Lee die set

[laketrout]

Can you reload safe and quality stuff with a Lee 6.5 3 die set? My son in Utah just picked up a set for his first try at reloading. Thanks in advance

[LR1955]

Safe? Yes. Quality? No.

The Lee set works but is generally considered to be at the bottom of the list.

More often than not with anything in the world, go cheap and you will wish you had spent a few extra dollars and gotten something ten times better.

Run a search on dies and you will see dozens of threads on what the guys here consider the better dies.

LR55

[laketrout]

I just figure that he didn't have experience and not much money and bought what he could afford. They are used by the way.

[sundowner]

I Used Lee dies for years before I upgraded to Hornady , if he takes his time they will work .

[lazyengineer]

What Sundowner says.

With Lee you get less well machined dies so there's more drag sizing. That doesn't hurt anything. The seating die doesn't have a collet, so flat-base bullets will want to wabble going in, and sometimes the neck tension makes them straing and it's fine, and sometimes they will visibly be off center. Run boat-tail bullets and that mostly goes away. And you'll get a shell holder that's fine, but low quality metal. Mine broke. The shell-holder, of all things.

Lee dies work, but they aren't very good and you'll eventually upgrade, but they work. And with care and the right components, will make ammo as accurate as any other set of dies. I know people who've run Lee die made ammo in competition and did fine.

[mtnlvr]

I too have used Lee dies for 6.5 Grendel. I didn't experience any failure problems with the dies or she'll holder. The sizer may work the brass a little harder as I had seen a few necks split, but I also don't know of that was directly related. I was able to work up some reasonable accurate loads out of a 12" PSA AR-15 upper...many groups at or just under 1 MOA at 100 yds, but average more like 1.25.

He should be just fine using them for a while.

[Subaru297]

I have used nothing but Lee dies for years and they work great. It depends on your expectations. If you want quarter moa results you will probably want to spend more money but for the majority of us that aren't professional shooters they are an excellent option. Easily capable of moa or better reloads.

I love the collet dies just to avoid case lube. Still have not had to full length resize any cases after many firings in .308, 7mm08. This remains to be seen for the 6.5 Grendel as I only have two firings on the brass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIK5wq5vuSU

Cheers

[Klem]

Trout,

'Safe', yes - 'quality', maybe, although unlikely. Depends also on the press he is using. Is that a Lee?

I have not used Lee in this calibre but feedback is it works the brass more than other brands, almost like a small-base die. That means more space around the case down at the web and the neck gets squeezed and expanded more than necessary. All this shortens case life. Hopefully he is taking measurements of the gun's spent cases and comparing against what the lee dies do to shape them back to the next firing. How much neck tension the Lee die imparts and how the case gets worked in the sizer.

Their Collet dies are good and I use them, but nothing else. The Collet is a neck-sizer so unsuitable if his rifle is a semi-auto. In handgun their Lee Loadmaster press turned out to be a basket case of broken parts and jams. Lee is entry level, safe and good enough for plinkers, but once he tries other brands he won't go back.

[laketrout]

I just hope he does ok with them. Now he just needs to pick powder and slugs? Always something. I just wish he was closer. He lives in central Utah and I in Southwest Idaho. Hardly ever get to shoot together. Im not even sure where he shoots anymore.

[v4lu3s]

I have used Lee dies in other calibers, but prefer other brands in general. I do use them for rimless handgun cartridges and like them, however the .223 rem and 7.62x39 die sets I had from them I have replaced, with Hornady for one until I ended up with Redding on both. I started on a lee single stage press, and after 5000+ rounds on it I bought a Dillon 550c, but still use both presses. I say learn with what ya got and upgrade if you grow or it doesnt work as well as you want.

[Okie_Poke]

I used Lee 6.5 Grendel dies for several years. They work fine and will make safe and functional ammunition. I didn't notice any runout issues when seating bullets with mine, but I also used boattail bullets with my Lee dies (not necessarily on purpose, that's just how it worked out). It did resize cases similar to a small base die in my experience. As others have said, more expensive dies are nicer. I'm partial to Redding dies these days, but I used Lee and RCBS dies for years.

Since he's already got the set of dies, there's no reason he can't use them to load ammo with and learn on. If he really gets into reloading and has the budget to upgrade his dies later, he can always do that. But there's no reason for him to buy another set of dies now unless he just wants to. For peace of mind, he can pick up a cartridge gage that he can use to ensure his resized cases or loaded ammo (dependng on which gage one buys) are within SAAMI spec. It's not strictly necessary, but I like having one for every cartridge I reload.