reloading: OMTs die comparison video

Oldman Taylor did some interesting tests in a video recently. My takeaway as a novice ‘loader is that all three die sets in their stock forms are better than my ‘loading skills and shooting ability. He did go on to show that 3rd party mandrels can improve the stock sets.

One piece of information missing was how much each setup cost. I did my best to calculate the prices below.

die	Lee	Redding S	RCBS
FPS SD	11.6	9.7	13.9
FPS ES	39.3	32.5	43.6
MoA	0.771	1.029 (0.680)1	0.693
price as tested2	$39.95	$215.85	$184.85
components	Lee Pacesetter die set	Redding S-Match die set and bushing	RCBS sizing and seating dies

Are the fancier dies “better” than the Lee? Probably. Are they ~5x better? For some folks, sure. But people like me could pay $10,000 for a die set and not get a better outcome in terms of FPS consistency or accuracy.

Full disclosure: I have both Lee and Redding dies.

1. the main number is the MOA-as-shot, which is what OMT considers scrupulously correct. The parenthetical number is the MOA if the one stray is excluded due to possible wind guest. IMO the gust theory is probably correct because OMT’s loading and shooting is meticulous. ↩

2. as close as I can tell ↩