Lee Dies & Speer Bullets

capecod

I use Lee Dies for all my reloading and I noticed that in the die instruction sheet - Lee and Speer do not recommend using Speer Bullets with the Lee Dies.
Does anyone know the reason for this?
John

mazo kid

Dunno for sure.....but maybe because of the association of Speer and RCBS??? Emery

"Well done is better than well said"
Ben Franklin

robsguns

I never heard that, and must have missed it when I read the instructions in mine, unless its a recent addition to the instructions. I've used Speer many times in the past, and never had any problems in using the Lee dies to reload them or in the performance of them when fired.[?][?][?]


SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC

warcrob

If you want a real laugh read Lee's book on reloading. according to him all the other presses on the market are inferior to his.

If you ain't got a sense of humor you got no business bein here!

BoltactionMan

My guess is it has something to do with the lack of a cannelure on Speer bullets and the use of Lee's crimp die. I have loaded Speers with my Lee dies and have had no problems whatsoever, but then I don't use the crimp die on them.

KC

robsguns

I dont think its the crimp die either, I've used the die that comes with the older sets, and I've used the factory crimp die, on Speer bullets, still havent had any problems of any kind with Speer. I really dont know the answer to this one. By the way, the factory crimp die is awesome, it will crimp anything, including my Barnes Bullets.


SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC

Pdog

was reading a site about some lee stuff and came up with this

Speer recommends against using the Factory Crimp Die with their bullets due to the fact that a heavy crimp can deform the jacket and supposedly affect accuracy. Lee instructions echo that recommendation. Keep in mind, however, that Speer is owned by Blount, the parent company of RCBS. This recommendation may have a "sour grapes" motivation

was about the rifle crimping die section

Iconoclast

I have never owned any Lee dies (except temporarily when they came as part of a trade). But dies is dies and bullets is bullets and I have yet to see any dies which don't work with whatever bullet you stick in the bloody case. This caution, IMHO, is pure horse patoodie - and, as others have noted, almost certainly derived from the same sort of competitive BS which had Burger King switch from Pepsi products to those of Coca-Cola. So what if a particular bullet doesn't have a crimping cannelure? Please give me $0.01 for every factory or arsenal round loaded without same which shot just fine . . . it would be nice to richer than Bill Gates. If you are going to pound the p*ss out of the bullet before you chamber it, maybe. That hardly ever applies, though, even in military ammo.

capecod

Thanks for getting hack to me. I HAVE used Speer Bullets without any problems in both rifle and hand gun reloads with my Lee Dies over the years. I just could never figure out the reason for the "warning".
Thanks
John

aby80

The Lee factory crimp dies work on every brand bullet I have used. I bought the dies especially for bullets that don't have a crimping grove. I really like them on ammuntion I load for my Ruger Ranch Rifles. It is easy to set the amount of depth of your crimp.

If you don't care where you are going, you can't get lost.

richbug

I called Lee on this a while ago, it simply has to do with Lee and RCBS(speer) being competitors. In a couple editions of speer reloading manuals they bad mouth lee dies because of the factory crimp dies, stating than they will be more inacccurate, so Lee advised that one should not use Speer bullets... and so on.

My border collie is smarter than your honor student.