Lee vs Hornady

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Lee vs Hornady

Postby Myber92fs » Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:03 pm

Is the hornady 4 die set worth 2x the price of the Lee 4 die set??? Thanks
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Re: Lee vs Hornady

Postby Hoot » Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:58 pm

Welcome Aboard OM!

I can only speak to the Hornady set. Despite have a useless die among the set (Expander), it is everything I would hope for for the 450b and it has worked perfectly since 2010. One time, I damaged the seating die (not its fault) and Hornady replaced it for free including the shipping They didn't even want the defective one back. Hard to put a price on that.
I'll let Lee owners and more importantly, members who have both, speak to that.

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Re: Lee vs Hornady

Postby Texas Sheepdawg » Wed Jul 10, 2019 2:22 am

Welcome! I also have the Hornady Dies.
As for me, I don’t find the expander die useless. It’s definitely needed for my dies. They are very tight in tolerance and if I don’t use at least a cat's whisker worth of the expander die, I will trash my brass during seating. I’ve had my dies since 2011.
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Re: Lee vs Hornady

Postby Al in Mi » Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:27 am

Lee had issues with their sizer die awhile back, they weren't sizing the neck down enough to give much neck tension if I recall right. then were were some guys not having issues at all.
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Re: Lee vs Hornady

Postby MOOSE EARS » Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:44 am

Lee dies are hit and miss. I've had some so bad they would seat bullets noticeably off-center in the case. 2 different times actually. I have a set I use for 45LC that work fine. But I much prefer Hornady and have replaced other brands with Hornady as they are of greater quality and performance. Dies are critical for consistent quality reloads and Hornady are some of the best available. The floating bullet seater is a real help in proper bullet alignment. Buy once and be glad you got the Hornady dies!
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Re: Lee vs Hornady

Postby plant_one » Wed Jul 10, 2019 10:01 am

i cant attest to the lee 450 dies, because when i picked up dies - hornady was basically the only player in town.

my buddy just got a set, and they do seem about what you'd expect from lee dies (i'm not knocking them.. i have like 7 different calibers of lee dies) although he had the FCD set a bit tight - 0.468 to be precise - when i looked over his initial couple loads. thats a user error thing and not a specific problem with the dies. Thankfully he only had to knock a few out with the inertia puller and hadnt loaded up a couple hundred before he showed me his testers.
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