Thread: Norma 9mm brass
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Old 08-16-2021, 10:56 AM
Ivan the Butcher Ivan the Butcher is offline
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Actually I really like Lee loading equipment. I have 2 presses, about 18 or 20 sets of their dies and around 15 Lee Loaders. They have all performed well, but only within their designed performance (and THAT is all you can ask for!).

I load for 117 cartridges and have bought New and Used dies from every brand that massed produced and a few gun smith mad dies (My pride and Joy is a set of 219 Donaldson Wasp dies that Harvey's back-up set!) I have another 120 die sets, beside Lee, for their different applications in a number of different rifles.

All that being said, Lee dies are your problem, not the Norma brass (If you want to even call it a problem!) Lee is in the business of making affordable dies, that work on the majority of American ammunition. Norma was making 9mm Lugar (and other 9mm loadings) before Richard Lee was born, and making them to George Lugar's specifications, not Winchester or Remington's.

Lee does everything it can to keep the prices down, and one of those things is, when possible to make a single sized part when the original designs would call for multiple sizes. They also are not interested in interchangeability with anyone else's loading presses, Their presses use a thin thickness of treaded area to hold the dies, then to save materials their dies are on the short side, and presses with thick threaded areas the Lee dies are sometimes too short to reach the ram. There are a few work arounds for this, including extended shell holders.

You seem to be in a pretty good place though, the Norma brass was free and you were able to repair your decapping pins. So no harm/ no foul.

Ivan
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