Hornady Lock-N-Load Classic Kit vs RCBS Explorer Plus Kit

Mississippi, when I said less capable, I was referring to speed.
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Gotcha.

If it wasn't for .223 & 40 S&w, I wouldn't even own a Dillon 650 with case and bullet feeder.
I used to use several single stage presses all setup at the same time and could make plenty of ammo for target shooting and hunting fairly quickly.

But when I started doing some local pistol and AR competitions, it got old making 500 rounds of 223/40 S&w per month on single stage presses plus my F class ammo plus hunting ammo etc.
 
Good deal.

My take on dies:

Its a bit of a tough one as it varies and they all work.

If you are making hunting or non serious target shooting, they all pretty well work.

RCBS is still my default.

Once you get into more serious target, then keeping the ammo starigher is more important.

To me that has been to move to the Competition dies that seat a bullet strait.

I also remove the expander ball in the sizer dies and use a Lyman M die to do the case mouth. It is much smoother and does not yank on the neck of the case.



I have two of the Micrometer ala Competitions seaters, of those the RCBS with the side slot bullet inverter works better.

They are costly, $70 or so for RCBS. In the case of the RCBS, its does 308 and 30-06 (with a special longer shell holder for the 308) and I shoot both so that is nice.

Forster does only one caliber. Insert under neath. Its a good quality die but I prefer the RCBS.

Both have nice large knobs on top, Redding I looked at and its tiny. RCBS is much less precise for long adjustments but RCBS fine tunes fine. .

While I have other mfg dies I keep defaulting to RCBS (good customer service as well as good quality) .

I have one Forseter 30-06 sizer I tried (acualy it was a set on sale).

Upshot was I got some military formerly crimped stuff mixed up and it broke the stem.

Forster set has a floating stem, works fine until it hits even a slight Remanent of a crimp, then it breaks. hmmm. I had to buy a new stem and Forster had no sympathy . Only time I got an HXP mixed in of course the first time I used it. .

Not that Forster should replace , but RCBS does just replaces stuff like that.

I like the Lee O ring nuts as I can return a die to the former position nicely and also adjust without having to find that particular tiny Allen wrench.

Most of my pistol dies are Lee. They work fine and a bit lower cost.

Most of the rifle dies are RCBS.

Lyman I don't have but I did get their scale and boroscope. I damaged the USB connection on the boro scope (not exactly bench tough) - they just sent a new one. Nice.

Most reloading places carry the RCBS, sometimes in competition and they have the parts often as well. Nice to grab a pin or a stem and get back into business.
 
Forget the kits. They just cost you money.
Make friends with a long time loader who will own a lot of extra stuff you can borrow to test. A knowledgable scrounger can get started for about $100 with used stuff. If you start with a Lee whack a mole you might start for $10 plus components.
 
ireload2 said:
Forget the kits. They just cost you money.
Make friends with a long time loader who will own a lot of extra stuff you can borrow to test. A knowledgable scrounger can get started for about $100 with used stuff. If you start with a Lee whack a mole you might start for $10 plus components.
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Since he's already got it, that advice won't help much. :)

In another pastime I recommend people getting a kit. The reason is it's often a lower priced option to get them started with something that will at least work. from there they can get an idea of what, if anything, they would like to improve upon and that can be done a piece at a time. The same has held true for me anyway. I got a Lee kit with the turret press and it's lasted me five years with a few changes. Sure, I want to upgrade to a Dillon 650, but I'm reloading and that's what counts.
 
A random, incomplete run down of my take on dies:

RCBS is my standard.
Hornady, in my opinion, is about the same as RCBS, but their dies are machined fairly roughly at times.
Redding is a nice upgrade.
I love my Forsters, but they're pricey.

Most of my recent purchases have been Hornady, because, well, "free" bullets at the same price as the competition, or they offered something that no one else did (or had the best price on custom dies).

I won't touch standard Lee dies unless I have no other choice.
I don't buy Lyman dies, except for the M dies/expanders. They're good dies, but Lyman's customer service has gone to crap and the dies are just overpriced.
Lyman M dies are a very nice tool to have, but not really necessary unless you get into cast bullets or bullets that tend to hang up on case mouths.

I do not have a problem buying used dies. As long as the price matches condition and I can inspect the item(s), I'm good with it. If I can see minor scratches in the sizing, for example, but the 2-die set is only $8, I'll probably take a chance on it. If the die is so dirty that I can't even tell what it is...? No, not going there.


Shell holders:
Try to figure it out early, and stick with the same brand - or at least compatible tools.

I have grown to hate Lee shell holders. Too sloppy. Too tight. Too variable. Too incompatible with some other brands of tools. Lee's approach of "one shell holder fits 27 cartridges" is, in the real world, more like, "one shell holder sort of works, some of the time, for some of the cartridges, and may not work at all for the rest of them."

RCBS, Redding, and Lyman are about the same, and decent.
Forster are good.
I have come to prefer Hornady shell holders for consistency and proper dimensions.

But, of course, you may need to consider your priming tool and/or other accessories like a case trimmer, when looking at shell holders. My Hornady trimmer, for example, ONLY works with Hornady shell holders. No other brand works with that tool. Any cartridge that I intend to trim cases for requires a Hornady shell holder.

But, of course, yet again... My CH-4D primer pocket swager needs a little more support for the case rim than the Hornady shell holders provide (due to the taper machined for easy insertion). So, I also need a Redding or RCBS shell holder for cartridges that get the primer pocket swaged.

But, wait, there's more! My RCBS priming tool, at least in factory form, doesn't get along with Hornady or Redding shell holders, and really hates Lee shell holders. So, RCBS shell holders are required, unless I modify the tool (which is what I did ... just enough for Hornady shell holders to work).

So, I have primarily Hornady, RCBS, and Lee (learned the hard way) shell holders, but also have one to five each from: Pacific, Bair, Forster, Lyman, Redding, CH-4D, and a couple others. :rolleyes:
 
ireload... member of the tl/dr crowd? Not only are your recommendations 19 days late and a couple hundred dollars short, but I don't have the luxury of local, long term shooting friends/mentors thanks to my military service.

RC20, Franken, thanks a ton for your insight. My initial pass on dies left me a couple options and I really didn't understand the nuances of each. I'll post some links later and get your opinion.
 
I have many brands of dies also. For the money, RCBS is my favorite. Customer service is 2nd to none. If something breaks, even if it is your fault, they will repair or replace for free. I have mostly RCBS dies.

I also have several sets of Redding and Forster dies. I like Forster seating dies the best.

I have some combination dies too. For volume .223 / .308 reloading, I use a full length RCBS sizing die with a Lyman carbide expander ball. Why? Because then I only need to lube the outside of the case and NOT the inside of the neck. This makes for about a $50 sizing die but worth it for not having to hassle with lube inside the neck sticking powder on the progressive press. But, even on a single stage it would help.

In practice, i guess I have moved away from using"sets" and I use RCBS or Redding sizing dies and Forster seating dies and Lee crimp dies.

I don't know if it's a better, I think so but what do I know? I started using RCBS die sets and have been chasing accuracy ever since.
 
I am looking at 2 RCBS die sets in 6.8 and am not really sure what the physical differences are between them.

First is the "Group A" die set:

https://www.natchezss.com/rcbs-full...-a-popular-rifle-cartridge-6-8mm-rem-spc.html

Second is the AR Series die set:

https://www.natchezss.com/rcbs-ar-small-base-die-set-6-8mm-x43-rem-spc.html

Since I am reloading 6.8 SPC for use in an AR, obviously the AR series sounds right. But, with group A, you get crimping as well as full length resizing, which reading the manuals, is desired when reloading for a semi-auto. Other than the Group A series coming in a green box and the AR in a black box, what is the real difference here?

Unfortunately, taking a quick look at the RCBS website did not reveal the differences.

Thoughts?
 
Everyone has an opinion on this I'm sure. But here are my thoughts.

Crimping with the seating die on the stroke when you seat your bullet can be frustrating. It requires each case to be trimmed to almost the exact same length to get a uniformed crimp, adjusting it is a pain, and you can easily crimp too much and bulge the shoulder on bottle neck cases making them difficult or impossible to chamber. (Ask me how I know that :rolleyes:)

So, I highly, highly, highly , recommend crimping in a separate step. Enter the Lee Factory Crimp Die.

It is easy to adjust the amount of crimp. It is a collet squeezing the sides so no need to worry about case length messing with the crimp. Also because it's a collet you can deform the bullet but not the case! It's easy to replicate the crimp you had on previous loads. And perhaps best of all, it's only about $15.

I don't crimp every cartridge I load, but when I do crimp, i use a Lee Factory Crimp Die.

I will add that I DO Not use Lee sizing dies, or seating dies....Redding, Forster, RCBS etc are superior. But, the Lee Factory Crimp Die, and Lee collet neck dies are perhaps the best on the market for what they do.
 
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The Group A die sets have a standard sizing die and the seat/crimp die forms a roll crimp.
AR series die sets have a Small Base sizing die and the seat/crimp die forms a taper crimp.

The Small Base dies are helpful when brass has been fired in a sloppy chamber and the base needs to be sized back down to chamber in your rifle(s), but a standard sizing die just can't, quite, get the brass there. And, I've had to go to SB sizing dies for a couple rifles that have extremely tight chambers, just to resize brass fired in those rifles -- a big exception to the norm, though.
99% of the time, if you're only dealing with your own brass and a single rifle, using a SB sizing die is like putting a band-aid on a bruise: The psychological impact might make you feel better, but it isn't doing anything useful.


As mentioned, 'best practice' is to crimp separately from bullet seating - especially with rifle cartridges and jacketed bullets.
 
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