Howdy
A little bit of information about Carbide dies. The sizing/decap die in a Carbide die set as a tungstun carbide disk pressed into the bottom of the die. Tungston carbide is the same material that is used on the tips of saw blade teeth. It is very hard, harder than steel, but it is brittle, not as strong as steel. A hole is drilled straight through the die of the proper diameter to resize the case. This inside diameter of the disk is super smooth, smoother than the inside of a standard, non-carbide die. The reason you don't need case lube with a Carbide die is because the hole is so smooth and highly polished that a brass case can be run thought it and resized without needing lubrication. Standard steel die sets need lubrication because without case lube a case will probably get stuck in the die. It is also true that a little bit of case lube will make it easier to run brass through a carbide die. If you are loading a lot of cases in one sitting, hundreds, it makes it easier to keep pulling the handle without over taxing your arm. I never use case lube with a Carbide die because I don't load huge quantities of ammo. If I was going to load 1000 rounds or so, I would probably use a little bit of case lube.
I use mostly Hornady dies, but that is because I do most of my reloading on a Hornady Progressive press. Hornady dies actually do not come in a carbide version. Instead they have a coating inside the sizing/decap die of Titanium Nitride (TiN). The TiN coating dies serves the same purpose as carbide, and eliminates the need for case lube.
There are some calibers which are not available in carbide dies, such as bottle neck cases like 44-40 or 38-40. Carbide dies are only practical for straight cases such as 45 Colt, 357 Magnum, or 38 Special, to name a few. It is not practical or cost effective to machine a hunk of carbide to the profile needed for a bottle neck case, so case lube must be used with the steel dies available for these cartridges.
Hornady dies have the same standard thread as any other die (except some Dillon dies). But the Hornady system is based around quick caliber change ups using dedicated collets that the dies screw into. Once secured in a Hornady collet, it is a quick twist to pop out one die set and pop in another.
Here is a photo looking down onto one of my Hornady progressive presses. The dies are mounted in their Hornady collets. One station is open and you can see how it is machined to accept the Hornady Collets.
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This is a set of Hornady dies mounted in their collets.
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Because almost all dies use the same standard thread, other brands of dies can be mounted into Hornady collets too. This is my set of RCBS 45 Colt carbide dies that I have used to load 45 Colt for many years. They are mounted in their Hornady collets for quick and easy caliber changes.
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Don't get me wrong, Hornady dies have the same standard thread as any other dies, and you can use them in any press that uses the standard thread.
If you are going to be using a single stage press, you can use any brand of dies, it does not matter. Yes, you get what you pay for. I have dies from Hornady, RCBS, and Lee. For some reason the Lee dies are the lowest on my totem pole. I only buy them when I can't find the caliber I want in another brand.
Which brings up another point. If you are used to loading bottle neck rifle cartridges on a single stage press, you are probably aware that you don't need to load a whole lot of ammo in one sitting. Most shooters don't go through rifle ammo that quickly. Revolvers are a different story. You will probably find pretty soon that you want to load a lot more revolver ammunition than rifle ammuntion, and you may eventually want to move to a progressive press to crank out more ammo per hour. I taught myself to reload on my old Lyman Spartan single stage press, but the plan was once I had the process under my belt I would graduate to a progressive press. Currently I have 2 Hornady Lock and Load AP presses. I keep one set up for small pistol primers and one set up for large pistol primers. The only time I use my old Lyman Spartan press any more is when I load 45-70 with Black Powder. Loading 40 or 50 rounds is all I need to load in one sitting.