Dillon Dies- Are they worh the extra $$$?

woodmaster9

I just bought a Dillon press with the intention of using my Lee dies with it. I haven't used it yet.

I also need new dies in 2 other cals. Most die sets seem to be in the $35 - 40 range but Dillons are over $60. Are they really worth the extra money?

grumpygy

Hope somebody gives you an answer cause its a very good question. That I should have asked.

BHAVIN

In most cases YES! Dillon dies pistol come with a seperate crimp die and don't have a belling die. If you add the cost of a seperate crimp die it comes more into line cost wise with most die brands excepting possibly LEE. Dillon dies also have a taper at the mouth that greatly helps with aligning cases. This is something I really noticed with longer cases the the 357 mag. You can certainly use other brands but the Dillons don't hangup. The Dillon dies come apart for cleaning easily without messing up your settings. For rifle I use Dillon dies for 223 and RCBS for everything else. With the exception of 223 I load my rifle cases at a much slower rate and use a RCBS auto powder dispenser and scale for my loads. I had a set of Hornady dies with the guide sleeve on the seater. I got rid of them quickly as the sleeve would catch your fingers.

So, in my opinion for high volume loading and for pistol cases in general the Dillon dies are an asset.

Nwcid

I have not used Dillon dies but here is my preference.

For pistol calibers I have completely switched to Hornady TiN dies.

For rifle I use RCBS dies. Since I started with RCBS and all of my presses (1 single stage and 2 progressives) are RCBS it is what I have used.