I think I'm going to come out with a $400 pencil to sell to the guys who buy expensive dies.
It'll make way straighter lines than you've ever experienced before and will be able to be sharpened to a sharpness never before achieved with standard No. 2 pencils. You'll never be able to write as good as those who will own my new super pencils unless you get one too, but at the same time, you probably will never be awesome enough to truly appreciate how awesome they are like the rest of the awesome people who will own them and write with them.
I'll take a case of them.
Not so much. There's functionality and fit & finish, sometimes one goes with the next.
For example, Redding Carbide 9mm dies are so smooth (fit-and-finish) I don't need to lube the cases (functionality). That's a win - it's faster on the prep and no more post-sizing tumbling to remove lube.
SAC dies do the size / mandrel all in one step, which saves time. The different mandrels let me fine-tune neck tension, which I want to do. The different shoulder bushings let me work the brass minimally, which I want to do. The SAC bushing's slightly bigger neck diameter just above the shoulder is how I setup my regular neck bushings on the theory that it better-centres the round. When I was trying dies for a new calibre (6mm GT), the first two brands scratched cases badly and/or marked bullets significantly - the SAC dies do neither.
When decapping with a standard Lee decapper, an annoying percentage of primers stick to the pin and jam the progressive. So I'm acquiring an FW Arms spring-loaded decapper. It costs more, but if it works as advertised it will be worthwhile.
Having said that, there can certainly be diminishing returns and some just nice-looking stuff that is no better than the rough-looking stuff. For example, if someone is just neck sizing, the Lee collet die looks like a great idea. For trimming/deburring/chamfering, I use the Lee Deluxe Power Quick Trim at a small fraction of the cost of a Giraud/Henderson/etc.
(...and maybe look up Social Proof, Reactance, and the other known tricks being used to separate fancy rifle fools from their money. As A419, SAC, and more than a few others in this sport clearly have.)
Agreed. I'm not seeing a significant functionality difference between the Nexus and the Forster Co-Ax. But one of them is much prettier
and is the newest thing, so the Nexus is apparently selling as fast as they are made.
