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It's your basic contrarian here....
I do agree with the idea of reading Rocky's pages, and reading over the instructional material in a couple of good reloading books.
I absolutely do NOT agree with the premise the Lee is crap, and that [fill in your favorite here] is much better. Most Lee stuff is excellent. Some Lee stuff is not.
Actually, dies do have subtle differences, but they are more alike than they are different. The one and only objection I have to Lee dies is that some of the full length sizing dies will come with a tiny internal burr where the shoulder joins the neck. It takes about a minute to polish it out. If you're aware of that, and able to take care of it when the need comes up, you save a bundle on dies. And the ammo you make with them, and the length of time they will last is indistinguishable from the ones that cost a lot more.
There is no better neck forming die than the Lee collet die.
I have performed a test on the Lee Perfect Powder Measure, and have found that if you're loading short cut stick powder, such as H4350 or Varget (very common types), the measure is repeatable enough that the resulting ammo is practically indistinguishable from individually hand weighed. Any improvement you get from a more expensive unit is completely swamped by other sources of variation.
A lot of people have, and like the Rockchucker press. It is excellent. But I find no functional difference between the Lee Classic Cast press and the Rockchucker. Both are made of steel. Both take large cartridges. Both will last longer than you, your kids, or your grandkids. And the Lee is $60. The Classic Cast is vastly better than the old Lee Challenger press, which had cast zinc linkage, and suffered from breakage.
If you just like the other brands better, or like the way the feel or look, then I have no issue with spending more to get them. But don't think for a minute that the other brands are going to give you better ammo, or are going to last longer.
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