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9x19 Dies

5302 Views 31 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  gunman42782, 
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Until last month, all my reloading was done in the 60's, 70's and 80's. I just got geared up again, but I've added a couple of new calibers and didn't have dies for them. Most of my old dies are RCBS and others are Lyman. Recently I bought a set of Lee Deluxe dies for the .40 S&W. They're kind of different, but so far no problems. My son bought me a set of 9mm Lee dies for Christmas. The paper in the box says Deluxe Die set, but it is a 3 instead of 4 die set. Somehow I think they got marked wrong or something. I assumed it has a carbide resizer, but something isn't right. It takes more effort to resize a puny little 9mm case than it does any of my other calibers. (.44 Mag, .357 Mag, .41 Mag, .45 Colt, .45 ACP, .32 H&R, .38 Spec, .40 S&W) I'm afraid if I continue to use it I'll have a stuck case. I tried using just a little case lube and they run through pretty slick. What's the deal? Do they even make pistol dies any more that aren't carbide and why should I have to lube the cases if it is? Anyway, I got hot and ordered a Lyman 4 die set.
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Strangely enough, these do have an insert. They must be way too tight because they take a tremendous effort to run the case in the die and also to remove it. Glad I ordered the Lymans. I've had good luck with both them and RCBS. I like the 4 die sets even though it does add an extra step. Thanks for your reply!
Tom
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I agree...I can't really bash Lee dies, because my 40 S&W set works fine. They were about 1/2 the price of other brand dies. I figured if they didn't work out they were more or less disposable. In fact, I really like the factory crimp die. I have some other odds and ends that are Lee brand and they work fine. In the future though, I'm going to stick with the Lyman and RCBS. It's just a matter of preference. I haven't tried Hornady dies...I didn't care for Pacific, but since Hornady bought them, it looks like they have made a lot of improvements.
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quote:Originally posted by 2400

rman, have you miked the inside of the die yet?

I'm using Dillon dies for 9mm and they work fine. I looked on the bench and I've got dies from RCBS, Dillon, Hornady, Pacific, C&H, Lyman, Redding and Bonanza. I've had 2 sets of Lee dies and neither set worked out for me.
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I haven't tried miking it yet. I'll back the decapper stem out tonight and see what I come up with. Thanks.
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I got my Lyman dies in the mail today. I'll give them a try this weekend and see how it goes.
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Ran 50 cases through the Lyman resizer today...smooth as glass with no lube. I also like the expander much better because it doesn't 'bump' when the case comes back out. I'm sure that is a good idea if you are powder charging through the expander stem. I don't and I don't like it. Everything on my bench shakes and it's pretty solid. I haven't seated and crimped any bullets yet, but so far I like this die set MUCH better.
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Thanks! It really is nice. I guess you get what you pay for. I've always liked RCBS and Lyman dies. It seems like every brand has features that I like. Makes you wish you could combine all the good things into one. I had some Pacific dies once and didn't like them because they had such coarse threads on the decapping rod. It was hard go get them to align correctly with the flash hole. But I really liked the way the locking rings were made. The set screw pulled the split rings together instead of digging into the threads. About the only bad thing I found on RCBS dies was the locking ring. Lymans were better because the set screw had a plastic tip. I like the factory crimp die on the Lee Deluxe sets, but I'm not crazy about the rest of the set.
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Over the weekend I decided to play around with the die sets again. I guess when you get old you forget hard-learned lessons. I didn't clean the dies before I started loading. I took the decapper stem out of the Lee resizing die and cleaned the die body thoroughly. I did the same thing with the Lyman set. The Lee die was full of black crud...lots of it. The Lyman wasn't bad. I then resized, decapped and expanded 25 W-W cases with each die set. This made a major difference. The Lyman resizer still takes a little less effort, but not that much. I miked the cases at the case mouth, the middle of the case and just in front of the extractor groove. The dimensions are identical from both die sets at each end. The Lee resizer reduces the case diameter a bit more in the middle of the case. This kind of leads me to believe that the carbide insert has less built-in taper than the Lyman. The Lee die is leaving scratches on the case. I probably should send them back to Cabelas, but the set was a Christmas gift, and I hate to fool with it. I may just write Lee and ask them to replace the sizer. The gist of the whole thing is, either set is serviceable now.
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Wrong again! After I charged the cases with powder, seated and crimped the bullets the rounds I finished on the Lee dies are not so hot. I have a Dillon case guage and about five of them wouldn't go in the gauge. After I ran them through the Lyman taper crimp die, most of them went in fine. Something is really weird with these dies. If I mike the cases they don't seem to be any different from those completely loaded with Lyman dies. It is almost like the Lees are throwing the case out of round or something. Some rounds from the Lees drop right in the gage, others will if they are rotated some, and a few won't go in at all. I think they are going in the trash.
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quote:Originally posted by bunzo351

Hey guys, I gotta tell you this.

I know a guy on gun message boards who goes by 9x19. When I first saw this post, I thought “I didn’t even know he was sick!”

I did some checking and 9x19 is fine.
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Sorry about that bunzo! Yeah, I've seen 9 x 19 around also. Next time I'll say 9mm Luger and save you from a heart attack.
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I sent a email to Lee explaining the mixup with the dies and the problems I am having. I received a reply yesterday advising me to send them back along with an explanation of why I'm returning them. They are going to replace them! That's darn good customer service.:D
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Sent the dies back to Lee today. We'll see what happens. In the mean time, the Lyman dies are working great. I like them so well, I ordered a set for the .40 S&W also. The Lee .40 die set works fine, but I like the Lyman better. I still might use the factory crimp die from the Lee set though. I kind of like it.
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quote:Originally posted by rman

Sent the dies back to Lee today.
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I kind of forgot about the Lee 9mm dies...been kind of busy lately. Yesterday when I got home there was a box on my front porch containing a brand new Lee Deluxe 4 die set and a new Lee catalog. That's darn good customer service if you ask me. They just took my word for the fact the the set wasn't all there when I received it. I'm going to have to drop them an email.
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