Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

Here's the deal. I love collet dies. I try to use them with all my guns. But every once in a while you got to FL size at least the body, and if you get brass from somebody that has shot it in thier gun, you have to FL size. So for 300win, I decided to get a cheap set of pacesetters. First off, inside is rough, I mean very rough. Second, it pushes the shoulders back further than any other die I have seen. In my 300win, it pushes the shoulders back .02" from fireformed. Now some could say I have bad headspace. Well, we checked that, and its bang on. Ok, no problem, just set it up to partial FL, to match my shoulders with a head and shoulders gauge. Ok, now, it squeezes the neck so much, I can barely put a bullet in, and when it does, I scrape out copper, and I am deburring with a 30degree lymans tool for this purpose of smooth seating, and I am lubing the inside necks.

Lastly, bullet runout after all this mess, on all loads is between .006" to .012". I have a feeling, this is from the hard seating.

Dadgone, I try to go cheap, and save 15 dollars, and have 50 dollars of aggrivation.

So I brake down and get a set of RCBS, pushes the shoulders back only .003", fine with me. And runout is decent. All between .002" and .005".

Now, I have found a few sets of RCBS where the expander ball is too small before, but they sent me a new one. And have once saw a set that didn't push the shoudlers back near enough, but my gunsmith took a hair off, so they custom fitted my rifle. But overall, I am back buying RCBS.

But as they say, you get what you pay for.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

10-4,Good Buddy!:)

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

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.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

what about the Lee Deluxe dies...I have seen and heard the dies are very reliable

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

Ditto!

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

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.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

BC, I also have the Forster Bench Rest Ultra






[align=center][/align]





Original Bench Rest Seater Die




Ultra Micrometer Seater Die

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RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

I haven't heard about that. I will have to check that out.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

Best $9 that I have spent on reloading goodies.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

Where did you find the Redding carbide sizing buttons for $9? That's a great deal! The cheapest I have seen them for is about $17 online. Locally, they want $22 and change. [:@]

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

You know forster is the only reloading equip. I haven't tried. Maybe because of availability.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

That's why I only buy RCBS or Redding dies now.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

Well, I spoke too soon. Just got a set of 30-30 dies from RCBS a few months ago. never used them until tonight. The expander ball is so loose. Its really strange. Like thiers alot of play in the threaded knurled screw with the stem. When youscrew down the stop nut, most of the time the stem/expander ball is way out of round.

Have to make a call to RCBS tomorrow. This is an older set of dies. I notice the new ones (less than 5 years old) does not have the knurled piece that the expander ball stem goes into.

I have a few old sets that are like this. What I always did was deprime in one step, and screw up the expander ball to the limit, and while pulling the brass out, I would set the stop nut. I don't like the design of the older one.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

i have not had a problem with any brand of dies but I like Hornady dies the best.

I thought I had a problem with a set of Lee dies in 45LC however rep;acing them with RCBS didn't cure the problem which turned out to be the gun.

RE: Goodness I hate Lee pacesetters
 

James, I have a feeling your and my particularness is quite different James.