Are These Old .44 Mag Dies Still Good To Go?

[DougD]

I recently acquired all of my Dad's old reloading equipment. I would really like to start to loading my own .44 Magnum and these are his old dies. I'm 38 years old and I can remember us shooting loads from these dies when I was about 8 so they are at least 30 years old. There is no visible rust or pitting on them but there is an old greasy/waxy substance on them that probably needs to be removed. I would like to load 300 grain or 250 grain wide flat nose cast bullets for .44 Mag hunting loads. I was going to write a better description of the label and the dies but they say a picture is worth a thousand words. In your opinion, are these dies good to go?

 

[zxcvbob]

I have some .45 Colt dies just like that, and used them for a year or two before I bought carbide dies. They work great, but you need to lube the cases. That's probably built-up old lube on the dies and needs to be cleaned off. OTOH, it's also probably why they didn't rust. (a little rust probably wouldn't hurt anything except on the sizing die)

 

[NCsmitty]

As long as they are rust free, and size the case down to fit the chamber, you're good to go. I have dies older than that and they work fine.



NCsmitty

 

[Smokey Joe]

Age don't matter...

Doug D--I just looked through my die collection--My RCBS .308 Win FL die set--in a green plastic box, and marked similar to yours--is from 1970. It works just fine. What matters to dies is rust, corrosion, and accumulated crud.

So: You clean those dies of your Dad's to a fare-thee-well, look inside, and they should be almost mirror-like. (Non-chlorinated brake cleaner will remove almost anything crudlike!) If not, a little oiled steel wool on a dowel will likely rescue them. When cleaned up, they'll make ammo just like that made by you & your dad when you were 8. And if you keep 'em clean, and oiled between uses, you can pass "Grand-dad's dies" on to your kids, who will use them and likely pass them on to THEIR kids.

That, to me, is one of the neat things about reloading--the basic equipment does NOT wear out!!

ETA--You might want to add a carbide resizing die to the set, though--avoids case lubing and then having to clean the lube off the cases. And hey, where's the shell holder--that should be in the green box too!

ETA again--I am sorry to say that RCBS no longer dates their dies. A couple of my newer RCBS dies have a letter code (date?) but no actual "year of birth," which is sad because it was a nice touch. Ah, well, time passes, and the only thing unchanging is the constancy of change.

 

[mbopp]

After a 20+ year hiatus I got back into shooting and reloading. Most of my dies are from the late '70's and they're fine after I gave them a good cleaning.
Eventually you'll want a carbide sizer to avoid the case lube hassle.

 

[snuffy]

RCBS used to make their steel,(non carbide), dies like that. The deprimer was on the tip of the expander/bell die. Some of the sizers were threaded inside on the top, so you could convert them to decap during step #1 FL sizing. I still use a .357 mag die set like that, with it converted to decap on sizing.

Clean 'em up and use them.

 

[Wildbillz]

DougD
You can load with them no problume. If there not carbied you will (as the others said) have to lube the cases and clean them off after sizing. The box said there setup for a Semi Wad Cutter bullet, so if what you want to load is a cone type with a flat point you should be set. If not you can call RCBS and they will sell you a Round Nose plug cheap.

By the way if you look at the top of the dies, there is a two didget number stampped on them. That is the year of MFG of the die. So your sizing die was made in 1977 and the seater in 1978. There should be a stamp on the side of the belling die with the date on there.

I like the locking rings on the old dies better then the new ones. But the old dies are not vented like the new ones.

WB

 

[788Ham]

Take them apart and spray them down with carburetor cleaner, wipe them down, and very lightly oil the insides and then wipe them down again, use them for another 60 years!

 

[Powerglide]

Nope they are no good.Send them to me for disposal. J/K

 

[loadedround]

I have some RCBS dies older than yours and they still do the job. Just clean them up and put 'em to work. I loaded thousands of 357 and 45ACP rounds before investing in carbide dies. Matter of fact I still load my buddiy's 41 Mag on steel RCBS dies dated 1974.

 

[flashhole]

There are laws that apply here ...

The law is. You can only use the dies if you are loading for a gun of equal age. Sort of like the law that says you can only eat pizza if you have beer to drink with it.

 

[rcmodel]

Lubing .357 Mag, 44 Mag, .45 Colt, etc cases is just something I do when using carbide dies anyway.

It makes resizing SO much easier it is worth it to me.

Just a light spritz of lube is all it takes so there is no fuss or bother.

rc