Being a carpenter/contractor for 45 years, I used a lot of tools, from all price points. Reloading equipment is just a bunch of tools. From my experience, for the most part, when buying tools, you get what you pay for, not only when it comes to the quality and durability of the tool, but the customer service that comes with it. Reloading equipment is no different. IMHO, Lee equipment is like the Grizzly brand of power tools. Like the store brand(Masterforce) at Menard's. Adequate enough. Thus, when I got into reloading I researched reviews and opinions from folks with many years of experience. That was several decades ago and at that time, I was steered away from Lee and directed towards equipment slightly more money, but of better quality and durability. Same philosophy I had with my carpentry and woodworking tools. Fast forward two decades or so and after buying my two sons .380 pistols for Christmas, I decided I would reload the few rounds they would put thru them. After hearing all the praise for Lee and not wanting to spend big bucks for dies that would get used very seldom, I gave Lee's 4 die set for .380 a try. Seemed nice enough quality wise and seemed to make quality ammo, and for 2/3 the price of anything else out there, I was satisfied. Till the boys took the ammo to the range and told me they were having issues with setback. Tried the push test with some of the ammo myself and it took virtually no effort to push the bullet back into the case. Figured maybe I had flared the cases too much. Pulled it all and tried again. After resizing I found I could seat bullets(many different varieties of quality bullets), by hand in the resized cases without flaring the case at all. This was with different varieties of once fired brass including Starline which I had no issues with when loaded the first time from the factory. Thinking I had a bad sizing die I contacted Lee and was told that I would have to send the die back on my dime for them to look at it. The I would have to pay to have the die shipped back to me. Then the rep told me they had a well known issue with their .380 sizing die and "certain" brands of brass and the solution was to buy their .380 "undersized" die for $29 plus tax and postage. About $40. Being cheaper than buying another brand of complete dies, and about what it would cost me to send the die back and forth and maybe not be the fix, I got it and it did indeed "solve" the issue with their standard sizing die. But, like the Grizzly or Masterforce tools, in the long run, I would have been better off to go with the better quality to start with. The cheaper price I paid was more than offset by "meh" customer service, and poor quality of their standard sizing die, and in the long run cost me significantly more than the quality dies.
Those folks of you that are happy with Lee products, praise them all you want. They are what they are. They will and do make decent ammo. Odds are they won't do it as easily or as quickly. From my single experience they don't save you any money and they don't stand behind their product. Being burned once is enough for me.
All will make decent and servicable ammo but depending on your needs some brands make more precision tools, thus the higher cost. I get it! I shoot 100 YDS or less mostly and the expensive stuff is not going to up my game by much IMHO. I have had excellent service from all Lee products and encourage others to try them. They are a great value at their price point I feel.
