies are concerned, the Redding and Forster dies are much better. But Lee makes one gadget that I hear is great. That's the Lee "factory crimp" die. I have never used one, and usually don't crimp CF rifle ammo anyway. There are some people who are convinced that ammo crimped with the Lee tool is more accurate than uncrimped rounds. It would surprise me if this held true universally, particularly if you are using it withbullets that have no crimping groove, and the die "makes" one by forcing the case mouth into the side of the bullet!

But I admit, I don't know about this!

I use quite a bit of Lee equipment. I wont use their scale, I use a RCBS scale. I have used Hornady, RCBS, Redding and Lee dies. All of them work well. I have used Lee Collet dies for years, with great success. I still use the Lee Turret press I bought 20 years ago. I suppose their scale works, but I prefer to have the best scale I can afford. Ohaus is the company that produces scale for RCBS. They are a well known scale manufacturer and have been for years. I am not sure if my reason for being finicky about scales has to do with my totally anal search for accuracy or the desire to keep my face whole.