A "what would you..." thread for hand-loading: your top 3 dies

[Pond James Pond]

OK, these questions sometimes come up in the rifle and handgun forums so I thought I'd try something similar on here.

My Lee turret has four stations. Die kits usually have 2, 3 or 4 dies, but 2 and 3 seem most common. So I'm going to set a nominal limit of 3 dies.

Let's also limit the cartridge type given that I load .308 Win, but I'll be nice and say that this should be for any bottle-neck CF rifle cartridge, but only one.

So if you were given the chance to have 3 free dies from any brand (mix'n'match if needed) for a single CF bottleneck rifle cartridge, which dies would they be, for which chambering and why?

Remember, just a curiosity exercise and a bit of fun, so let's not get too serious.

I have such limited knowledge in this arena, it is almost just guess work on my part, but I'll have a go.
1 Redding Type S Match FL Die
2 Redding Type S Match micrometer seater die
3 Forster Bushing bump neck die

All for my .308Win. I choose these because they cover the areas of reloading that I have an adequate understanding of these aspects of hand loading. The machining should be good and they allow me to control those parts of reloading that I find hardest to get consistent with my Lee dies.\

And you?

 

[surveyor]

223 or 308 would be the same setup
1) lee universal decapper
2) redding fl die with carbide expander ball, no decap pin
3) if I can have another die I'll take a lee rifle powder charge die if I can't have 4 dies omit it.
4) redding seating die with micrometer seater


I haven't tried the bushing dies as I have a variety of brass headstamps, but if I went that route, I would still need something to set the shoulders back.

The main reason for my choice of the above listed dies, comes from not having the decapping die, and bending decap pins and decap rods on crimped primers, the cheap lee die takes care of that issue. Also using a varitey of bullet weights and lengths, the seating dies would be easy to index

Non nato calibers:

Sorry I missed the free part, that makes it simpler

Redding standard fl die (can use as body die with expander removed)
Redding type s fl die (wanted to try one)
Redding comp seating die

 

[Clark]

Best dies:
Forster sliding sleeve seater die
Forster FL die honed out at Forster to my specs
Lee collet neck die
Lee factory crimp pistol die
Lee decapping die


Worst dies:
Most of my homemade dies suck
Redding FL "S" die
Lee factory crimp rifle die
RCBS decapping die

I have a spread sheet of my dies with 299 line items. I try to track at least the neck sizes.
I have; Wilson, Redding, Forster, RCBS, Lee, Bonanza, [Those names repeat for a long time... ok] Herters, Schissel, Hornady, unknown, Lyman, Krupp, Hollywood, Wells, CH, and home made.

 

[MarkGlazer]

Many people swear by the Lee Universal Decapping die. All of my equipment and dies are Lee (3 hole turret press + 4 die sets that include the crimp). However, I have one die that I happily replaced that isn't Lee, the Universal Decapping die. For me, that die was/is a total fail, a huge disappointment. I broke pin after pin with that die. After soliciting opinions on TFL, someone suggested the Lyman Universal Decapping die. I looked at the architecture, determined it was superior and bought it. I haven't had any issues since.