Do your RCBS carbide dies need case lube?

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rajb123

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....These are nice dies - amung the very best. I beleive these are being advertised as a way to avoid using case lube when resizing...

I own a few of these RCBS carbide dies including 270, 35 rem....

anyway, in my experience, I still need to use case lube....

Is this your experience too?
 
In 30 plus years of reloading I have not use lubricant with hand gun cartridge carbide dies. Never had a problem, never got a case stuck, never wore out a die.

Some folks do.

Carbide dies for bottle neck rifle cases are few and far between. The only ones that I know of are made by Dillon but there could be some others. I do think RCBS, Redding, and Lee do not make carbide bottle rifle dies but I could be wrong.

In any cases, the carbide rifle dies are made for the high volume loader that would wear out a steel die set. They recommend using lubricant with the bottle neck rifle carbide dies. They are expensive.
 
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Pistol calibers that are not bottle necked do not require case lube. With that said I do use a spray lube on these cases, makes press operation easier and I am a firm beliver in an easy live.
 
You state that "I own a few of these RCBS carbide dies including .270 and .35 Rem". I am surprised as I don't see them in the catalog. Be that as it may be, the bottle necked dies DO NEED to be lubed. Straight cased handgun cartridges DON"T NEED to be, but they work much better and last longer if every third or so case is lubed.
 
I own a few of these RCBS carbide dies including 270, 35 rem.
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What's the RBS part number for those? I don't believe any RCBS bottle neck dies are carbide ... Dillon does offer 223 and 308 and, as far as I know, no one else.
/Bryan
 
I own a few of these RCBS carbide dies including 270, 35 rem....
Click to expand...
No you don't.

All RCBS bottleneck rifle dies are steel dies.
They have never made them in carbide.

Neither has any one else, except Dillon, who sell .223 & .308 Carbide sizing dies for about $130 ea.

rc
 
I'd go along with RC on this .... to my knowledge RCBS has never sold carbide bottle necked dies to the public .... I feel sure their development department has made some, but no sales that I've ever heard of.

However using spray lube on cases to be sized in carbide pistol/revolver dies will make the process as slick as snot on brass door knob....

Dillon says you must use lube on their carbide .223 & .308 rifle dies....
 
I don't lube any of my carbide pistol dies, but some folks do. If you do, sizing is totally effortless.
 
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I tumble my cases in Dawn then thoroughly rinse and dry which makes for pretty clean brass. I find that lubing every few cases or a light spray makes for easier sizing. Makes for a little smoother going on a progressive.
 
I load on a turret press. 45ACP cases don't get lubed but for .357 Mag I rub my fingertips over some Mink Oil and roll the cases between my fingers, one fingerfull is good for 10-12 cases. It makes sizing a lot easier but maybe it's just the sizer I have.
 
40+ years of reloading pistol/revolver cartridges and never had to lube cases using carbide dies. Why make more work cleaning lube off of your cases
 
Because it doesn't make more work cleaning lube off your cases.

All you need is a very light spritz of case lube spray and you are good to go with about half the resizing effort on the handle.

I tumble all finished ammo anyway so it is no extra step.

rc
 
I assume the rifle dies you are talking about have the carbide expander buttons. With these, the inside of the case mouth would probably not need to be lubed, but the outside of the case would.
 
I'm a big fan of the Redding carbide expander button upgrade for case necks (bottleneck cartridges).

I also found using case lube for resizing 9mmx19 (use lanolin/alcohol which mimics the Dillon spray) makes it *far* earlier to resize in a carbide die. Clean off the lube when tumbling the finished cartridges in corn cob.
 
For 9mm I usually puff a little pile of graphite on my bench, right by the loader. Every few rounds I will roll a case over it before I put it in the shellholder. Works, and there is nothing to clean off.
 
This from Dillon's website:

For high volume users, such as commercial reloaders, law enforcement agencies, and high power or service rifle competitors, we also offer .223 and .308 die sets with a full-length carbide sizing die. Lubrication is still required, but the increased scratch resistance and die longevity of carbide are of great benefit to these groups of users.

Emphasis mine since that was the subject of the post.
 
Yes, lots of hits, but read the details. Often carbide handgun dies will be combined with steel rifle dies in the description of the hits.

30 M1 Carbine comes up alot and it is a rifle cartridge. But it is a non-parallel straight walled cartridge and even so, most of the 30 carbine carbide die manufacturers recommend using lubricant when sizing.

Except for the Dillon carbide rifle dies, I did not see any others.
 
and you come up with all sort of hits.
Click to expand...
You may come up with all sorts of hits.

But you won't come with any other brand of solid carbide bottle-neck sizing dies except the .223 & .308 ones Dillons sells.

rc
 
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