target4fun Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 I have read several articles where yall are recommending this die but is it available from LEE or just ECW? http://egw-guns.com/store/index.php?main_p...;products_id=40 I looked on midway and Lee and couldnt find it under either. I could only find it with the link above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Burtchell Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 I've always purchased mine from EGW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Norman Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Is there a Lee 'U' die for .45 ACP? I have looked, but I don't fing. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boats Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Lee is good about making special stuff, Have had them make a few special size bullet seaters and sizing dies. Bet they would make undersize for the 45 acp too. Boats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe D Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Save your money and your arm. There is absolutely no need for a Lee U/EGW die. I load tens of thousands of rounds each year with regular Lee carbide sizer dies. They more than adequately size 9mm, .40 and .45. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Miles Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Talked with EGW a couple of days ago. The only U die they have in stock now is 38 Super. The 9mm that I wanted will not be available for two months. I did not ask when other calibers will be available. Reason MIGHT be their recent problems with the 9mm die. CYa, Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Save your money and your arm. There is absolutely no need for a Lee U/EGW die. I load tens of thousands of rounds each year with regular Lee carbide sizer dies. They more than adequately size 9mm, .40 and .45. You're clearly lucky there and not representative of everyone's experience. If I take once-fired cases from my Glocks (five different guns) and load them without a U-die they absolutely, positively will NOT chamber in my 1911/2011 .40 guns. 9mm is a different story....since it's a tapered case to start with service guns don't have the mouth of the chamber opened up nearly as much, so they don't buldge nearly as bad. That and the fact that the die is already tapered, it doesn't have to be as large at the mouth to smoothly feed empty cases means they size farther down the case to start with. So, the cases don't buldge nearly as bad and standard dies resize farther down makes a U-die unecessary unless you have a gun with an unusually tight chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71Commander Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I got my 40 from EGW last Tues. What a difference. I can feel the bullet seating instead of thinking the case is split because there is no resistance seating the bullet. And no it's not belled too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I ordered my first one from Lee direct.. you have to call them, it's not on their web site. The others I ordered from EGW... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe D Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 (edited) G-Man, first of all there is no such thing as luck. I have owned 2 Kimbers in .40/9mm and have a sack full of Glocks. I have never had chambering issues with any of them using regular Lee carbide dies. If you have to use a U die to get your rounds to chamber then you need to invest in a chamber reamer. There is absolutely no reason to have a chamber that tight. Both of my Kimbers would stack bullets on top of each other. I have used a 9mm and .40 LWD barrel with equally good results. Yes, I did have chambering issues with RCBS and Dillon sizing dies. Neither would size the .40 case enough. I replaced all of my sizing dies with Lee and those issues went away completely. I tried a U die in .40 for a while. I did not like the extra effort nor the hour glass look my rounds had. Sold it and went to the regular dies. Before a big match I would case gauge every round. I would get a 5-8% rejection rate with the Dillon and RCBS dies. I have not case gauged a round in over 2 years. Edited March 14, 2009 by Joe D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fullauto_Shooter Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 G-Man, first of all there is no such thing as luck. I have owned 2 Kimbers in .40/9mm and have a sack full of Glocks. I have never had chambering issues with any of them using regular Lee carbide dies. If you have to use a U die to get your rounds to chamber then you need to invest in a chamber reamer. There is absolutely no reason to have a chamber that tight. Both of my Kimbers would stack bullets on top of each other. I have used a 9mm and .40 LWD barrel with equally good results. Yes, I did have chambering issues with RCBS and Dillon sizing dies. Neither would size the .40 case enough. I replaced all of my sizing dies with Lee and those issues went away completely. I tried a U die in .40 for a while. I did not like the extra effort nor the hour glass look my rounds had. Sold it and went to the regular dies. Before a big match I would case gauge every round. I would get a 5-8% rejection rate with the Dillon and RCBS dies. I have not case gauged a round in over 2 years. I've got to back up G-Man here - my experience is very similiar to what he described. I reload a lot of range pick-up brass and find the EGW U-Dies to be very helpful. Prior to switiching to the U-Dies, I had probably 15% of reloaded rounds that wouldn't fit the case gauge (mostly glock fired rounds with buldged cases) - since I switched to the U-Dies, I have very few (less than 1 in 100) problems with fitting the case gauge. I'm glad the regular Lee Dies work for you, but think you're in the minority here. If we were to conduct a poll - I'd bet that at least half the folks here use a U-Die for at least one of the calibers they reload. Personally, I like the increased pressure "feel" with the EGW dies - it let's me know that the brass is really being re-sized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Confession: I shoot a Glock and I reload. <gasp> In fact, I shoot both 9mm and .40 Glocks! <bigger gasp> I "pre-treat" my .40 brass with a U die even though I know full well it will chamber even if I don't for the simple reason that it makes things go through the press like 'butta'. But, I have never used a U die with 9mm and cannot see any reason to as it goes through the press just fine (3 different presses to be precise) and I have never had a problem with rounds not gaging correctly. So, I have to admit that I have no idea why anyone would want to use an undersized die with 9mm (and possibly suffer through all the problems with things binding on the press as a result). Your mileage may vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe D Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Not to start an argument here, but have either of you two ever used a standard Lee carbide sizer die? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lugnut Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Not to start an argument here, but have either of you two ever used a standard Lee carbide sizer die? Fair point. I have used RCBS and Hornady sizer dies for .40 S&W. Like you were- I was getting about 5% rejections with my case guage. I use the EGW U die and it helps quite a bit... but it makes the press a bear to operate.. even when I use case lube! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 (edited) G-Man, first of all there is no such thing as luck. I have owned 2 Kimbers in .40/9mm and have a sack full of Glocks. I have never had chambering issues with any of them using regular Lee carbide dies. If you have to use a U die to get your rounds to chamber then you need to invest in a chamber reamer. There is absolutely no reason to have a chamber that tight. Both of my Kimbers would stack bullets on top of each other. I have used a 9mm and .40 LWD barrel with equally good results. Yes, I did have chambering issues with RCBS and Dillon sizing dies. Neither would size the .40 case enough. I replaced all of my sizing dies with Lee and those issues went away completely. I tried a U die in .40 for a while. I did not like the extra effort nor the hour glass look my rounds had. Sold it and went to the regular dies. Before a big match I would case gauge every round. I would get a 5-8% rejection rate with the Dillon and RCBS dies. I have not case gauged a round in over 2 years. If you have Kimbers with stock barrels that will stack bullets on top of one another you're either testing them at too short of a range or you are indeed lucky since custom guns with premium barrels costing almost half the price of a complete Kimber can't equal that. In reality no gun can equal that and most folks who claim such things have never even truly determined how accurate said gun or guns are. Kimber and Lone Wolf aren't exactly match grade barrels in the sense of Bar-Sto, Schuemann, KKM, Nowlin etc. so comparing them doesn't really mean much. That doesn't mean they're bad, but they're made to a different tolerances. Regardless of all that none of the chambers on my guns are too tight. Those loaded rounds not only won't chamber in the guns, they won't fit into a case gauge either if I don't use a U-die. I generally don't use Dillon or RCBS dies although I do have some of each for certain cartridges. The standard Lee carbide sizer die is pretty good, but it doesn't get as far down on the case as I want. Hell, the U-die doesn't get as far down onto the case as I want in stock form, so I even use a shell holder that's turned down much thinner than you can buy. Look at it this way: Some guns will and some guns won't chamber "Glocked" brass if it's loaded with standard dies (pick the brand). Almost any gun will chamber Glocked brass that's been loaded using a U-die. What's not to like about that? Even if it's not needed, it won't hurt anything and it will help in other areas. The case will have more neck tension using the U-die because it's .001 smaller. Increased neck tension/bullet pull prevents bullet setback which can cause failures to feed, poor accuracy and sometimes dangerous pressures. So even if it isn't needed for chamber dimensions, it'll help with reliability, especially for folks using mixed brass where neck tension isn't as consistent due to brass thickness variations. There are a few smaller benefits like possibly lower SD's when chrono testing (I'm still collecting data on this, but it looks encouraging) , but it's simply a win, win, win situation when using a U-die. The die is inexpensive, works great and has essentially zero drawbacks. Of course, that's really just for .40 and not so much for 9mm. For the reasons I talked about above there isn't much need for a U-die in 9mm. Tapered cases let the resize die effectively be tighter and get farther down on the case which is all the U-die does. I haven't done any measuring, but I suspect the same thing allows the manufacturers to cut 9mm chambers tighter (percentage wise) because the case mouth is already going to be larger than the cartridge mouth so there's no need to open it up further for feeding reliability....it's already cut that way. I do like to run 38SC brass through a U-die if it's older and I'm going to use it in a lost brass match. It doesn't seem necessary as me practice ammo works perfectly, but I like the peace of mind it gives me. R, Edited March 14, 2009 by G-ManBart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I use the EGW U die and it helps quite a bit... but it makes the press a bear to operate.. even when I use case lube! Run any standard resizing die in the station before the U-die and that too goes away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZip Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I have Barsto barrels and I shoot 9mm. I use a U die because if I didn't I would have FTF issues. I like the barrels, I dont mind the extra effort, and all is right with my barrels. I did have issues with stock barrels and range brass, that is why I initially picked up the U die. When I got the Barsto barrels for my pistols, I was glad that I had it. If I try to load without it, there are problems. But I now use the U die on every round wether or not it goes through a Barsto barrel or a stock barrel.Now I check every piece of brass while I run them through the U die on a single stage. It is at this stage that I cull all bad/defective/steel/whatever is wrong brass and therefore I know that any brass that has been run through the U die has also been scrutinized accordingly. You may not have these issues, your barrels may be reamed, oh well. If you like yours that way then all is right with your world. But to say that the U die is irrelevant or useless is a big jump to conclusion. If you load on a SDB, a U die can be a very useful tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98sr20ve Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 (edited) Save your money and your arm. There is absolutely no need for a Lee U/EGW die. I load tens of thousands of rounds each year with regular Lee carbide sizer dies. They more than adequately size 9mm, .40 and .45. You're clearly lucky there and not representative of everyone's experience. If I take once-fired cases from my Glocks (five different guns) and load them without a U-die they absolutely, positively will NOT chamber in my 1911/2011 .40 guns. 9mm is a different story....since it's a tapered case to start with service guns don't have the mouth of the chamber opened up nearly as much, so they don't buldge nearly as bad. That and the fact that the die is already tapered, it doesn't have to be as large at the mouth to smoothly feed empty cases means they size farther down the case to start with. So, the cases don't buldge nearly as bad and standard dies resize farther down makes a U-die unecessary unless you have a gun with an unusually tight chamber. I've got to back up G-Man here - my experience is very similiar to what he described. I reload a lot of range pick-up brass and find the EGW U-Dies to be very helpful. Prior to switiching to the U-Dies, I had probably 15% of reloaded rounds that wouldn't fit the case gauge (mostly glock fired rounds with buldged cases) - since I switched to the U-Dies, I have very few (less than 1 in 100) problems with fitting the case gauge. I'm glad the regular Lee Dies work for you, but think you're in the minority here. If we were to conduct a poll - I'd bet that at least half the folks here use a U-Die for at least one of the calibers they reload. Personally, I like the increased pressure "feel" with the EGW dies - it let's me know that the brass is really being re-sized. Still waiting to hear if you were using Lee Dies to start with or some other brand. I resize 9mm and 10mm with my Lee Dies and never have any issues. I think people jump to the U-Die from another brand because they just don't think a "standard" lee die will solve the problem. Even when I was shooting out of a LW barrel I never had a issue. In fact the person who bought my LW barrel had it reamed because he couldn't get it to run with his dies. But it ran fine with my standard Lee die. Never once a issue. I case gauge all my 10mm and 9mm and never have one fail for a sizing issue. Edited March 14, 2009 by 98sr20ve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Still waiting to hear if you were using Lee Dies to start with or some other brand. I resize 9mm and 10mm with my Lee Dies and never have any issues. I think people jump to the U-Die from another brand because they just don't think a "standard" lee die will solve the problem. Even when I was shooting out of a LW barrel I never had a issue. In fact the person who bought my LW barrel had it reamed because he couldn't get it to run with his dies. But it ran fine with my standard Lee die. Never once a issue. I case gauge all my 10mm and 9mm and never have one fail for a sizing issue. Keep in mind this was spread out over many years but more recently I was running Redding Titanium Carbide dies. They didn't go down as far as I wanted. Tried a Lee standard die as I could find one locally and it wasn't much better....a little, but not enough. Got the U-die and it was better, but not perfect. U-die with a shell holder milled down quite a bit has been the perfect solution, although most rounds would chamber and gauge fine without the shell plate modified. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98sr20ve Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Keep in mind this was spread out over many years but more recently I was running Redding Titanium Carbide dies. They didn't go down as far as I wanted. Tried a Lee standard die as I could find one locally and it wasn't much better....a little, but not enough. Got the U-die and it was better, but not perfect. U-die with a shell holder milled down quite a bit has been the perfect solution, although most rounds would chamber and gauge fine without the shell plate modified. R, Is that in .40? or 9mm or both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Keep in mind this was spread out over many years but more recently I was running Redding Titanium Carbide dies. They didn't go down as far as I wanted. Tried a Lee standard die as I could find one locally and it wasn't much better....a little, but not enough. Got the U-die and it was better, but not perfect. U-die with a shell holder milled down quite a bit has been the perfect solution, although most rounds would chamber and gauge fine without the shell plate modified. R, Is that in .40? or 9mm or both? Just .40S&W. 9mm shouldn't pose the same problem with any decent resizing die based on the taper factors I've mentioned previously in this thread. I don't have a 9 with a match chamber anyway, so I don't really have anything to gauge it off of. In fact, there's only one 9 in the house (wife's Kahr PM9) but I have an M&P Pro on the way...still shouldn't have a terribly tight chamber. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcornl Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 I have to agree with the usage or the U die for 40 as well. I ran a dillon sizer with my own brass shot from my gun, a para, and never had a problem for years. A friend got an xdm 40, I can't imagine that is chambered too tight, and he got a large order of once fired glock brass. The U die fixed all of the FTF problems and only 1 or 2 in a hundred will not fully seat in the case gauge, but will still fit in the chamber. I account this to the said problem above, that milling the plate would fix this problem as well. As far as being difficult to run on the press, I started using teflon powder and they resize and come out of the powder funnel like butter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RePete Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 The undersize dies sold by EGW are made by Lee. I have a .40S&W die and found it a PITA to use on my 1050. I broke 8 decapping pins, before I said f*** it and ordered a CasePro 100 - yes, it's worth every penny, and Lee replace all of the decapping pins/stems N/C. Kudos to Lee. I'm not saying that it isn't good, it just wasn't good for me in that it slowed me down to a trickle - I have a KISS bulletfeeder too. As said, some can get away without it and just use the FCD but others need both. YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoNsTeR Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 In the past I had thought that Lee sold the U die themselves which was just undersized, and the EGW units were additionally ground down to size lower. However I emailed EGW about this a couple of years ago and they said it is not the case. The reason I inquired was that I'm not really happy with my EGW die (in .40) after using it for a few thousand rounds. I find that the lack of taper at the opening causes fired cases to misalign and stop against the bottom of the die about 90% of the time. This necessitates guiding the cases into the die by hand which, on top of being dangerous to one's fingers, drastically decreases loading speed. It's a shame too because I do find that the EGW die substantially increases neck tension, which I find lacking when using a normal Lee sizing die and plated or moly bullets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Norman Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Of all the problems I have had reloading and there are more than a few, the Lee/EGW U die is not one of them. Yes, I have broken decapping pins, usually due to a small stone or the occasional .22 shell that finds its way into the larger .40 case. FWIW, I have: EGW U die, Dillon Primer pocket sizer and inner mandrel, Redding competition seating die and Lee FCD on my 1050. The only problem I have really had has been with the primer system, once I got that straightened out the system works. I am looking for a Lee sizing die for .45 ACP but everyone seems to be out. The Dillon die is OK for the 1911, but not tight enough for Revo. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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